So this is Christmas...

Seems only fitting to post my Top 20 list of favorite Christmas tunes of all-time tonight:

1) "Christmas At Ground Zero"--WEIRD AL YANKOVIC Totally warped and wonderful, and it's Al at his finest! "It's time to face your final destiny/The radio just let us know that this is NOT a test! You better load your gun and shoot to kill..."
2) "Merry Christmas Darling"--THE CARPENTERS Loved this song when I was seven years old and addicted to Top 40 AM radio on WHB in K.C. This one got a lot harder to listen to after Karen died, though...
3) "'Twas The Night Before Christmas"--PERRY COMO We had this Perry Como Christmas album in our family for years and I remember listening to it every year until we wore the poor thing out.  P.C. wasn't exactly Mr. Excitement, but this was pretty cool stuff for the holidays.
4) "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"--JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO This song became just a tad more poignant in 1980...
5) "Charlie Brown Christmas Theme"--VINCE GUARALDI TRIO What Christmas is complete without this one?
6) "Deck The Halls"--MANHEIM STEAMROLLER Or this one?
7) "Step Into Christmas"--ELTON JOHN Recorded during the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sessions.  One of the better Rock 'N' Roll Christmas tunes.
8) "Jingle Bells"--THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY You heard me--the Partridge Family!  One of my favorite Christmas albums ever, too.
9) "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"--BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND Sounds like The Boss & Co. were indulging in a little egg nog on stage that night!
10) "Snoopy's Christmas"--THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN Logical follow-up to "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron".  "Merry Christmas, my friend!" replaces "Curses! Foiled again!"
11) "The Hannukah Song"--ADAM SANDLER Yes, this one gets played to death every year on the radio now, but it's still good clean fun, even for a gentile like me.  Being the carinvore that I am, I'd make a lousy Jew anyway because of that whole "can't eat pork" thing, although I do find myself saying "Oy!" a lot these days...
12) "All I Want For Christmas Is You"--MARIAH CAREY The ONLY thing this woman's ever done that I actually like!
13) "Yingle Bells"--STAN FREBERG/YOGI YORGESSON Yumpin' yiminy!
14) "I Believe In Father Christmas"--GREG LAKE One of the prettier Rock 'N' Roll Christmas tunes you'll ever hear.
15) "Feliz Navidad"--JOSE FELICIANO Gets kinda repetitive after a while, but it's still worthy.
16) "Blue Christmas"--ELVIS PRESLEY The King had some Yuletide soul in him too.  The Partridge Family version of this one ain't too shabby either.
17) "Frosty The Snowman"--THE RONETTES Christmas meets Phil Spector's patented Wall of Sound and lives to tell about it!
18) "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas"--GAYLA PEEVEY Man, that little squirt could sure belt that one out!
19) "2000 Miles"--THE PRETENDERS Another one of the prettier Rock 'N' Roll Christmas tunes you'll ever hear.
20) "Moe Money/Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"--CHEECH & CHONG This one is a total hoot.  Picture the Sex Pistols doing "Rudolph" and you get the idea!

And my Bottom Five Worst Christmas songs of All-Time:
1) "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"--ELMO & PATSY First time I heard this one, I thought it was funny.  Every time after that, I found it about as annoying as Danny Bonaduce's current TV reality show...
2) "Jingle Bells"--THE BARKING DOGS Ditto.
3) "Wear A Smile At Christmas"--PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS It pains me to pick on my boys here, but they should have stuck to Rock 'N' Roll rather than put out this half-baked Christmas record.  Pretty lame...
4) "Do They Know It's Christmas?"--BAND AID Yes, I know it was for charity and all, but this thing was SO overrated!
5) "Little Drummer Boy"--JESSICA AND ASHLEE SIMPSON Okay, I've never even heard this one before, but I'm SUPREMELY confident of its worthiness for this list. Aren't you?

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine!