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Chestnuts roasting on a radio

You've heard those Christmas songs a thousand times. That's the point.

By , Houston Chronicle
An itch I didn't know I had: Bing Crosby and David Bowie in the 1977 TV special Bing Cosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, which gave birth to Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy.
An itch I didn't know I had: Bing Crosby and David Bowie in the 1977 TV special Bing Cosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, which gave birth to Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy.CBS

Every year around Thanksgiving, Sunny 99.1 FM in Houston begins playing 24-hour Christmas music: the most saccharine, dramatic, whimsical, wistful holiday jams known to man. For the 2014 holiday season, the station made the temporary change last Friday at 3 p.m. Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" kicked off the festivities with a dose of jingly Jersey grit.

I'm tuned in. Since as far back as I can remember, I have clung to holiday music like a warm blanket on a cold night, even as I spent hours ragging to friends on the nonstop overdose of candy-caned bliss. Deep down I was remembering getting a clutch of novels from my mother in my red velvet stocking, receiving my first pocketknife from my dad, or Elvis singing in my neighbors' front yard. (More on that in a few days.)

The merry playlist hasn't changed much over the years over on Sunny 99.1, though of course there's more Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood now. You still get to hear Paul McCartney's robotic "Wonderful Christmastime" every hour or so.

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A few years back, hipsters met Bob Dylan's Christmas album with groans, but one day when he is gone, we'll all cherish it. We already cherish the Willie Nelson holiday canon. Maybe one day selections from Death Row Records' "Christmas on Death Row" album will be a staple. But somehow, in 25 years, I just don't see my kids wrapping presents to the She & Him Christmas album.

Still: Snoop Dogg's "Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto" really is a heartwarming holiday gem.

I defy you to feel hate and dread for the season as a lithe, young '90s Mariah Carey in a Mrs. Claus get-up tells you that all she wants for Christmas is you. David Bowie and Bing Crosby's bizarro duo "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" always scratches an itch I didn't know I had. Both those songs are riches that Sunny 99.1 heaps upon you every other hour.

The thing is, as much as we want to hate holiday music, it's indelibly imprinted into our American brains. We have memories attached to these sugary confections.  Try not to smile while Run-D.M.C. paints a musical portrait of Christmastime in Hollis, Queens.

In my car, for the duration of November and December, Sunny 99.1's wintry blast will supplant the apocalyptic cling-clang of Houston sports radio. Torn pectoral muscles and groin strains are no match for dogs barking "Jingle Bells."

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Read Gray Matters: the most saccharine, dramatic, whimsical, wistful holiday jams known to man.

Craig Hlavaty is a freelance writer for chron.com and the Houston Chronicle.