24

Merry Christmas from John Cleese!

23

Topical stuff from Weebl & Bob!

22

People always complain that nobody makes Christmas singles any more, but this is one of at least four or five new ones for this year - "Feels Like Christmas" by The Feeling.

21

Live on Chris Evans's TFI Friday in 2000 (mysteriously presented this week by Elton John), Pet Shop Boys perform their seasonal offering "It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas". Note Chris Lowe's homage to Roy Wood from Wizzard.

20

Here's Dexys Midnight Runners with an, er, idiosyncratic version of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" from the 1983 TV special "Pop Goes Christmas".

19

The Irn-Bru "Snowman" commercial - as much a part of the festive season in Scotland as getting completely drunk and falling over.

18

Here's Grangemouth's finest po-faced ethereal synth combo The Cocteau Twins trying to prove that they do actually have a sense of humour. Bless.

17

Status Quo have finally released a Christmas song after 40 years in the business, but don't worry, this isn't it. Instead it's a behind the scenes look at Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt recording their contribution to "Do They Know It's Christmas" in 1984, meeting a very confused looking Neil from The Young Ones in the process.

16

Another new Christmas song for 2008 - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper in "A Christmas Duel".

15

"One Christmas Catalogue" by Captain Sensible. Unfortunately the original video doesn't seem to be on YouTube anywhere, so this will have to do.

14

They Might Be Giants perform their somewhat unfestive festive offering "Santa's Beard".

13

An alternative Xmas classic - the wonderfully parenthesised "Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)" by Harvey Danger.

12

Timperley's top light entertainer Frank Sidebottom performs his ode to the fantasticness of Christmas, "Christmas Is Really Fantastic".

11

From TFI Friday a frighteningly long time ago, Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield leads an unprovoked assault on Wham!'s "Last Christmas".

10

The Flaming Lips like Christmas. They've spent most of the decade making a film called Christmas On Mars, and this is one of at least three Christmas songs they've recorded in the course of their 25 year career, "Christmas At The Zoo".

9

The spirit of Eric Morecambe lives on, thanks to Des "short for Desperate" O'Connor and the good people at Tesco...

8

Never mind The Darkness's Xmas effort, here's '80s glam metal weirdos Twisted Sister coming over all festive.

7

You might expect Half Man Half Biscuit to be cynical about Christmas, but no! Instead they're cynical about people who are cynical about Christmas. Clever.

6

Everyone remembers the original Band Aid. Everyone remembers Band Aid 20 (perhaps not fondly). But most of us have tried to block out Band Aid II, the 1989 Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced effort. Bros! Sonia! Big Fun, for Christ's sake. Not so much Band Aid, more Asda SmartPrice sticking plasters. And still Pete Waterman can't understand why it doesn't get played every year like the original does.

5

In the absence of any real Christmassy content in the Father Ted Christmas Special, here's Frank (Fr Jack Hackett) Kelly's unexpected hit single from 1983.

4

Season's Greetings from the worst rock 'n' roll band in the world, Bad News!

3

This is the legendary "deleted scene" from Blackadder's Christmas Carol. Baldrick's line about doing another play at Easter appeared on the first showing in 1988 but was mysteriously edited out of the following year's repeat and has never been shown again...

2

First new Christmas song of the year, and it's nice to see someone carrying on the tradition of Christmas singles - even if it's only The Wombats.

1

From 25 years ago today (or some other day in November or December), something we probably won't see the like of again: a 90-second TV commercial for Woolworths. Not sure what dates it most: the pack of five C90 tapes, the enormous stereo or the PacMan board game.