For an eclectic addition to your Christmas music collection, might I suggest Christmas Eve & Other Stories by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra? Here’s the 30 second Amazon preview of the better known song on the album. For those who don’t know the band, it is composed of a band named Savatage, plus a lot of other folks. Savatage has probably been kicking around for 15 years releasing one unusual concept album after another. They have this odd blend of thrash, rock opera, and I don’t know what.
I bought a Savatage album back in 1988 when I was in high school named In the Hall of the Mountain King. Since college, I hadn’t really listened to anything by the band until a couple years ago when I picked up Dead Winter Dead on a whim at a Half Price Bookstore. It tells the story of the fall of Sarajevo primarily from the point of view of a gargoyle on the cathedral in the center of town. Interestingly, the picture of the band in the liner notes has them standing way up high on scaffolding next to the gargoyle as the church is repaired after the wars. Here’s a review of the album.