Starting the day after Thanksgiving I listen to a lot of Christmas music.  In the car, at work, with the kids - pretty much any time I am somewhere with speakers.  I've made at least four Christmas mixes and own probably 20 Christmas music CD's.  My taste in Christmas music is pretty wide ranging and includes lots of styles and artists.  But there are a few songs that really stand out to me and they fall into a few basic categories:

There are songs from which I really only know a phrase.  The best way to enjoy these songs is to spontaneously kick out the phrase and make it dramatic enough so that no additional words are necessary.  Using gestures is optional, but I'd highly recommend it.  I knew that Marty was the one for me when I felt comfortable enough to do this and when I did, he just looked at me and smiled.  Like I was great, not like I was embarrassing.  Songs in this category include:
1. "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"
2. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"
3. "Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen!" (this one is the hardest to find an appropriate occasion to belt it out, but it's very satisfying when I do)

I enjoy most Christmas songs, but there are a few songs I really love no matter who is singing it:
1. O Holy Night
2. Joy to the World (if you stand next to my mom while this song is playing, you should know that it is mandatory to bounce and lean to one side, then the other, then stand on your toes... don't worry, she'll lead)
3. Angels We Have Heard on High
4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
5. What Child is This?

There are a few songs which I both love AND hate.  I don't like using such a strong word as it relates to Christmas, but in some cases it might just be necessary. 
1. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.  I think we can all agree that this song is pretty annoying therefore easy to hate.  But there was one time that I heard this song that made me really love it.  My friend Mark Marjala and I were driving in a snowstorm from Cold Spring to Duluth (a trip not very happily sanctioned by my parents, which was important because I was a freshman in college).  At some point in the trip, we heard this song and we both rolled our eyes, agreeing that this song was DUMB.  Then, it played again.  This time, it was kind of funny and we half-heartedly sang along.  Then, it played again.  And again.  It kept going until it had played ten times in a row and by that last time we were singing at the top of our lungs, laughing so hard we could hardly breathe.  And any song that can do that to you, has to hold a special place in your heart.  Even if it is about an elderly person killed on Christmas Eve.
2.  Feliz Navidad.  There are a few reasons I don't like this song, and yet whenever I hear the tune it sticks with me all day long.  I don't really know the words, so it's extra annoying to have in your head when you know it's not even the right stuff that's running through your mind. "Feliz Navidad, ortega felicidad" cannot be right, and yet there it is.  All day.  But the thing that makes this song even worse, is when I hear it and Marty is around.  He doesn't know the words either and he substitutes them with "Puh-lease smell my nuts".  Which is DISGUSTING.  And then THAT sticks in your head all day.
3.  Any song that replaces singers with animal noises.  When I first hear a song like this, I roll my eyes and think "now this is just dumb".  And by the end, I'm calling the kids over and saying "Kids - listen!  It's Jingle Bells!  SUNG BY DOGS!"

The category filled with the least amount of Christmas spirit includes songs that I really don't like.  When these songs come on, I turn the station (to another one playing Christmas tunes but luckily for me XM has FIVE to choose from).  These songs include:
1. Songs that mock other Christmas songs.  Some songs imitate songs that weren't so great the first time.  This year I heard "Grandpa Got Run Over by a John Deere" as if it wasn't enough for just the original to exist.  The noted exception to this category is "RuPaul the Red Nosed Drag Queen".  If that had been available on iTunes it would have made it to this year's mix.
2. Anything by Celine Dion

I'd like to wrap up this long list with the best Christmas lyrics ever written:
"Fa la la la la, la la la la."

Because writing that takes some talent.