The perfect holiday playlist: What are your favorite songs?

During the winter holiday season, the air is thick with Christmas songs. Do you have any favorites? Are there any you are sick to death of? Tell us, and we might use your comments in an upcoming story about holiday music.

During the winter holiday season, the air is thick with Christmas songs. For fans of good cheer, it can feel like swimming in a warm tide of hope and kindness. For the less jolly, it can feel like an infested hot zone of treacle in relentless four-part harmony.

Do you have any favorite holiday songs? What carols, pop songs and standards would you put on your “Christmas doesn’t have to suck” mix tape—er… playlist?

Conversely, which songs are you sick to death of? Any stinkers you hear over and over waiting in line at the drug store?

Give us your best and your worst in the comments below. If we get a good list going, we’ll get in touch with you about an upcoming story about holiday music.

The songs referenced in Peter Crimmins’ audio commentary above:

1. “Carol of the Bells” by Jessica Simpson (naughty) and by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (nice), both on iTunes.

2. “Merry Christmas, Baby” by Charles Brown (on iTunes) and by Ray Charles (on YouTube) 

3. “We Need a Little Christmas,” by Angela Lansbury and cast, from “Mame” (on iTunes)