Singer Cyndi Lauper, seen here, has teamed up with Swedish rockers the Hives for a Christmas duet entitled A Christmas Duel. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Ugly plastic reindeer are galloping on front lawns, explosions of tinsel strands abound and fake snow's piled in store window displays, which can only mean one thing: it's seasonal novelty song time! Aside from that one great Badly Drawn Boy tune, Donna and Blitzen (featured prominently in Sears holiday ads), most contemporary entries into the Great Festive Song Olympics pale in comparison to the classics. Happily, the inimitable Cyndi Lauper and those Swedish rock renegades the Hives have provided a new holiday tune for the ages.

Feast your ears on this modern Xmas delicacy, A Christmas Duel:

It's not necessarily for all tastes -- lines about Lauper "going down on your mother" will likely offend more reverent ears. But for folks who take comfort in watching films like the Jodie Foster-directed Home For The Holidays because it reminds them of their own perversely dysfunctional families, A Christmas Duel should be a note-perfect addition to holiday playlists. It's ridiculously catchy and very sing-along-able. As my esteemed colleague Greig Dymond suggested, A Christmas Duel's another dark December anthem in the great tradition of the Pogues' Fairytale Of New York (one of my all-time snowy-season faves).

--Sarah Liss