Our place is small too...under 600 square feet Bill. When my Honey is home with me and one of us is watching TV and the other wants to listen to music we will wear earphones too. But during the day when I'm here by myself I can play my music as loud as I want too.
As a family, we have alwayed played Mannheim Steamroller Christmas albums starting in 1988. The boys knew when they heard it playing it was time to come downstairs and see what Father Christmas had left for them. We have all their albums/Cd's and they still play in the background all Christmas Day. The one I play for me is the Blenders Christmas album.