As promised, I am posting my favorite Christmas albums. Hopefully this music will help you rock your Christmas Eve parties and holiday gatherings. At the very least the list can serve as a reminder of your favorite albums of holidays past. Merry Christmas everyone!
A Very She & Him Christmas is by far my favorite holiday album. There is nothing better than hearing M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel sing the classics. The production is timeless and will liven up any Christmas themed playlist. The album is also special to me because I gave it as a gift to my wife. To my delight, Lunchbox Records had cool album themed wrapping paper and a Christmas pen to go with it. What a great record store! Anyways, this made the gift more special. My wife loves the album and we play it during many special Christmas occasions. This year the record comes with an a Yule Log app. Crazy!
For some North Carolina flavor, look no further than The Gathering. The Wall Street Journal featured the project as one of six holiday albums worth picking up last year, writing: “Five established folk-roots artists gathered in a Greensboro,N.C., house to record this unusual album. The first six songs by singer-guitarist Laurelyn Dossett were commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony and tell the tale of a wandering daughter’s return to her family home on a winter’s night. The next seven tracks are a mix of traditional and old-time holiday folk songs. Three voices work in harmony backed by banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bass. What the season must have sounded like before shopping and Irving Berlin.” And The Chicago Sun-Times hailed the album: “Collections of Appalachian holiday tunes have come along before, but one of the finest is now ‘The Gathering.’” Needless to say, the record is great!
Another one of my all time favorite albums for gift giving and holiday celebration is Christmas with the Rat Pack. There’s nothing quite like hearing Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra swoon over the very best holiday standards. The songs on this album set a very high mark and very few artists have ever met it. The record has everything from “White Christmas” to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” While Sammy and Frank deliver the goods, Dean Martin outperforms them all. If you want to know what Christmas sounds like, listen to the Rat Pack.
Last but not least is a A Very Special Christmas. This compilation album of Christmas songs has everything: Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Whitney Houston, U2, Sting. If an artist had any traction in the 1980s they are on this benefit album. While all the songs are great, my Brother and I were floored that our mom had actually bought a CD with a RUN DMC track on it. And she liked it! Another special album highlight is Stevie Nix’s “Silent Night.” There’s nothing like having the witchy woman herself sing about the birth of the Saviour. in addition, the record is still very popular and continues to help raise money and awareness for the Special Olympics.