I own so much Christmas music - CDs, vinyl, and cassettes - that friends hold this against me. They don't want to hear the Spice Girls singing "Sleigh Ride"... or anyone else, for that matter. My daughters implore me not to play any holiday CDs around them. I have Christmas tunes shredded by Steve Vai, rapped by Death Row Records artists, slammed by The Waitresses and rasped by The Opal Foxx Quartet; harmonized by the Beach Boys and jammed out by Widespread Panic; drag queened by RuPaul , funked up by James Brown, and run over by Elmo and Patsy. There's parodies like "Schlep the Halls with Loaves of Hallah" and there's soul remakes by Otis Redding.

The children seem to hate all of it.

I can find my inner Ebenezer pretty easily myself, and usually the only glimmer of Christmas spirit which can dissipate my grinchiness is found in music - whether it is Los Straitjackets' surf guitar on "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' " by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. But I try to limit it work and automobile, and remind myself to mix it up with non-holiday music. And I sell a holiday CD on occasion, just to keep the music flowing elsewhere.

This morning I sold a rarity on Amazon - Christmas at Luke's Sex Shop (1993). For those a little younger or a little older than me, this was a musical offering by Luke Skyywalker, a member of 2 Live Crew. I tried to like this one, but Luke's Sex Shop was harder to listen to than Mitch Miller and the Gang's version of "Give Peace a Chance". I hope that the new owner, a Mr. Weaver from Tennessee, might enjoy this album more.

NTD (listening to Victoria Williams' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")