Even though these banal dirges should have been forgotten decades ago we're still subjected to them, every year, in the weeks running up to Christmas. WHY???!!!

It's sad to hear someone ask this sort of thing on a site supposedly concerned with Folklore and Musical Tradition even if it is in the 'BS' section. Christmas has always been a focus of folkloric continuity and the perennial begetter of traditional repetition if only for the consolidation of the collective values of the community in the face of the dark perils of life. Each Christmas we look to the sun for a sign of solstitial renewal whilst taking solemn stock of the fact that some of us are no longer there. The old songs simply tell all eternity: "We're glad that we're alive."