It's only four days to Christmas, which means only four more days of listening to Christmas music.

Don't get me wrong — I love Christmas music. We fill our house with it, listening to the albums my wife and I have played for years — from Nat King Cole's rendition of "The Christmas Song" to a nifty cover of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan.

But our exposure to Christmas music isn't confined to our home, where I can control it. It's everywhere: In the stores and shopping centers, on the radio, on the phone when I'm on hold, and emanating from electronic gizmos.

And much of it is, sorry to say, pretty awful.

Again, this isn't a knock against Christmas music in general. Christmas music is like any other form of artistic expression — movies, opera, ice sculpture, whatever — in that it follows the 80/20 rule: Eighty percent is OK at best. It's the 20 percent that's really terrific that compels us to keep listening and seek out more.

My Tribune colleague David Burger, in his "Holiday Music Smackdown," has been counting votes from readers of their favorite Christmas songs, but maybe a more relevant question would be this one: What are the worst Christmas songs of all time?

Here's my highly subjective and not-at-all comprehensive list of the songs that bring me a very unmerry Christmas:

"What Child Is This?," any version • The tune is "Greensleeves," which was used years ago as the theme for the "Lassie" TV series. So when I hear it, I'm not thinking about the baby Jesus — I'm thinking about a dog saving Jesus from an abandoned mine shaft.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?," any version • This one is a personal peeve. I had to sing this song in fifth-grade choir, and thought it was dull and repetitive then. I then had to sing it in the eighth grade and 11th grade, too, and my opinion of it didn't improve.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?," Band Aid • The complaint here isn't against the sentiment of the rock stars — including Bono, Sting, Boy George, George Michael and many others — who gathered in 1984 to record this song to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims. That event spurred USA for Africa's "We Are the World," the Live Aid concerts and Sir Bob Geldof's career as a humanitarian. The problem is with the song itself, with its condescending and overly melodramatic lyrics. (Example: "There's a world outside your window / And it's a world of dreaded fear / Where the only water flowing / Is the bitter sting of tears / And the Christmas bells that ring there / Are the clanging chimes of doom / Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you.") Besides, a third of Ethiopia is Muslim, and the country is also the birthplace of Rastafarianism, which celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7.

"Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)," John Denver • In the race to come up with the most depressing Christmas songs, for some reason the country singers win hands down. Sample verse: "Just last year when I was only seven / And now I'm almost eight as you can see / You came home at a quarter past eleven / Fell down underneath our Christmas tree." Just terrible. (Denver also is responsible for one of my favorite Christmas songs, the rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas" he recorded with the Muppets.)

"Christmas Shoes," Bob Carlisle • John Denver's got nothing on Carlisle, the guy who recorded "Butterfly Kisses," when it comes to shamelessly producing the crocodile tears for Christmas. This song tells of a little boy who scrapes up the money to buy shoes for his sickly mother because "I want her to look beautiful / If Momma meets Jesus tonight." The chirpy fake children's chorus makes it even more cloying.

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," Jimmy Boyd • Speaking of adults trying to sing like children, this one is among the more grating examples. (There's at least one good version of this song, a foot-stomping rock version by John Mellencamp, recorded in 1987 for the charity album "A Very Special Christmas.")

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," Elmo and Patsy • If there's one thing that can unify everyone in this season, it's that this song should never be played again. Ever.

Sean P. Means writes the Culture Vulture in daily blog form, at blogs.sltrib.com/vulture