I’ve already written about the “new” Christmas canon. But now I’m writing about the best Christmas albums of all time, the absolute classics.
A few rules, I’m not including compilations where the songs weren’t originally packaged as part of the compilation. So things like Now That’s What I Call Christmas and Christmas with the Rat Pack aren’t eligible, despite being almost perfect holiday collections. A Very Special Christmas isn’t on this list because of that completely awful Bruce Springsteen song. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole is an almost perfect yuletide record, but it’s also a re-issue that added the best song.
So what follows, in chronological order, are the best original Christmas albums of all time.
Ella Wishes you a Swinging Christmas by Ella Fitzgerald 1960
One of the most fun Christmas albums ever, this was Ella right in the middle of her upbeat Verve Swing years. Short, sweet, and bouncy.
A Christmas Gift to You From Phil Spector by Various 1963
Phil Spector and some of his associated vocal acts covered a bunch of existing Christmas songs and turned them into “Wall-of-Sound” covers. And all those versions are great. But what makes this an all-time classic is Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. One of the greatest Christmas songs ever, and no version yet has come close to Love’s original.
A Charlie Brown Christmas TV Soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi Trio 1965
Light, breezy, and also somehow melancholic this soundtrack perfectly matched the tone of the first Peanuts TV special. The Vince Guaraldi Trio turned evergreen Christmas tunes into modern jazz and also created a few new standards of their own.
Christmas Songs by Diana Krall 2005
Diana Krall revived the Vocal Jazz/Light Swing sound of Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald in the 1990s before gradually moving more and more into adult contemporary. This was her last true Vocal Jazz album. The simplicity of it is what makes it work so well, she took well-known Christmas songs and just covered them straight-ahead in her piano vocal jazz style. Her piano playing, her band, and her voice are enough to make this a classic.
Wrapped in Red by Kelly Clarkson 2013
So many artists have tried to create both holiday album staples and new songs for the Christmas canon since Mariah Carey’s “I’ll I Want for Christmas Is You”. There have been a few new great Christmas records that became yearly listens. And there have been a few additional songs added to the radio/retail rotation every year. But this was the last album that was both – an instant classic that added new songs we would hear every season from then on. Kelly brings her big vocals and her perfect pop production to a number of existing holiday favorites. And she adds “Wrapped in Red”, and “Underneath the Tree” songs that just sounded like Christmas favorites as soon as they were released. They’re going to be covered in the future.