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Every December my desk is covered with Christmas CDs (along with the occasional Hanukkah release). Some are like nice gifts. Others are lumps of coal.

And by the time I'm done listening, I'm ready for Easter. Sarah McLachlan is a fine singer, and there are some beautiful moments (the title cut is a pretty original, and guest Diana Krall adds some fine piano-work on "Christmas Time Is Here"), but why is everyone resurrecting Joni Mitchell's depressing "River" for Christmas? Grade: B "One More Drifter in the Snow," Aimee Mann (SuperEgo) For those of us who love Aimee Mann, this is nice to have.

However, the opener (Jimmy Webb's "Whatever Happened to Christmas") is a downer. "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" with guest narrator Grant Lee Phillips is almost painful, and none of these renditions is exactly "feel-good.

" In fact, I think I need a drink. Grade: C+ Rhonda Vincent is one of bluegrass music's most consistent stars, and this set continues her winning streak. With smart arrangements, great harmonies and always-great picking, this is one of bluegrass's best Christmas discs.

Grade: A Brad Paisley is one of the most natural commercial country singers since George Strait. Paisley's Christmas songs are what you would expect, but the world could've lived without "Penguin, James Penguin" ("he's Santa's secret spy"). And while it buys into the "War on Christmas" bull, you can't help but laugh at George Jones, Little Jimmy Dickens and Bill Anderson cutting up and getting bleeped on "Kung Pao Buckaroo Holiday.

" Grade: B This basically repackages Taylor's 2004 album for Hallmark and adds a couple of new tracks. If Taylor's voice sounds comforting and homey to you (it does to me), then this is a fine set. Grade: B Being called "the most talented Lohan" is a little like being called "the most sane Jackson," but consider 12-year-old Ali the Janet Jackson of the Lohan family.

While there are indeed tracks that could curdle your eggnog, some of these numbers have that little-kid-singing charm, and others have that so-bad-you-gotta-hear-it again quality. Grade: D+ "Doo Wop Around the Christmas Tree: Mistletoe A Cappella," The Mighty Echoes (Brooklyn International) OK, I'm a sucker for good doo-wop. The Mighty Echoes may be the best doo-wop revivalists since The Persuasions.

Great set - one of my favorites of the year. Grade: A The Manhattan Transfer's a cappella arrangements are excellent, but they're so squeaky-clean and arty that a whole CD of this really gets on my nerves. Grade: C Well, at least former P-Funk bass great Bootsy Collins gets into the spirit ("Yass, boys 'n' girls," he's got that "funky stick").

With lots of fellow funk legends in tow, Bootsy knows that Christmas ought to be fun - and funky, funky, funky. Grade: B+ Peggy Lee gets my vote for coolest golden-age pop vocalist. She was a great singer and a great songwriter.

Lee handles the classics with class and adds a couple of likable originals. Most of this music was recorded in 1960 and sounds lovably dated (dig the kid background singers!).

The previously unreleased Lee original "My Dear Acquaintance (Happy New Year)" is absolutely lovely. Grade: A "Before and After Christmas," Love Tractor (Fundamental) I like the cover - Brian Eno's "Before and After Science" with Eno turned into Santa. I've always liked Love Tractor.

And the Christmas murder ballad "Jessica" is something special - but not special enough to recommend. This is strictly for the hard-core Athens rock-scene lovers. Grade: D+ Yes, I am one of the few straight men who like Bette Midler, and what about it, buddy?

And, yes, she has put out some awful dreck. This, however, is pretty good. Nice deliveries, classy big-band arrangements, a duet with Johnny Mathis .

Grade: B "Christmas With the Chipmunks," Alvin, Simon Theodore with David Seville (Capitol) If the whole Chipmunk phenomenon would've ended with "The Christmas Song" (my favorite Christmas single for at least the first 20 years of my life), things would've been fine. Unfortunately, this reissue from the early 1960s is way too much. By the time it's over, you're ready to load your varmint rifle.

Grade: C- These jazz guys knock out five fine tracks each. I'm partial to the tracks featuring the Hammond B-3 organ, but all the cuts are good. Grade: B Mister, it's not just your feet.

Grade: D- Themes and various artists' collections "Christmas Time Again," The dB's Friends (Collector's Choice) Never has there been a more mixed Christmas bag. Some tracks are great (Big Star's "Jesus Christ" and "Christmastime Is Here" performed by Thad Cockrell and Roman Candle are standouts), and some of it is awful. And "The Only Law That Santa Claus Understood" by Ted Lyons presents Santa as an outlaw.

Grade: C+ "Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration," Various Artists (Manhattan); "On Christmas Night," Cherish the Ladies (Rounder) On "Celtic Woman," five Celtic female vocalists deliver traditional Christmas songs in a very traditional way - with a little fiddle or other Irish instrumentation tossed in here and there. And sometimes a number is sung in Gaelic. This is very, very pretty, very soothing and slightly dull.

Things are far more Celtic and far more lively when Cherish the Ladies cranks up on "On Christmas Night." There are some unexpected numbers, some cool medleys, and it's good enough to listen to all year long. Grade: B ("Celtic Woman"); A (Cherish the Ladies) Food Network personality Rachel Ray is the figurehead on this likably eclectic collection.

Tracks by Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin are no big surprise. However, adding in Billie Holiday's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," an excellent version of "The Man With the Bag" by Jane Monheit, Buster Poindexter's "Zat You, Santa Claus?" and Lou Monte's cheesy novelty "Dominick the Donkey" turns this into an entertainingly odd set.

Grade: B "Christmas Break: Relaxing Jazz for the Holidays," Various Artists (Telarc) Most of this is good stuff - Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Jim Hall, Ray Brown and other jazz greats deliver pretty standards. However, if Charlie Brown is a little depressed this Christmas, Mel Torme's take on "Christmastime Is Here" (from "A Charlie Brown Christmas") would have the kid jumping off a ledge. Grade: B- Somehow Time Life and "Redneck Christmas" just don't seem to go together, but this is actually better than it sounds.

The classic "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" by Buck Owens sits beside the can't-find-it-anywhere "All I Want for Christmas Is My Upper Plate" by Homer and Jethro and indispensable "Santa Can't Stay" by Dwight Yoakam. Add in some George Jones, Louvin Brothers, Dale Watson and Asleep at the Wheel. But then there's Joe Diffie's "Leroy the Redneck Reindeer" to sour the affair.

Grade: B This is at least an antidote to all that suicide-inducing Christmas music. New Orleans greats come through with some surprising originals ("Christmas In New Orleans" is certainly a different picture of the holiday) and some traditional numbers. Grade: B+ "African Christmas: Christmas Favorites With an African Beat," Various Artists (Higher Octave) This disc puts traditional South African harmonies, beats and instrumentation to (mostly) familiar Christmas songs.

A few tracks are great, but, overall, it seems like contrived gimmick. Grade: C- Good Hanukkah discs are hard to find. This one, though, is a keeper.

In the 1940s folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie married a nice Jewish girl and was inspired to write some Jewish-themed songs (some were only lyrics). Following up on "Wonderwheel" (a non-holiday album of Guthrie-written Jewish songs), The Klezmatics offer Guthrie's Hanukkah songs in klezmer. The Klezmatics wrote most of the music, but never step on Guthrie's plain-talk words.

It's as much history as celebration, and it's all good. Grade: A- OK, this is not really a Hanukkah album, but Pachabel's Canon is not a Jewish song either. Hanukkah is a good time to listen to klezmer music of any kind, and this is klezmer of every kind - filtered through East Tennessee.

Amid the Yiddish are nods to Appalachia ("Rollin' in My Sweet Bubbe's Arms"?). The entire disc is fun, and "Manny's Nigun," by keyboard player Manny Herz, is simply gorgeous.

Grade: B Wayne Bledsoe may be reached at 865-342-6444 or . He is also the alternating host of "All Over the Road" midnight Saturdays to 4 a.m.

Sundays on WDVX-FM.