This Just In . . . The Latest Holiday Music Charts from Billboard

It's been nearly a month since I've looked at the holiday song charts from Billboard magazine, and since the nation's radio stations are always on the lookout for exciting new material to feature, there's bound to have been an awful lot of movement since then, right? Guess again.  Here are the latest Holiday Airplay and Top Holiday Song charts from Billboard:

There's no need to compare these latest charts with the charts from last month, last year or even five years ago because they've pretty much stayed the same. The only real question is why does Billboard even compile these things at all? It's not as though there isn't lots of good new holiday music out there. I can't even begin to keep up with the volume, but a quick look at Stubby's House of Christmas or Mistletunes, two terrific blogs that focus on new holiday music, establish pretty convincingly that there's no shortage of great new material. I suppose there's something reassuring about hearing the same classic holiday songs year after year, and God knows I'd rather hear Burl Ives and Bing Crosby than anything from Justin Bieber or Nicki Minaj. (Can anyone explain to me why either of these two "artists" is appealing on any level whatsoever?) But with the abundance of beautiful, moving, funny, provocative, old and new holiday songs available, why is it that we hear little more than the same dusty relics over and over again during each new holiday season?