Nothing captures the holiday spirit like a favorite Christmas song. It gets us smiling and reminiscing and somehow manages to stay with us throughout the season. These time-honored songs never get old and are the ones you most likely know all the words to. Is it "Jingle Bells"? "Silent Night"? "Rudolph"?

On the way to school, shopping for gifts, hanging the holiday lights -- these are the occasions when you might just find yourself singing or humming a Christmas song without even realizing it. 'Tis the season for singing out loud and everyone does it, too.

The most common songs heard are the quick-paced ones like "Jingle Bells," "Joy to the World," or "Sleigh Ride." These jolly and thunderous songs boom over mall sound systems, blast on the radio, and get scooped up by anyone within earshot. Even if you try to resist, it's difficult not to join in the next time the singers sing, "Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting tingling too." It's infectious.

However, the more solemn Christmas songs are classics for a reason as well. If "Silent Night" is heard, chances are you'll be singing it to yourself the rest of the afternoon. A few bars of "Glory to the Newborn King"? And you're finishing the rest.

Unique to Christmas, songs and carols are part of a collective tradition. No other holiday is there such a vast choice of songs to sing, share, and feel good with. And they always get stuck in your head, no matter what you might tell yourself. All it takes is a "Have yourself a..." and you're following with - "merry little Christmas."