We’re not sure about Friedrich Nietzsche’s opinion of Christmas carols, but it can be said that God is definitely not dead when it comes to Utahns’ favorite holiday song.

The religious carol “Silent Night” beat out 31 other holiday songs in the Tribune’s monthlong Holiday Music Smackdown, in which readers voted on the song they love the best this time of year.

The relatively secular songs “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “The Christmas Song,” as well as the relatively religious tune “Joy to the World,” were smacked down by “Silent Night,” and it wasn’t even close. “Silent Night” claimed more than triple the votes of the second-place finisher, “The Christmas Song.”

Yet as you might expect, each of the final four songs had strong devotees.

Maureen Cunniff, of Park City, was a “Silent Night” supporter. “The song beautifully and simply recounts the evening of the birth of Jesus,” she wrote in an e-mail. “When my daughters were very small, this is one of the first songs I taught them at Christmas time. The lyrics and tune are simple enough for a 2-year-old to learn. I have heard (or sung myself) the song in its original German, in French and in Spanish. Ultimately, I cannot imagine celebrating Christmas without singing and hearing this song multiple times during the Christmas season.”

Lisa Brothman, of Cottonwood Heights, recalled the holiday season when she fell under the influence of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” She was living in a dormitory at the University of Arizona. Returning to school after the Thanksgiving holiday break, she met up with friends who lived too far away to go home. “The RA put her speakers out in the hallway and blasted ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’ It meant a lot to all of us, but especially those who came from back East. Whenever I hear that song, I always think of that.”

Another of the song’s voters, Mary M. Burns, also of Cottonwood Heights, remembered the season when her children were small and their father was serving his second military tour in Vietnam. “I still feel sad when I hear this song and think about all the service men and women who are not home with their family this Christmas.”

To thank all the readers who participated in our totally unscientific and joyful little Holiday Music Smackdown, we wish everyone, especially Utah’s servicemen and servicewomen, a silent night tonight.

And we offer this bit of history about Utah’s favorite holiday carol: “Stille Nacht” was a poem written in 1816 by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. On Christmas Eve in 1818, in the small village of Oberndorf, the organ was broken, and only a guitar was available to provide music for services.Mohr’s friend Franz Xavier Gruber set the words to music, and the simple score was finished in time for the church’s Midnight Mass service.

The meditative lullaby also holds a special place in one of the most beloved holiday films, “A Christmas Story.” In the closing scene, Ralphie’s parents look out at the snow, and the mother turns on the radio. “Silent Night” is on, and it is performed by … the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

(Tribune artist Blain Hefner contributed “A Christmas Story” trivia to this story, because he is a geek.)