"Merry Christmas From the Family," Robert Earl Keen (Sugar Hill)

A modern classic by the alt-country songwriter about a latter-day real-life rural Christmastime, with nods to RVs, AA, convenience stores, Mexicans, families extended by multiple marriages and much more in just four minutes. I'm partial to Jill Sobule's cover for its higher pop sensibility quotient, but the original artist's performance is more than adequate to get the various points across. If you need a little help with that, Keen has released a quasi-children's book based on the song, with lots of appropriate illustrations coordinating with the witty lyrics. Looks good on the coffee table that way. The song was originally released on the Gringo Honeymoon album on Sugar Hill from 1994. UPDATE: Bob Bailey reminds us that Keen went back to the Christmas well in 1998 with "Happy Holidays Y'all," with lyrics depicting the morning after the holiday: "There's a Barbie doll in the gravy boat on Mom's TV set...." It's from the CD Walking Distance on Arista.