AT THIS TIME of year, the world is divided into two camps: those who like Christmas music and those who listen to the Bing Crosby-David Bowie version of "The Little Drummer Boy" and begin tearing at their skin.

But for those who like Christmas songs - I mean really, really like them - radio station 101.9 Lite FM has been playing Christmas songs nonstop since Thanksgiving.

By nonstop, I mean 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And this will continue all the way up to midnight on Christmas Day - unless all of us get together and do something to stop this madness.

OK, I'm only kidding. Look, I like Christmas songs as much as the next person. And Lite FM does a nice job of mixing in both traditional and contemporary Christmas songs, which is the key to keeping things from red-lining the Schmaltz-o-Meter.

It's just that, for every great block of tunes like "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole or John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" or Madonna's "Santa Baby," we have to suffer through something like Barbra Streisand's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," a song that has actually caused lab rats to keel over and die in their cages.

Still, the all-Christmas, all-the-time format is proving hugely popular, and Bill Pasha, Lite FM's program director, says the Towson-based station has between 3,000 and 4,000 Christmas songs in its rotation.

Unfortunately, moments after I got off the phone with him, the station played the ultra-sappy "Hey Santa!" by Carnie and Wendy Wilson, and I lost all sensation from the neck up.

This is the first year the Baltimore area has had a station play continuous Christmas music, although it's a growing trend nationwide.

"In some markets, there are as many as four or five stations competing" with an all-Christmas-song format, Pasha said.

Thus far, he said, the response from Lite FM listeners has been "incredible."

"I bet I get 50 to 60 calls a day, in voicemail or on the phone, and 20 e-mails a day" thanking the station for its "Continuous Christmas" programming, he said.

Fortunately, Lite FM is not playing the most annoying Christmas song of all time, which is, of course, the Singing Dogs version of "Jingle Bells."

For those who have never heard this particular rendition, imagine some mutt that's been locked in a car for several hours and is growing increasingly agitated.

Now imagine the dog barking shrilly and the barking suddenly taking on an oddly familiar cadence ("Woof, woof, woof ... woof, woof, woof") until you think: Nah, it couldn't be! That stupid mutt isn't barking "Jingle Bells," is he?

Sadly, he is.

Even more sadly, while Lite FM doesn't play the song at Christmas, Pasha said oldies station WQSR - also owned by the huge Infinity Broadcasting conglomerate - does.

Why? I asked. You mean there are still listeners out there who actually like the Singing Dogs?

"Absolutely," he said, which is the single most damning indictment of the Free State I have ever heard.

Thankfully, on the recent afternoon that I spent listening to Lite FM, no animals of any kind had their Christmas CDs broadcast over the airwaves.

Instead, the station played an eclectic mix of songs ranging from Lou Rawls' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to Elvis Presley's "Why Can't Every Day be Like Christmas?" and the Beach Boys' "Little St. Nick," as well as the mournful sax stylings of Kenny G on every Christmas carol known to man.

(Personally, I can take Kenny G only in very small doses. The minute Christmas is over, I want him to disappear for another year.)

Anyway, so far Lite FM has a hit format on its hands, which means you can probably figure on a couple of other local stations offering all-Christmas music next year.

"And it's listeners of all ages, both genders and, most amazingly, from all religious backgrounds" tuning in, Pasha said.

Then he told the story about a local cabdriver, a Muslim, who called the station the other day.

The man said he was from the Middle East and had been in Baltimore for only a little over a year.

He said he'd been feeling depressed and disconnected from the people in his new country. Then he picked up a female passenger who told him: "You'd feel better if you'd listen to the music on Lite FM."

So the man started tuning into the Christmas music while tooling around in his cab. And sure enough, he told Pasha, he soon felt better.

He didn't know why, exactly. He just did.

Then again, a couple of Streisand tunes could undo all that.