I have 359 tracks in my "Christmas" folder on iTunes. They total more than 19 hours of listening time (but only 6.4 percent of my total catalog on the computer). Last year, I made a CD of some of my favorites, mostly traditional classics as done by pop stars and newer holiday tunes by the same MTV set. Well, more VH1 than MTV.

There are nine different versions of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (from Judy Garland to James Taylor) and nine of "White Christmas" (from Bing Crosby to � aghast � Michael Bolton, one of several drawbacks to those ghastly Very Special Christmas CDs that my sister bought and provided me with copies). I have 10 renditions of "Santa Claus is Comin'/Coming to Town," the best of which is clearly Bruce Springsteen's, with Clarence Clemmons' "Ho-Ho-Ho"s. There are six Rudolph songs � three each of "Run Rudolph Run" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Chuck Berry's recording of the former still holds up; Gene Autry's version of the latter is classic, but Jack Johnson does it quite well. What might be the most-recorded song in my playlist is "Winter Wonderland," which appears 11 times, from Peggy Lee to Brian Setzer and his orchestra.

As much as anything, Christmas music really brings the holiday home. Like most songs, these carols and tunes have a way of sparking memories of my own past holidays. U2's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and Madonna's version of "Santa Baby" remind me of Christmas night at my uncle's, when my older cousin Donna would play them over and over and sing along. The Chipmunks' "Christmas Don't Be Late" sparks memories of the translucent red album my sister and I would play endlessly on our Fisher Price record player. Hearing Perry Como and Ray Conniff sing anything will immediately make me think of Christmas and the soothing cracking of the turntable. The same thing happens with Nat King Cole, but it's his version of "The Christmas Song" prompts visions of my grandmother's living room with its giant picture window overlooking the backyard below (the house was built into a hill, so that from the front it looked like a ranch, but from the back, the living room was on the "second floor," above the garage). The line "and every mother's child is gonna spy/to see if reindeer really know how to fly" carries with it the memory of looking out that window at the starlit sky above. Nat can make anything sound classic. While used to hearing "Away In A Manger" sung by the screechy voices of the children in church, his soulful effort makes the song new; and to hear him get through "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" made me realize that he could sing the Declaration of Independence and make it sound festive.

Some songs I love from singing them � "Do You Hear What I Hear" and "Silver Bells" from fourth-grade chorus, "Silent Night" by candlelight and "Joy To The World" at the Christmas Eve church service. But I'm not sure I could pick a single Christmas song to tab as my favorite. I don't know if a Top Five would cover it either. I could probably come up with a CD's worth of tunes that would become my yearly necessity � the only disc I would truly need, if I somehow lost all my other Christmas albums. It would contain the classic (Bing singing something), the revisited classic (Bruce doing "Merry Christmas Baby" and the modern (Ben Folds' "Bizarre Christmas Incident"). I'd be forced to include a guilty pleasure or two ("Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses), since this is a CD of my holiday favorites, and I can't be worried about the opinions of every person who might hear it.

But if I'm going to pick just one song as my all-time No. 1 favorite for the purpose of this collab, I'm going to go with "Jingle Bells." For many of us, it's the first holiday song we memorized, the first we could sing on our own without any accompaniment. It's a happy, upbeat tune that lends itself to spending time with friends and family during the holidays � "O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way." It's got a fantasy element to it (how many of us have actually ridden in a one-horse open sleigh? Nevermind how that might smell.) and the version with Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters is so snappy and upbeat that you can't be anything but in a festive mood when you hear it. And for a good laugh, you can always put on Barbra Streisand's version.

What I really like about "Jingle Bells" is how you can learn the first verse and chorus as a child and sing it for years, thinking you've got the whole thing down:

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bobtail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight

Chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh
O jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

And then one day, you learn there's another verse:

A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We ran into a drifted bank
And there we got upsot

It's like discovering a new song. I love this verse for its descriptions, delving deeper into this story of this ride we're taking. We learn the horse is lean and lank. We're traveling in the company of Miss Fanny Bright, and who knows anyone named Fanny these days! And OH! � the hilarity of crashing into a snow bank and getting UPSOT! How can you not love this song?

There is more, you know:

A day or two ago
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow
And on my back I fell
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh
He laughed at me as I there lay
But quickly drove away

(chorus)

Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young
Take the girls along
and sing this sleighing song
Just bet a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh and crack!
You'll take the lead

I knew about the fourth verse, but not the third. That makes it even better! Someone (I imagine it's a woman, referring to the "gent" riding by) falls flat on her ass, and this "gent" laughs at her and then peels out! That cad! Oh, what a fun song.

I found these lyrics on babycenter.com, so you know they've got to have some truth to them if they're giving them out to new mothers. They couldn't lead new mothers astray, could they? I did manage to find another reference to it (as well as a graphic that puts the song into a picture similar to the image I get in my head when I hear the song). Asklyrics.com doesn't mention that mysterious third verse above, however. And then there's Barbra, who adds a verse all her own.

But yes, Virginia, there is a laughing gent. When written in 1857, "Jingle Bells" had four verses � and was written by a James Pierpont, something of a cad himself.

I must now dash myself.