10 Criminally Underappreciated Christmas Songs

7. "I Wish It Could Be Christmas All Year Long" - Larry Groce

If you're a Christian, you believe Christmas celebrates the time when your God was a child. In other words, it's a time to remember what it was like to be a kid again, and when I was one, I played the record (remember those?) "Disney's Merry Christmas Carols" nonstop during the month of December, to the increasing annoyance of my parents. My favorite song happened to be an original, though I didn't realize it at the time. Like the best Christmas carols, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas All Year Long" is that perfect combo of longing lyrics and warm, wistful music that serve such cathartic comfort for lonely winter nights. Sure, some of the words are cheesy ("I wish that every spirit in the world could feel the power/and know love not once a year but every minute, every hour"), but when you're eight years-old, it's one of the deepest things you've ever heard. I guarantee you've never heard this one before, but once you do, it'll instantly sound familiar, like a classic you've known for years. Luckily for me, it already is.
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Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.