the ultimate Christmas album

A few years ago, I was complaining yet again about traditional Christmas music, and the cheesy Christmas-sweater-wearing guys who sing it, when the Wife smartly suggested I put together a CD of Christmas music I actually would want to listen to. And so a tradition was born -- one for which I spend way too many hours scouring iTunes in search of both modern renditions of traditional holiday songs and entirely new holiday songs by modern artists.

Here's what got onto the CD this year:

• The Christmas Song, The Raveonettes
• Don't Shoot Me Santa, The Killers
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Bare Naked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan
• A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So), The Flaming Lips
• Father Christmas, The Kinks
• Christmas Time, Aimee Mann
• Home on Christmas Day, Cyndi Lauper
• I Saw Three Ships, Sting
• Christmastime, Smashing Pumpkins
• Christmas, Leona Naess
• Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), U2
• O Holy Night, Tracy Chapman
• Christmas All Over Again, Tom Petty
• Silent Night, Stevie Nicks
• 2000 Miles, Pretenders

Here are some other selections that have made it onto CDs in years past:

• Calling on Mary, Aimee Mann
• Thank God It's Christmas, Queen
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Smithereens
• Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, Bruce Springsteen
• Do They Know It's Christmas?, Band Aid
• Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight), The Ramones
• Happy Christmas, John Lennon
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Pretenders
• Heavy Metal Christmas, Twisted Sister
• Oi to the World, No Doubt
• Lonely Christmas Without You, Mick Jagger
• Christmas in America, Melissa Etheridge
• Here is Christmas, Heart
• I Believe in Father Christmas, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• Children Go Where I Send Thee, Natalie Merchant
• Yellin' At the Xmas Tree, Billy Idol
• Ave Marie + Intro, Chris Cornell and Eleven