My pick for the best from Santa's sack has to be the wacky and soulful "A John Waters Christmas," sharing the cult film director's fascination with novelty recordings. Culled largely from eccentric self-produced recordings from the 1960s and 1970s, this collection is a weird box of chocolates with surprises in every bite.

Highlights include the crabby "Here Comes Fatty Claus" by the naughty Rudolph and the Gang, the raised-fist funk of "Santa Claus Is a Black Man" from AKIM & the Teddy Vann Production Company, and the precocious Little Cindy, a early Gospel TV and radio child star, with her "Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child's Prayer)."

Not just a pencil-mustached oddball (he was director of "Hairspray," as well as much stranger cult films such as "Pink Flamingos"), Waters mixes his smarmy and sentimental sides, with the a cappella street-corner vibe of Stormy Weather's classic "Christmas Time Is Coming," Rita Faye Wilson's "Sleigh Bells, Reindeer and Snow," and Alvin and the Chipmunks' infectious "Sleigh Ride." One song is a real tearjerker that surely didn't mean to turn out so creepy, but Roger Christian's tale of the crippled orphan girl, "Little Mary Christmas," drips with Sunday School "little-engine-that-could" chipper spirit. This CD is a fringe-fest find, sure to please the most cynical holiday spirit.

'Maybe This Christmas Tree,' various artists, Nettwerk Records

The third installment in the "Maybe This Christmas" series is another best pick to expand your Christmas CD collection this season. Entitled "Maybe This Christmas Tree," the album benefits the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots charity, and once again brings together a hip mix of "alternative" artists penning a new holiday tune or covering a favorite classic. The CD's opening track features The Polyphonic Spree rejoicing in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" — a perfect match. Other cover treats include Ivy channeling Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown theme, "Christmas Time Is Here," as a breathy lost outtake, and Death Cab For Cutie winding through Phil Spector's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," a hit for The Ronettes back in 1963. Reserved and surprising mellow, the set features soft takes on other surprising selections, with Pedro the Lion contributing a lonely piano croon of "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" and Jars of Clay's take on John Denver's "Christmas For Cowboys."

"Christmas in July" is a six-song CD EP from Judith Owen, a must-hear little gem showcasing her amazing voice. She gracefully sails and skips over a funky arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and the originals "The Dancing Tree" and "My Father's Voice," but watch out that Grandma doesn't freak out over the opening track — a hard-to-believe piano cover of Spinal Tap's "Christmas With the Devil," co-written by Owens' husband, Harry Shearer (aka "Spinal Tap" bassist Derek Smalls).

Why July? The singer says it's a Southern California thing, well illustrated by the hilarious plastic inflatable Christmas tree photographed inside the Shearer home. Two more classics get her heavenly take: "Silent Night" with Julia Fordham and Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song."

Do you need to subtly show someone how much you hate them this Christmas? The perfect stocking stuffer for fewer than eight lost bucks is William Hung's holiday entry, "Hung For The Holidays." Yup, swinging for the fences in his full 15 minutes of fame after American Idol defeat, this decade's version of Mrs. Miller has his very own EP for the faithful, featuring a disturbing cardboard foldout ornament as a bonus. Like having to wear to school, at least for one day, that horrible handmade shirt your aunt gave you for Christmas in the ninth grade, perhaps the recipient of this stinker will actually sit through an entire listening, wondering, "wha?" and thinking of you. And please, William, take no offense, as I'm hatin' the game, not the player — but running the names of the reindeer in "Rudolph" — you can barely keep up with the band! I dig the spoken word breaks and positive life affirmations, but after Hung butchers Queen's "We Are the Champions" as a hidden "surprise" track, I'm thinking face down in an icy New Jersey snow bank, Sopranos' style, is justly fitting.