Christmas songs are like sprouts: you probably loathe them, but once a year you pile them on your plate as if Boxing Day was the Apocalypse. The 25 best Christmas songs of all time represent those croons, glam-rock party staples and snow-topped sing-alongs we all know and love (or hate). But what about the alternative mixtape? The indie bands, rappers and disco queens whose festive gems and genre-destroying cover versions are lost under a deluge of Frank Sinatra and Boney M?

Along with the best Christmas songs, we asked you to choose your favourite alternatives, and this is a gallery of the results. From headbanging carols to epic soundscapes, here are 15 kick-ass alternative Xmas anthems, as chosen by you. Here’s to a very ‘different’ Christmas. First up: Prince...

Rocking around the Christmas tree is all well and good, but not a patch on listening to a funky little chap from Minneapolis moaning about his girlfriend leaving him. That said, at one point he does mention that he’s got a bit of thing for her sister, so you can’t really blame the poor girl for walking out.

Listen: Prince - Another Lonely Christmas (live in 1984)

Buy: Prince - The Hits/The B-Sides

Next: Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi