Christmas music and when to listen to it

Our sons hate Christmas music of the carolling kind. Actually I think they hate all Christmas music - with carols or without.  My preference is for jazzy versions of traditional favourites by people like Ella Fitzgerald and Dave Brubeck, choral music by Anonymous 4, and seasonal music from across Europe, for example from Russia or Lithuania whose choirs seem able to produce a tone and  musicality impossible to achieve by other singing groups.  I especially enjoy the annual Radio 3 Christmas music from across Europe day they have, which should be coming up soon.

Every year I buy at least one, sometimes several Christmas cds and my choice this year has fallen on the latest Anonymous 4, something older from The Sixteen, and the latest version of Bach's Christmas Oratorio by Ricardo Chailly.  But then comes the problem of when  to play them.  I normally enjoy hearing them over dinner, but our boys don't like them.  However I'm working on a long term plan to convert them both to my musical tastes.  So far I've had limited success despite buying them box sets of Brahms symphonies and the film music of John Williams for their birthdays.  Perhaps I should follow the precept of an old friend who enjoys a wide range of music spanning Twentieth Century Nordic symphonies to Kiss and Metallica.  He always insists that variety in musical tastes, as in all things, is what makes life interesting.  And of course he is right.  Perhaps I'm a musical snob?  But this is not the time to get into the hoary old debate of what makes good music good.  Isn't it all in the ear of the beholder anyway? Either it clicks with you and you like it, or you don't.  Or would Alex Ross of The Rest is Noise fame disagree?  If you haven't come across his history of modern music this is something you should certainly put on your Christmas list.  The only problem is that it's an impossible book to read.  He is such a stimulating and interesting writer that every page or so you have to stop reading and listen to the music he's referring to.  He allows you to hear familiar music in a new way and it took me weeks to get past the section on Richard Strauss, and then another few weeks to work past Debussy, and so on. I wonder if he likes Christmas music?  Maybe I should check his index.