It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas. Already.

Once upon a time, in my not-so-far-away youth, a magical thing would happen on Thanksgiving night. Induced into a 12-hour coma by massive consumption of fat and carbohydrates, the whole world would drift off to sleep, and when we woke up, the magical Christmas elves had appeared and every shop window and light pole in town was adorned with a wreath or twinkly lights or even a Christmas tree. Jolly Christmas carols would pour out of doorways, and shopping would gaily begin.

Nowadays, the Christmas season seems to start on Labor Day, giving us all a hefty four months to get tired of Santa's big dumb face and peppermint sticks, and hearing exactly 4,500 versions too many of the godforsaken "Little Drummer Boy." Now, I'm a notorious Scrooge, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but the whole watering-down of the holiday is part of why I've grown to detest it so much. Also, it coincides with terrible snowy winter, which I also hate.

So what's my solution to the madness? Well, I've tried beating 'em, and it doesn't work, so I'm just going to join 'em. Joy to the world, or whatever. Seriously, though, if we must begin celebrating the holiday four months early, we may as well demand better (or at least more interesting) music to go along with the occasion. Why torture ourselves with "Jingle Bell Rock" and any number of permutations of "Fa-la-la-la-la" when we could be listening to music that's actually great, and just happens to be holiday-themed? Thus, my friends, I present you with my favorite world music Christmas CDs and a hefty list of more specific Celtic music Christmas CDs to get you started. Now is definitely the time to stock up -- think of it as "good taste ammunition" which you can use to ward off the old standard-fare boredom as soon as you get the chance.

Got any favorite world music Christmas CDs? Leave a comment and let us know what they are! And feel free to be Grinchy -- if you'd rather share your least favorite Christmas music, go ahead and post that, too. You're in good company around here!