My Dear Readers:

Tomorrow morning, I fly back home to Sioux Falls, beginning what will amount to over 10,000 miles worth of travel, one way. I will not be taking my computer with me, and thus, this will likely be my last blog post until I return.

After a series of serious, hopefully thought-provoking posts from this last week, and indeed throughout this entire last semester, I thought it might be time to have a little fun.

As we know, Christmas is upon us, and with it some truly awful music. I usually dislike the holiday season (not the holiday itself) for this very reason. Indeed, 92.9 in Waco, post-Thanksgiving, blasts nothing but terrible Christmas music day in and day out - I suppose in a way of celebrating Advent? "Feliz Navidad" gets played several times a day, unfortunately, as well as horrible celebrity versions of "O Holy Night," "Silent Night," and any other Christmas song with "night" in the title.

This year, however, has seen some truly terrible music, and I thought I'd give my blog readers a bit of a laugh by sharing some of it. This is a bit of a departure in tone for the blog, but I hope that you, my readers, will consider this as a gift of laughter. I look forward to returning from India with the tales of my neighbors who live 10,000 miles away, and what we can do to help them.

Thank you for reading and supporting my adventures in following Jesus. I know that He truly is the "reason for the season," as horribly cheesy that may be.

Without further adieu, I present to you the top three worst Christmas songs and music videos on the planet.

From music legend Bob Dylan, we find the incredibly inscrutable song "Must Be Santa," the video for which appears to take place in a 19th century brothel. It's two minutes and fifty one seconds of almost pure torture.



From the era of the 1990s boy bands - a point in my life I'd rather not acknowledge - we have the Gap/Old Navy commercial with homeless people that is 'N Sync's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays." Gary Coleman's even in it!



And my pick for the worst Christmas songs on the planet? It could just be that I have a strong dislike for everything Lady Gaga, but this takes the cake. I can't even bring myself to post the actual video, but the song is "Christmas Tree" by Lady Gaga. The fact that I feel the need to put a "WARNING: ADULT CONTENT" on that video should say something. Euphemisms abound. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ugh.

And now, because I feel the need to cleanse the palate from everything Lady Gaga, here's one of my favorite hymns. It appears on a Christmas CD, but is not technically about Christmas. I accept it as such anyway.

Sufjan Stevens' version of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing":


I hope you enjoyed this break from the seriousness of my blog. Take a moment this week and go read the birth story of Christ (in either Matthew or Luke), and celebrate the day that Love came down.

Merry Christmas.

------

PS: If you want updates on my trip as I travel, follow my twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dianndia