Christmas tunes

I can't help myself. I love Christmas music. I really do. I love the pop stuff, I love the traditional hymns, I love all of it. I especially love that Christmas gives me a whole new repetoire to sing at the top of my lungs, along with Old MacDonald and Twinke Twinkle Little Star and the few Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine songs I know, to keep the boys entertained in the car.

There was an article in this morning's Ottawa Citizen about holiday music and how it affects consumer behaviour. I remember studying the 'muzak effect' in school, where grocery stores tend to play more up-tempo music to keep people moving through the aisles, whereas boutiques ought to play mellow music to subconsciously cue people to slow down and browse. The article said holiday music has a similar effect:

Hypnotized by their holiday favourites, Canadians are apparently better consumers with the aid of Bing Crosby and Co. than they are without. The browsing and buying process is slowed down, people's moods are calmed, and their feelings about the retail environment are more likely to be positive.

Fresh off the thrill of seeing my last set of questions about music become a bona fide meme, reading this article was all the encouragement I needed to try my hand at a holiday music meme.

Favourite holiday Christmas songs:
Little Drummer Boy - David Bowie and Bing Crosby
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt or Madonna
Baby It's Cold Outside - (I don't remember who's on my version at home, but Louis and Ella do a nice rendition)

Favourite traditional hymn:
O Holy Night

Favourite Christmas novelty song:
Bob and Doug McKenzie's 12 Days of Christmas
(Including the priceless lyrics:
On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
7 packs of smokes,
6 packs of two-four,
5 GOLDEN TOQUES!
4 pounds of backbacon,
3 french toasts,
2 turtlenecks,
and beer in a tree.
whew, this should be just the 2 days of Christmas, this is too hard for us!)

Favourite Pop Christmas Shmaltz:
I still love Band-Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas, mostly because it is evocative of my early teen years and the 80s in general.

Song that, heard once, will rattle around in your head like marbles in a steel tub for days:
Winter Wonderland

Christmas song that makes me feel very scrooge-ish:
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (really, why do they keep playing that song? What is even remotely amusing about it?)

Okay, so this was a lame meme - but it's Friday and it's been a long week of trying to think of new and entertaining ways to thwart Rick Mercer. Pony up - what are the best and worst songs for Christmas? What songs make you linger in a store? What makes you choose the biting wind and minus 20 temperatures outside rather than step into a shop and tolerate it?