THE FESTIVE SEASON can be a very testing time aurally – those jingle bells can really jangle.

In a last-ditch effort to save your sanity amid the annual onslaught of tired Christmas tunes, we’ve come up with an alternative playlist of festive songs (happily lacking any and all sign of Mariah Carey), just for you.

You won’t catch these Christmas-themed tracks every December on commercial radio (and almost certainly never on Christmas FM). Panicked Christmas shoppers and jaded seasonal retail workers everywhere rejoice, here is An Alternative Christmas Playlist*:

*features some swearing

1. Ben Folds Five – A Bizarre Christmas Incident

(YouTube/Dudgeon82)

2. Bob Dylan – It must be Santa

(YouTube/BobDylanVEVO)

3. The Flaming Lips – Christmas at the Zoo

(YouTube/FlamingLipsMusic)

4. The Bird and The Bee – Carol of the Bells:

(YouTube/rockstarmommydotcom)

5. Sufjan Stevens – Christmas in July

(YouTube/bikke747)

6. Tim Wheeler and Emmy The Great – Home for the Holidays

(YouTube/EmmyTimVEVO)

7. John Prine – Christmas in Prison

(YouTube/Coyote65)

8. Yo La Tengo – Santa Clause Goes Modern

(YouTube/vacantmoon)

9. AC/DC – Mistress for Christmas

(YouTube/pachoycamico)

10. Miles Davis & Bob Durough – Blue Xmas

(YouTube/Canon1014XLS)

11. Low – Just like Christmas

(YouTube/rtenewsontwo)

12. Randy Newman Christmas in Capetown

(YouTube/geeflat)