Christmas Songs That Don't Suck, 2007

Thanks largely to the leather canary, I've amassed a surprising number of non-sucky Christmas songs this year. There's some painful stuff in there, too, but most of the tracks on their mixes aren't likely to make you want to stab ballpoint pens through your eardrums. If you're in need of a holiday soundtrack, you could do a whole lot worse.

The tracks added this year that rated four or five stars:

• fairytale of new york," the pogues w/ krsty maccoll
• "only you can bring me cheer," alison krauss
• "christmas comes but once a year," amos milburn w. charles brown
• "yeah, i know, it's christmastime," andrew dost
• "donna and blitzen," badly drawn boy
• "in the bleak midwinter," the blind boys of alabama w. chrissie hynde & richard thompson
• "christmas (baby please come home)," darlene love
• "everything's gonna be cool this christmas," eels
• "father christmas," the kinks
• "just like christmas," low
• "merry christmas baby," otis redding
• "2000 miles," the pretenders
• "spotlight on christmas," rufus wainwright
• "Christmas Windows," Youth Group

(A couple of those duplicate songs I already had, but you can't have too many copies of "Fairytale of New York"...)

The better three-star songs are below the fold:

• "santa claus wants some loving," albert king
• "christmas must be tonight," the band
• "bizarre christmas incident," ben folds
• "last month of the year," the blind boys of alabama
• "born in bethlehem," the blind boys of alabama w/ mavis staples
• "i pray on christmas," the blind boys of alabama w/ solomon burke
• "gift x-change," calexico
• "have yourself a merry little christmas," coldplay
• "this christmas," donny hathaway
• "silent night," dr. john
• "christmas ain't christmas," the ebonys
• "step into christmas," elton john
• "christmas at the zoo," the flaming lips
• "christmas time is here again," the flirtations
• "ding dong, ding dong," george harrison
• "new year's revolution," graham parker
• "soulful christmas," james brown
• "santa claus go straight to the ghetto," james brown
• "christmas with jesus," josh rouse
• "i've got my love to keep me warm (stuhr remix)," kay starr
• "holly jolly christmas," martin sexton
• "Gospel," The National
• "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," Old 97's
• "I'll Be Home For Christma," Old 97's
• "darlin' (christmas is coming)," over the rhine
• "last christmas," pas/cal
• "merry christmas (i don't want to fight tonight)," the ramones
• "the christmas song," the raveonettes
• "merry christmas from the family," robert earl keen
• "maybe this christmas," ron sexsmith
• "christmas means love," sam cooke
• "christmas everyday," smokey robinson & the miracles
• "presents on christmas," solomon burke
• "what christmas means to me," stevie wonder
• "christmas all over again," tom petty
• "it's christmas time," yo la tengo
• "baby, it's cold outside," zooey deschanel & leon redbone/Zooey Deschanel

Thanks to Harry for the Old 97's tracks.

Putting these together with last year's crop, I've got just under five hours of Christmas songs that don't make me want to hit something. That's enough for a car ride or two, at least.

And with that, we're off to Scenic Whitney Point for the holiday. Best wishes to all my readers.