Christmas music is such a big business that it has lots of subgenres, including novelty. Both the funny and just-plain-strange varieties are so varied that everybody has their favorite. Novelty king Dr. Demento pulled a collection of them together in what he modestly refers to as the The Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time on Rhino Records. It includes “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” (the inexplicable favorite of my niece), and perennial favorites like the “Jingle Bells by the Singing Dogs,” “the Chipmunk Song” and “Cheech and Chong’s Santa Claus and His Old Lady,” among others.

Many novelty jewels are scattered in other sources. My personal favorite, “Rusty Chevrolet” by Da Yoopers is on their album For Diehards Only. Jeff Foxworthy’s “Redneck 12 Days of Christmas” is on his album The Best of Jeff Foxworthy. Louis Armstrong’s version of “Zat You, Santa Claus?” is on Hipster’s Holiday, a collection of jazz and blues Christmas music. Other versions by artists like Brian Setzer and Harry Connick Jr. are available elsewhere. If you like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” you’ll find it in Now That’s What I Call Christmas. The much-too-close-to-the-bone family song, “Merry Christmas from the Family” by Montgomery Gentry is on the album Hear Something Country: Christmas 2007.

To search for a particular song in the library catalog, just put it in a title or keyword search.

If you like making your own music, The Hilarious Holiday Songbook, has sheet music for “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” and “Nuttin for Christmas.”

Finally, if you just like free stuff, try looking for your favorite novelty tune on hoopla for free, easy streaming.