As much as I love Impaled Nazarene's Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz (1992) album, I still have a place in my shrinky-dink of heart for some Christmas music. "Heresy!" you say. I pray, friend, read on. I speak not of the B-101 all-day, commercial-free, saccharine slop favored by expansive-butted suburban moms. Nor do I favor the WXPN singer-songwriter take on "the classics" as favored by expansive-butted suburban moms with liberal arts degrees. They make me want to punch your shit in the fuck. There are some seasonal records that are filled with such delicate joy that they warm even the most atheistic of hearts and place an invisible garland of mistletoe in a noose about one's fair neck. For you I recommend the Christmas Soli CD by John Fahey, as it collects his recordings captured on four different LPs in 1968, 1975, 1982, and 1983. The Young Tradition with Shirley and Dolly Collins' The Holly Bears the Crown was recorded in 1969, but not released until 1995. It features lovely traditional seasonal English folk songs. In a similar vein, but only partially concerning Christmas time since it deals with all the season cycles, is Frost and Fire by The Watersons (1965). Over the years I've picked up many old LPs of choral music that is X-mas appropriate. Of these I've no idea which have later been issued on CD or MP3, but some choice records include Tomas Luis de Victoria: Geistliche Chorwerke (Archiv Produktion), Medieval English Carols and Italian Dances performed by New York Pro Musica (in a beautiful gatefold sleeve from Decca), and Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Midnight Mass For Christmas Eve (coupled with Purcell's Te Deum as performed by King's College Choir - Cambridge and released on Angel Records). Now that you are in the proper Christmas spirit, please give me money money money.