Christmas Party

No wonder everyone hunkers down in front of the TV on Christmas Day and goes to sleep for an entire week – it's because we're all partied out. We blame good-time seasonal classics like these: Elton John gets the festivities groovin' with his tinsel-festooned piano-rocker "Step Into Christmas", Girls Aloud get their stockings out on "Not Tonight Santa" and Tom Jones steps into a Welsh Xmas wonderland with compatriot Cerys Matthews. More spicy than mulled wine . . . it's our Xmas party Next Steps.

If your sozzled boss asks you for a dance at the office Xmas party, confuse his feet with blast of swing from the Brian Setzer Orchestra: one trip around "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" and he'll be face down in the figgy pudding in no time. Now is the time to make good use of the mistletoe, as Run DMC lays a seasonal rap over some funky, soulful, sexy brass on "Christmas in Hollis" and Gloria Estefan looks for "Love on Layaway". Jive, rock, roll and womble your way through Christmas, with Deep Cuts.

You're wearing a paper hat, and blowing a plastic tooter with a feather on the end of it, so why not go all the way and bop your way through a Jive Bunny "Let's Party" Xmas mastermix, or shake leg with Showaddywaddy to "Rockin' and Rollin' with Santa Claus" . . . or even pick up as much litter as you drop with the Wombles, and their "Wombling Merry Christmas" — remember, Christmas comes but once a year but a Womble is forever.

You can tell by the fairy lights, the tinsel and that strange group of people clapping hands in a circle to Boney's M's "Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord" . . . it must be Christmas party time again. Throw your hands in the festive air like you just don't care (unless you're still holding your drink) and shake some Yuletide booty with Britney and Christina, before rockin' out with Wizzard and the Darkness, or grabbing a smooch beneath a cascade of party poppers as Wham, N Sync and East 17 coax you ever nearer the dangling mistletoe. Christmas is not just for giving, it's also for throwing . . . a fantastic party, with tracks like these.