But my little girl insisted on having Merry Xmas Everybody by Shakin' Stevens on repeat in the car throughout last December and early Jan.

I could do without hearing that ever again.

sorry for the poor staff who have to put up with the music on a loop, wear Santa hats and work longer hours. Does anyone really need to go shopping at 9.30 ? I hope they're getting well rewarded.

go on strike because they were being driven mad by Xmas music?

I might have to steal that and claim it as my own.

I loooooooooove Christmas music. Love it, love it, love it.

The little 'un and I were dancing round Sainsbury's to Shaky's "Merry Christmas Everyone" this morning (sorry Lucifer Sam).

I appreciate that it must drive the poor folks who work in Sainsbury's all day crazy, though...

but I do like good Christmas songs.

We have Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart and A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector on heavy rotation in the shop I work in and they cheer me up no end.

The Pogues, Wizzard, Slade and Sleigh Ride are my favourites but I love them all.

Weirdly, I'm not too keen on the Phil Spector one although I love that sound - think Christmas is all about nostalgia for being a kid and for me that's Slade, Shakey (the good one, not Neil Young), Wham, Elton John, Mel n' Kim, that Pretenders one, Stop the Cavalry, The Waitresses, John n' Yoko, Mariah Carey....we never listened to Phil Spector in my house*! It was the 80s and 90s....

Normal rules for artist dislike are suspended for Christmas - come on in Elton, welcome Mariah, have a mince pie

I love Christmas music - it never fails to put a smile on my face

*apart from Sleigh Ride

I'm not religious and I'm not a fan of brass bands, but somehow find that a Salvation Army band playing a slightly melancholy carol puts me in the Christmas mood.

If for every Mud, Slade or Shakey they also played a bit of this.

'White Christmas', 'Merry Xmas Everybody' 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday', 'Stop The Cavalry', 'All I Want For Christmas Is You', 'Last Christmas', 'Fairytale of New York', 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town', 'Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem', 'We Three Kings', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over), 'Driving Home For Christmas' et al.

All brilliant.

I bet every songwriter out there would love to write a Christmas hit.

I don't mind Christmas songs at all. After all 'tis the season to be jolly.
I see that this has been added to 6 Music's playlist:

Amazing

breeds contempt, but truly the contents of the 'Now That's What I Call Christmas' CD are the modern day hymns for Godless people (er..apart from the actual hymns on it).

I think more than anything this comp, which is immediately slapped on all High St Shop stereos come Nov 1st, has defined the canon of "the Xmas hit" and has literally stopped the Cavalry from the Mortgage company charging down Jona Lewie's door for well over 20 years.

"Now Xmas" seems to be constantly revised, and I note currently includes such imposters as "Is The Christmas" by The Wombats but no Wombling Merry Christmas.

And, 'Stay Another Day' by the East 17 is included by virtue of being No.1 at Xmas 1994 and having a suggestion of sleighbells on it (and some snow in the video) but actually no Xmas content, and yet the equally non Xmas-like but very festive Sounding Pet Shop Boys version of 'Always on My Mind' isn't.

That track listing in full here

As a child of the 80s I still get goosebumps when I hear the opening bars of 'Do They Know It's Christmas'. Those clanging chimes of doom still sound good!

There has been great Christmas pop music.
James Brown, rock 'n' roll, ska, Spector, Beatles' flexis, Stax, Tamla.....and Mark Lamarr's Christmas Day show, which isn't on this year (!?!?!) has always reflected this.

The worst Christmas music?
The thirty/forty post-60s hits (there's your clue as to why they're not all that) that get played to death.

Why aren't the Beatles' Christmas No. 1s churned out every year?
You never hear 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'I Feel Fine', 'Day Trippper'/'We Can Work It Out' or 'Hello Goodbye' in the context of 'Christmas hits'.
All Christmas releases, all ever-so-slightly better than Shakin' bleedin' Stevens.

except Last Christmas by Wham. it's about the only Christmas song ever made that I don't own.

But if I had to work in a shop that had Xmas music on a loop I'd go crazy.

...we've got an entire shelf of Christmas-related CDs that are always gleefully deployed round about now.

Which begs the question, why do shops use the same lowest-common-denominator loop of "obvious" Christmas songs? The first time I hear the same-old same-old I think "ah, Christmastime again!". The thousandth time I hear it, I feel the urge to kill.

I recommend the mixes available on this marvellous blog:
http://therealbigrockcandymountain.blogspot.com/

This is my favourite of the songs posted so far this year:

Christmas Dinner - Tennessee Ernie Ford

Particularly enjoying Pink Martini's album this year. Songs in Ukranian, Japanese, French, German, English and Arabic.

Based on tips from this website, I've also in recent years bought and enjoyed Kate Rusby, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Thea Gilmore's christas albums.

Out shopping the other week and this came on

Not the best Christmas song (cos it's not The Darkness, obviously), but it brought a big old smile to my face

I was at a carol concert at a Catholic School last night and they sang that perennial prog classic "I Believe In Father Christmas".

Now, with all that stuff about it being "a fairy story" and seeing "through his disguise" I always thought the message of that song was atheist

isn't a Christmas song at all, and yet...

(Which was John Tams and the Home Service from the National Theatre Mysteries) so this will have to do:

I was in the Co-Op in Lincoln last week and they were playing 'Surfin USA'. I know that Lincolnshire is generally out of the loop but that's ridiculous. Perhaps the shop had it's own micro-climate - I wasn't in long enough to tell.

But surely the greatest non-Xmas song that refers to Xmas is Joni Mitchell's 'River'

Not Christmas music I know but whilst feeling my customary grumpy self at Ikea t'other day, I was cheered to hear my all time favourite song come over the tannoy. It worked. I spent £150.