Another Thanksgiving has past, which means I can openly listen to Christmas music again!

Time now for my yearly list of Christmas album “must haves”…which is alway last year’s with some tweaks. I mean, you don’t honestly expect my taste in Christmas music to change drastically year-to-year do you?! 🙂

Now…before I unveil this year’s “winners”…I should note that if you love Christmas music as much as I do, every album listed below can be heard on my brand new Countdown2.Christmas Radio station. As of writing this post, it has only been around a couple weeks…and…for instance…at one point today we had 246 listeners all over the world. Give it a listen, will you?

Finally…I realize this list is growing…and if you are starting your collection it might be a bit much to ask you to get them all. So, this year I’m going to give you the top ten-ish in groups of five-ish. Hopefully that will be more helpful than confusing. 🙂

Top 5:

• “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
• “When My Heart Finds Christmas” by Harry Connick, Jr.
• “Christmas With the Chipmunks” by The Chipmunks

Next 6 (you’ll understand why six in a moment):

• “Elvis Christmas” by Elvis Presley (no longer available on Amazon MP3, but this might do fine)
• “A Jolly Christmas” by Frank Sinatra
• “Christmas Cocktails” Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4 by various

And once you have all those, I recommend you grab these…

• NEW: “We Sing Joy” by Cloverton. I am a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas music, but…well…you just have to hear what this group does with some Christmas classics. (“I Heard the Bells” is my favorite track.)
• NEW: “Holiday Sing Along with Mitch” by Mitch Miller & the Gang.
• NEW: “The Very Best Of Burl Ives Christmas” by Burl Ives.
• “Christmastime” by Michael W. Smith
• “Christmas Portrait” by The Carpenters
• “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
• “The Classic Christmas Album” by Andy Williams

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)
• NEW: “The Chanukah Song” by Adam Sandler. Okay, I know it’s not Christmas, but it is hilarious 🙂
• “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

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

Well, there you go…what’s on your list? Am I missing anything? Am I including something I shouldn’t?

And, if you don’t know Jesus Christ…there is a reason there is so much great music this time of year…and it isn’t because of Santa Claus. 🙂 Jesus “…emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8, English Standard Version). We celebrate the birth of a child that allows us to be reborn into something better than we were.

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Cross-posted on Countdown2.Christmas.