Has the holly jolly omnipresence of Christmas music been threatening your sanity? Before you let Rudolf drive your sleigh over the edge, just adjust your dials. I’ve put together a playlist of holiday song antidotes to help get the relentless ring of jingle bells out of your ears. ¹

• All I want for Christmas Is You: What do I get? The Buzzcocks
• The Happy Elf: Working for the Man, P. J. Harvey
• Santa Claus Is Coming To Town: Man That You Fear, Marilyn Manson
• Here Comes Santa Claus: Psycho Killer, Talking Heads
• Frosty The Snowman: Damn it Feels Good to Be a Gangsta, Geto Boys
• The Little Drummer Boy: Don’t Bang the Drum, The Waterboys
• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: Lapdance, N*E*R*D (No one Ever Really Dies)
• White Christmas: Black Celebration, Depeche Mode
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Only Happy When It Rains, Garbage
• A Child This Day Is Born: Birth, School, Work, Death, The Godfathers
• Holly Jolly Christmas: Helter Skelter, The Beatles
• Oh Holy Night : Head Like a Hole, Nine Inch Nails
• Sleigh Ride: Garbage Truck, Sex Bob-omb
• Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire: Burning Down the House, Talking Heads
• Do You Hear What I Hear? Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
• All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth: Bloodletting, Concrete Blonde
• Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree: The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails
• Christmas Shoes: These Boots Were Made For Walkin’, Nancy Sinatra
• It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas: Atrocity Exhibition, Joy Division
• Home For The Holidays: Institutionalized, Suicidal Tendencies
• It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, The Smiths
• Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer: Don’t Push Me, 50 Cent
• The Chipmunk Song: That’s When I Reach for My Revolver, Moby

How about you? Any songs in particular spurring you to spike your eggnog or jam candy canes into your ears? And what songs might you use to counteract?

¹ I did a bit of Christmas shopping yesterday, mostly looking for things like pajamas for the kids. I can’t even count how many times I heard Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You.” All I wanted for Christmas shopping was a break from the treacly music. It was such a relief to get back to my car and put on my iPod. When Joy Division came up on shuffle, I knew I’d found an antidote to the ravages of holiday cheer.²

² For the record, I don’t actually hate holiday music. Some of it I actually like. I just can hear too much of it, especially when the songs are so saccharine that they make me throw up a little.³

³ Oh, fine, I do hate some holiday music.⁴

⁴ Would this be a good time to promote Neil’s Sixth Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert? I may even participate again. You’ve been warned.