It’s the most wonderful time of the year…for some. With the holiday season in full swing, the familiar refrains of pop Christmas music are now blaring on an endless loop in retail establishments all over the country. For many people, this is something to be cherished and enjoyed. Others want to take that carrot out of Frosty’s face and jam it in their eardrum. Grinches of the world unite and say, “Down with Christmas music!”

This stance is entirely subjective. If you are someone who cherishes Christmas music, then more power to you. Enjoy the season to its fullest. Put that Mariah Carey song on repeat for the next two weeks. If you like something, embrace it, and damn the haters, as long as it isn’t actively harming anyone else.

Pop Christmas songs themselves are not the problem. The issue is that there are only so many to choose from, and so much of the catalog is made up of increasingly soporific and unnecessary covers of the same two dozen or so songs. Each subsequent version of a song like “Winter Wonderland” stretches closer to an event horizon of inanity. These hoary old chestnuts have been roasted for so long that they have been reduced to empty, soulless husks. These covers, and covers of covers ad infinitum, get more corporatized and further from their roots. There’s no need to try to put a new spin on “Sleigh Ride.” Instead, it looks like a cynical cash grab by an artist struggling to remain relevant.

The corporatization and commercialization of Christmas have sapped the emotional and spiritual underpinnings of the holiday. Who needs charity? Spend more money! Have manufactured “joy” swamp your senses whenever you’re out in public! Giving is out, taking is in! The homogenization of the holiday season has led to every public celebration of Christmas appearing exactly the same, from decor to dress, and that includes its soundtrack. The hellscape that is the modern pop Christmas music canon is another stretch of a yawning void. It is the sound and the fury, signifying nothing.

Is there any salvation for pop Christmas music? The answer is probably no. Most people like it, at least while it’s in season, and then after the holiday, the Michael Bubles of the world can be put back in their hermetically sealed chamber until December 1st rolls around again. They feel no need to change it or find ways to improve it. There’s no impetus to alter the fairly basic structure of a song like “Silver Bells.” While a dubstep remix might jolt people out of their reverie, it probably wouldn’t sell, so no one is interested in producing it. There’s virtually no room for innovation or experimentation here. It’s a boring, stagnant field, at least to us Scrooges, who hear the umpteenth attempt at “Run Rudolph Run” and say to ourselves, “Bah! Humbug.”