Earlier this week I wrote an article about how I really can't stand most Christmas music, especially the modern pop stuff that gets dragged out for every commercial and store muzak system in the country this time of year. I did say that there are a few exceptions to this rule of mine. I'm not some pre-ghosts Ebenezer Scrooge who hates Christmas, just a guy with sensitive ears. As with any song topic, there are still a few good holiday season songs out there. Here are three of my favorites.

Maybe I'm cheating a little bit with this first one, given that it's not exactly a song about Christmas, but there's a lovely appeal to Frank Loesser's What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? That golden set of pipes, Ella Fitzgerald, recorded the most famous rendition of the song, but my boy Rufus Wainwright did his own lethargically classy version in 1998 for, of all things, a GAP commercial. Regardless of who's on the mic, Loesser's tune captures that lonely, sentimental side of the holiday season better than the manufactured cheer of most Christmas music. You can practically hear the snowflakes fall in this song. Even though the topic is ostensibly a completely different holiday, I'm going to call "What Are You Doing..." a Christmas song because the lyrics are more about that drive for companionship a week out from the titular holiday than it is about the day itself.

And hey, maybe I'm just a sucker for sad music, but I still enjoy Christmastime Is Here, the official theme for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Aside from the indisputable fact that the Peanuts movies are the best holiday movies of all time, beloved composer Vince Guaraldi was one hell of a soundtrack man. This is one of his last pieces for Peanuts. Guaraldi died of a heart attack in 1976, two years shy of his 50th birthday. I suppose "Christmastime Is Here" appeals to the wistful side of the holiday season. Just like the Peanuts comic strip itself, Guaraldi's music didn't so much revel in childhood as it did recall bits and pieces of it with bittersweet regard. The lyrics of this particular song could be worked into a joyful tune without losing anything in translation, so it's really up to Guaraldi's shuffling, jazzy melody to give it the melancholy edge that makes it work.

As for classic carols, I'm an Old World kind of guy. Nothing raises the hairs on the back of my neck quite like The Carol of the Bells, especially the awesome modern rendition recorded by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The original composition is care of Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, a Ukrainian composer from the end of the 19th century. He nabbed an old, trance-inducing set of notes from a pre-Christian chant that was originally intended as a wish for prosperity in the new year (then celebrated in the Spring). I guess I'm a sucker for ancient things, or maybe these notes resonate with something deep in the human mind that has transcended time and culture. Regardless, it's a beautiful tune and I enjoy when it sneaks its way into the Christmas lineup anyway.