Various Artists

You wish. You hope. You pray that you’ve been nice or naughty or whatever the hell it will take for that chortling fatty in the red suit to give you a holiday album that either guts traditional covers or delivers something fresh. Granted, it’s just a Christmas record, but you harbor futile hope that someone will set Bing Crosby fare ablaze. Then you’re disappointed with a mail-it-in karaoke version of “Silent Night.” Then A Santa Cause falls down the chimney. The idea of a punk-rock Christmas album might have Sid Vicious doing a triple salchow in his grave, but it’s nice to see a little subversion in all this sweetness. The A.K.A.s kick things off with a rocked-up version of Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis” before the mopey types get a stockingful of angst with Something Corporate’s “Forget December.” And we’re off. Some of it’s good, some of it’s garbage, but all of it’s fun, with songs such as “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out.” The Deftones’ Chino Moreno joins Far for a fist-pumping “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and MXPX’s “Christmas Night of Zombies” hails green faces and red snow. Scrooge might happily crowd-surf to Blink-182’s “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas,” and From First to Last offers the vein-popping screamfest “X12 Days Of XXXMASX,” in which the twelve days of Christmas involve things like eight kids a’ moshing. There’s even a hidden track by Nerf Herder about Santa sporting a mullet and jamming to Foghat. Finally, something you want for Christmas.