IT’S funny how you can go off something you thought you really liked.

When I was a child, we used to go and visit my gran for tea every Friday. One particular Friday, she gave us chocolate éclairs as a treat and my mum and I made the mistake of saying how nice they were.

That was all the encouragement my Gran needed and we had chocolate éclairs with our tea every Friday for the next four years. I never wanted to look at an éclair ever again and even now, decades later, they are not my cake of choice.

And take the X Factor as another example. Once upon a time, it was almost compulsory viewing in our house with the weekend schedule carefully orchestrated to ensure uninterrupted viewing.

We laughed along with the judges at those poor delusional folk who couldn’t carry a tune if it was given to them in a Louis Vuitton handbag.

We embarked on the ‘journey’ of the timid housewife for whom this was the ‘last chance’; of the cocky teen who was a ‘ready-made pop star’ and the unheralded outsider who grew and developed to become a surprise finalist.

But now, who cares? We’ve seen it all before. We know the winner will probably fade into obscurity after narrowly failing to get the Christmas Number One single while one of the other acts will skyrocket to international stardom.

It’s just not special enough any more.

Driving to the supermarket a couple of days ago, Wizzard’s I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day, came on the radio.

I’ve never been a massive fan of the song but it did spark what passes for an intellectual discussion between me and my family about whether or not Christmas every day would actually be a good thing.

We came to the conclusion it wouldn’t.

It would be virtually impossible to keep up the spirit of peace and goodwill to all men for 365 days of the year.

We would soon be personally bankrupt if we had to buy presents every day and the prospect of eating Christmas dinner (and drinking all the festive booze) would leave us morbidly obese and/or dead through alcohol poisoning.

What makes Christmas special is the fact it only happens once a year (thank goodness, some would say).

Which brings me on to the subject of Christmas songs – not the timeless traditional carols – but those ‘hits’ that bombard us at this time of year.

When I say ‘this time of year’ I of course mean from the end of October so by the time Christmas actually comes around, you have been utterly brainwashed into believing that Christmas really does consist of sleigh bells, reindeer, snowmen, mistletoe, wine and a White Christmas.

(Even the concept of a white Christmas is something of a myth. There were only seven official white Christmases in the UK during the entire 20th century. ) So what’s your favourite Christmas hit of all time?

Once upon a time, I would, without hesitation, have said mine was A Fairytale of New York by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl.

But a bit like chocolate éclairs and the X Factor, I wonder if its appeal is starting to wane a little for me.

Every time one of the more obscure television channels does one of the regular ‘Best 100 Christmas songs of all time’ programmes, you just know A Fairytale of New York is going to be there in the top three.

But it would have to go some to beat the Christmas songs I really despise. In no particular order, my pet hates include: All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey; Last Christmas – Wham!; Santa Claus is Coming to Town (any version by anyone); Happy Christmas (War is Over) John and Yoko; Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney; Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade; and Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens.

But just to prove I am not a latterday incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge, there are actually a couple of festive songs that I actually look forward to hearing.

Top of my list is Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid, partly because it’s a really good song and partly because of all the good it did in the world.

But also up there on my personal playlist are Stop The Cavalry – Jona Lewie; White Christmas ¬– Bing Crosby; I Believe In Father Christmas – Greg Lake; Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) – The Nat King Cole Trio; Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses; and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra.

Just don’t play them too often or I might go off them.