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“A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas

And what have we done?

Another year over

And a new one just begun.

– John Lennon

I am not a fan of holiday music.

When I was barely a teenager, music became a mechanism to assert independence, to demonstrate concepts of social justice, and in some cases, to identify worthy friends.

Rebellious cynicism creeped into my perception of most Christmas music, and with the exception of the classics in “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the standards of the genre remain mainly a sou...