Are you suffering from an overload of holiday music cheese? Well, have no fear, the 8hands crew is here to help. There are amazing Christmas songs out there, and we'd love to share the wealth

So here, without further ado, in no particular order, are my top 10 Christmas songs (that won't make you puke):

10. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

My friend Matt from Team Scrub introduced me to this song last year. I started complaining that I couldn't take the Christmas cheese anymore and he pulled out this record as an antidote. *Nice little tidbit: Did you know that the Waitresses also wrote the theme songs to one of my favorite 80s TV shows, Square Pegs?!

9. Earth Kitt - Santa Baby

I think this is the only Christmas song that gets played on the radio that I actually like. What's not to love about Eartha. Orson Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world" and she played Catwoman on the Batman tv show from the 60s. I love how she's only wearing a fur stole in this clip – oh how risqué!

Here's a little early Christmas present from me to you. The song that started my love affair with Ms. Kitt: "I Want to be Evil".

8. Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis

"It's Christmas time in Hollis Queens Mom's cooking chicken and collard greens…" YO!!!! How amazing is this!?!? As a kid, I remember thinking that this was the one song on the "A Very Special Christmas" album that didn't suck – and that was about it. But now, almost 20 years later, I'm totally floored, especially by the video. It has everything - the beats, the dookie chains, the ill reindeer, and the legendary, Run DMC.

7. Pogues - Fairytale of New York

"Happy Christmas your arse/ I pray God it's our last…"
Randomly searching for Christmas songs online, I found this gem. It's one of those songs you know you've heard a million times – maybe in some movie, maybe just passing by. It's in the air and gets that tragic part of Christsmas that we don’t really talk about, but can't deny. The song is a huge hit in the UK, reaching the top 10 on 4 different occasions, despite having been plagued by censorship issues.

6. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Israel

This year, FreshJive made a tshirt that became a much blogged instant classic called The Banshee. Partly commemorating their Reserve store's location on the traditionally Jewish Fairfax in LA, the t-shirt shows Siouxsie Sioux wearing a t-shirt emblazed with a huge star of david. She wore the original shirt in the video of the hauntingly beautiful "Israel". A thinly disguised Christmas song from 1980, it is blessed with that classic sound that I can only describe as teardrop eighties.

5. VA - Do They Know It's Christmas

How could I do a top 10 list without a staple 80s-pop-stars-come-together-to-save-the- world-song?!?! This time it's a bunch of Brits, the year is 1984, and "there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time." Hey, I see an eighties trend going on in my list. I guess we cared a lot more about the world and Christmas time back then…

4. New Kids On The Block - Funky, Funky Christmas (with Arsenio Hall)

This is too too good. All I have to say is that Arsenio joins in at the end.

3. Vince Guaraldi - Christmas Time is Here (from A Charlie Brown Christmas)

Ah, what a beaut'. Taken from the seminal classic, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", this song has had a bit of a revival these last few years. I first got sight of it again in Wes Anderson's, The Royal Tenenbaums. The song was later prominently featured in one of my favorite Arrested Development episodes, Good Grief. It's the one with the fake funeral, Buster's WWI army uniform, and G.O.B.'s attempt to bury himself alive. The episode is also an ode to A Charlie Brown Christmas with tons of hidden references throughout. Definitely worth a re-view.

2. James Brown's Christmas Repertoire

My friend Ben posted an amazing Christmas mix on his site Oldbuddhaone. Through him I discovered that James Brown recorded a ton of Christmas music. Not only are these songs a nice change from the standard holiday fare, but they are also just classic James Brown funk that can be heard all year. I think James Brown gets the prize for best Christmas song titles. How can you deny “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto” and “Go Power at Christmas Time”?

1) The Kinks - Father Christmas

Gotta have a rocker in here, and hey, I have a soft spot for the Kinks. Can they do no wrong? Enjoy…and Merry Christmas from all of us at 8hands!