One of the things I love most about Thanksgiving is that I can stop being clandestine about playing Christmas music. 🙂

This year’s list is pretty much last year’s list because, sadly, no new Christmas albums came out in 2013 that interested me greatly. However, this has become an annual list…and I’ll sneak in a couple more MP3 collections you should consider getting (Amazon MP3 has developed an intriguing “The Christmas Classics Album” series)…

First, the "must have" albums:

• “Christmastime” by Michael W. Smith
• “Christmas Portrait” by The Carpenters
• “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole
• “Christmas Classics” by Bing Crosby (includes “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” with David Bowie)
• “A Winter Romance” by Dean Martin
• “Elvis Christmas” by Elvis Presley (no longer available on Amazon MP3, but this might do fine)
• “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
• “Christmas With the Chipmunks” by The Chipmunks
• “Ultra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails” Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 by various
• “A Jolly Christmas” by Frank Sinatra
• “When My Heart Finds Christmas” by Harry Connick, Jr.
• “The Classic Christmas Album” by Andy Williams (this is new)

Some singles:

• “The Christmas Shoes” by Eric Dodge
• “Mary Did You Know?” by The Gaither Vocal Band (basically, Mark Lowry…this is the original and best version of this song)
• “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” by Spike Jones & His City Slickers
• “Christmas at Ground Zero” by “Weird Al” Yankovic
• “Yellow Snow” by Bob Rivers (not available on Amazon MP3)
• “Christmas With a Capital C” by Go Fish

And, new to my collection this year is “The Classic Christmas Album” by Johnny Cash. I have to listen a bit before I decide it belongs in my “must haves.” 🙂

(I am a huge fan of Johnny Cash…but nobody gets a buy into my Christmas music list! :-))

You may also want to see what Ella Fitzgerald, Martina McBride, Louis Armstrong, Carole King (isn’t she Jewish?), Amy Grant, The Jackson 5, Pink Martini, Andre Rieu, and Celine Dione have done.

Well, there you go…what’s on your list? Let me know…I always love a great excuse to buy more music! 🙂

And, if you don’t know Jesus Christ, this would be a great season to find out how a carpenter’s son changed history.  Spoiler: it’s because He wasn’t just a carpenter’s son. 🙂

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

P.S.  With Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis…you just need to find a good collection for the money.  With some of the other ones you’ll want to make sure you get the album I specifically listed…with a couple of them, not all their Christmas albums are good, especially if you like traditional arrangements as I do…