Listening to Christmas music can be like eating your grandma's holiday fruitcake... a little bit goes a long way.
Between all the shopping, visiting relatives, and bell-ringing Santas on every street corner, we've got enough on our minds at this time of the year without having our ears assaulted by the music of Andy Williams and a chorus of singing Chipmunks.
Sure there are certain Christmas songs and albums that cut through all the crap and commercialism and remind us what this season is all about. But finding them takes some serious digging. Once you've worn out the latest edition of Bill Adler's Christmas Jollies mixtape, where do you turn next? You don't want to entrust your holidays to any radio station song picks.
That's why you should get familiar with Complex's Best Christmas Albums of All Time. They're not limited any particular era or genre. Some would be considered classic, others are very much outside the box, but all are records we keep coming back to again and again—just because we like the way they make us feel. And they never get annoying, even when the holidays put you in a daze.