These simply don't seem to go together. After all, Christmas music is usually fluffy, syrupy stuff about decking the halls, trimming the tree, and spending time with your family, et cetera. They play it in malls, and after a few hundred chirrupy renditions of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," you're ready to gnaw the tinsel off the walls.

But Trans-Siberian Orchestra breaks all the rules of Christmas music. Producer Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva teamed up to create this trilogy of hard-rock, orchestral Christmas albums, which bring back the splendour and beauty that every Christmas album should have, but few do.

The three albums -- "Christmas Eve and Other Stories,""The Christmas Attic" and "The Lost Christmas Eve" -- are each a self-contained story, with a little booklet that tells the story that each song accompanies. These stories almost border on goop (mentally challenged children, sad angels, loneliness on Christmas) but never goes over the border. It sounds cliched, but occasionally it will wring a tear from your eye.

If it were just about hard-rock carols, this would be interesting but not really worthwhile. But there is a surprising innocence and awe in this music. No, it probably WON'T change your life, but it is truly unique. O'Neill and Oliva don't shy away from religious stories, and the baroque flavour of their arrangements gives it the feel of something timeless that was only recently dug up.

It also pushes some musical boundaries -- it's not truly prog, metal, classical, new age, or hard-rock. Instead, it mixes roiling guitars with sparkling bells, angelic vocals with bombastic fury, classical orchestra with languid basslines. It could use a bit less of the power-metal vibe, but once you get used to it, it shouldn't be a problem.

Christmas music has become stale over the years, with singers recycling the same old bland tunes. But Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Trilogy" brings vibrancy, energy, and a kind of rockin' sweetness back into holiday music. Enchanting.