The Hear & Now: When 'Jingle Bells' just won't cut it

I don't mean to be a Scrooge, but most Christmas music makes me nauseated. I can't help it. I don't really have anything against the music of the season. In fact, since I became a parent, I've grown more tolerant of the incessant Yuletide barrage of musical merriment. My daughter has made Christmas music fun again with her wide-eyed excitement for it. Still, after the millionth time of hearing "Jingle Bells" or "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Daddy tends to get more than a little agitated.

I don't know how Santa Claus deals with it. Maybe that's why he only comes around once a year

Having said that, there are great Christmas songs. Here are some that always have me whistling around the Christmas tree.

The Kinks: "Father Christmas" Hands down, this is my favorite Christmas song of all time. It may not be the cheeriest ditty written about the season, but it is by far the best rock tune ever written about Saint Nick. Released in 1977, Ray Davies' poignant tale of the downtrodden takes on added significance in these uncertain financial times with its working-class, Bob Cratchit sentiments. More importantly, it straight up rocks.

Woody Phillips: "Dance of Sugar Plum Fairy" Also in the blue-collar vein, Woody Phillips' toolbox rendition of Tchaikovsky's dance from "The Nutcracker" is the quintessential proletariat Christmas anthem. Using table saws, drills and power tools with traditional wind instruments, mandolin and dulcimer, this reinvention is not as cacophonous as you might think. There's a whimsical charm to the subtle abrasions that invokes the sweat, toil and trouble of labor with sublime nuance. Listening to "A Toolbox Christmas (Gourd Music)" might prove to be too much for the sensitive listener, but Phillips' carefully considered interpretations are nothing short of genius.

AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company: "Santa Claus Is a Black Man" This little-known gem received a new lease on life when Baltimore filmmaker and music enthusiast John Waters included it on his essential holiday compilation, "A John Waters Christmas (Watertower Music)" in 2004. The wholesome, early '70s black power update on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" embodies what the holiday season is all about: inclusion. The squeaky-voiced, almost adolescent AKIM, over a mid-tempo Jackson 5 groove, sings of a "say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud" Santa Claus that reminds her of her father. Just thinking about this tune makes me smile.

Vince Guaraldi: "Linus & Lucy" There has not been a better or more satisfying marriage of the sight and sound of Christmas than that of Charles Schulz's animated Peanuts characters with the spry accompaniment of Vince Guaraldi. Together, they are the peanut butter and jelly of the holidays. Guaraldi's enduring masterpiece, "Linus & Lucy," wordlessly captures the joyous essence of the season without the sometimes saccharine embellishments. Simple and concise, this is the only Christmas song I never grow tired of.

The Pogues: "Fairytale of New York" With the opening verse "It was Christmas Eve, babe. In the drunk tank," "Fairytale of New York" will go down in history as one of the most uplifting yet thoroughly depressing Christmas songs ever written. To call it merely stunning would grossly diminish its undeniable brilliance. The Irish folk-styled duet between Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl first appeared on the 1987 Pogues album "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" and many (myself included) consider it to be the band's crowning achievement. Though I've heard it a billion times, it always sounds like the first time. Listening to it makes you proud to be a human being.