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The popular 80s band had this out originally on a limited basis in 1984 and it was on their website for a free download in 2008. It's a straight a capella performance of "Winter Wonderland," not quite doo-wop but definitely not glee club either. Worth having.

Yeah, yeah, I know, one of the original "boy bands," though they had the good fortune to fall into the hands of New Edition producer Maurice Starr, who produced and wrote or co-wrote all the original songs on this 1989 album. (Ironically, he wasn't around for New Edition's Christmas album.) As a result, this has the sound of an 80s R'nB record, which means good grooves and cheap synthesizers. The album is bracketed with the sappy and non-holiday "This One's For the Children," but the second cut, "Last Night I Saw Santa Claus," gets things into a more uptempo groove, as does the rap "Funky Funky Xmas." The rest of the tunes are pretty downtempo, from straight ballads to slow jams. Covers of "White Christmas" and "Little Drummer Boy" round things out. Given the strong musical bed, it's sometimes disappointing when the Kids' white-bread voices come in. Still, this album isn't nearly as embarrassing as it could be. No doubt this was reissued for 2008 in the wake of the NKOTB reunion.

And yeah, that's almost right, except this self-proclaimed psychobilly band did do three Christmas tunes on this 1988 album, reissued as a double with the album Rockin' Out. They do good versions of "Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me," "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" and they set a martial beat to "Blue Christmas." Oh, almost overlooked "Oh Little Town of Bedrock," in which the 'Stoneses home town is substituted for Bethlehem, and most of the song is substituted for a really fast shuffle that doesn't sound like any Christmas song I know. Sure rocks out, though.

This 1980 British-only album trumps the previously-mentioned Ravers by offering an entire album of punk rock Christmas tunes, probably the first such recording, created by The Yobs, better known by their name spelled backwards. It's mostly revved-up versions of Christmas standards, although there are a couple of originals here too, like "Another Christmas," as in "I don't think I could take / Another Christmas Day with yewwwwww." A little tedious all at once, but it has its moments. They also did "Yobs On 45," a single with a Christmas medley, in the fashion of those disco-era "Stars On 45" records, which was on the CD reissue. UPDATE: Randy Anthony's Hip Christmas has been following the Yobs/Boys more closely than I have, noting that they revisited punk Xmas with Christmas Vol. 2 in 1991, with all new songs, and a live album with acoustic versions of some of these songs. Not wanting to pilfer someone else's hard work -- those latter two albums are exceedingly rare -- you are advised to click on over for the rest of the story.

The Ramones were actually pretty slow to jump on the punk rock Christmas bandwagon; this is from 1989's Brain Drain album and also appeared on the occasional B-side and compilation since, like The Edge of Christmas and Rhino's Punk Rock Xmas, which notes its version is from the UK single. It's fairly self-explanatory; look at the beauty of the season, why can't we stop fighting, and so on. Writer (the late, great) Joey Ramone dedicates it to his girlfriend. An early demo of this turned up on Joey's solo EP.

Another pseudonymous Christmas record, this is really the Revillos, who started life as the Rezillos, and if you know who I'm talking about you know what this 1981 record sounds like: a punk-pop girl-singer version of the Phil Spector arrangement of this song. To help you remember what year this record was made, the B-side is "1982 Make a Wish."

This British EP from 1981 features four songs by four different bands, two of which are pop Christmas covers and the other two holiday chestnuts. The 4 Skins hype up Elton John's "Step Into Christmas" and the Business do a straight cover of Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody." If Irving Berlin thought Elvis ruined "White Christmas," The Gonads' version probably helped finish him off for good, and Max Splodge does a nearly incomprehensible "12 Days of Christmas" in which the lyrics are changed to... something else entirely, near as I can tell. UPDATE: Somewhere along the line, this vinyl EP became a full-length album. Amazon posts it as 2007 but I recall hearing about the expansion earlier. WFMU-FM radio listed this expanded compilation as having a release date of 1994. Add to the above songs "Christmas Time Again" by Bad Manners, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," "Christmas Medley," "Christmas Is Really Fantastic" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" by Frank Sidebottom, "Snowman" by Anti-Nowhere League, "Blue Christmas" and "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me" by Frantic Flintstones, "Jingle Bells" and "Christmas in Dreadland" by Judge Dread, "Stuff the Turkey" by Alien Sex Fiend, "Turkey Stomp" by The Hotknives, "Auld Lang Syne" by UK Subs, "Drinking and Driving" by Business and "White Christmas" by Stiff Little Fingers. Some of these songs have been mentioned elsewhere on the site, others have not. They appear to be a wider sampling of Christmas punk from the same period as the original EP, however.

Still another Christmas punk single from 1983 by a Welsh band, with a nod to "punks and skins (skinheads) everywhere," keeping in mind that Brit skinheads of the 80s were not quite as sinister as American skinheads of the 90s. No surprises here, although it's a fairly listenable Christmas rocker.

A politically oriented British punk band best known for Christ -- The Album and The Feeding of the Five Thousand, this 1981 single seems to have fallen through the cracks, probably because it is completely atypical; The Trouser Press Record Guide describes the band as abrasive and guitar-oriented with political lyrics, yet this double-sided instrumental single is organ, synths and drum machine playing a mixture of traditional holiday tunes and original themes in medley form. Both sides are this way, in fact, although they are not identical performances. A legend on the B-side label notes that 20 million turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas in Britain alone, for what that's worth.