2025 Holiday Album Guide

 This year’s selection of Christmas albums touches a lot of stylistic bases, with Christian acts, country stars, and a cappella acts (which have made holiday releases primary parts of their repertoires) well represented. Here are the best ones I heard.

Brad Paisley: “Snow Globe Town” -- Probably this year’s highest profile release, Paisley’s “Snow Globe Town” is a generous 16-track outing. The highlights come on the eight original songs. “Counting Down The Days” is a jaunty rocker with a pleasant melody and message. “The Crazy Elf (On The Shelf)” is a humorous country swing tune about a decoration that gets blamed for every holiday mishap. “Falling Just Like The Snow” and “Last Year” are sweet ballads. The eight standards are fine, too, as the added guitar parts on “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” and “The First Noel” gives those classics a bit of a different spin and the frisky “A Marshmellow World” also has some nifty guitar and fiddle work.

Lady A: “On This Winter’s Night Vol. 2” -- The sequel to the trio’s 2012 holiday album finds Lady A in fine form vocally as they cheerfully wind through this set of covers and a few originals. High points include “Wouldn’t Be Christmas,” a pleasant rocker on which Hillary Scott and Charles Kelly share vocals; a perky “Winter Wonderland” with a stronger rhythmic presence; and the rootsy original ballad “That’s Why We Sing Noel,” which features contributions from Ricky Skaggs.

Trisha Yearwood: “Christmastime” -- One of the finest singers country music has seen, Yearwood gets to showcase her voice throughout this collection of standards, with a few originals as well. It’s not country, as Yearwood features orchestra on these songs. She also honors the familiar arrangements on the standards -- although she puts a more restrained, Broadway musical-ish spin on “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” tastefully jazzes up “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and gives “Blue Christmas” more of an orchestral pop treatment. 

The Jonas Brothers: “A Very Jonas Christmas Movie” soundtrack -- Being that this soundtrack ties into a story, it’s not an album of Christmas songs per se. But if you like the Jonas Brothers’ sprightly style of pop-rock, that won’t matter. The songs -- all originals -- are mostly enjoyable (although the ballad “Home Alone” is a clunker) and there’s a good bit of range to the songs.  There’s bright, robust pop with “Best Night,” acoustic-laced, melancholy-ish mid-tempo pop on “Remember When,” a downbeat orchestrated ballad “Better Off Alone” and a synthy ballad “Feel Something.”  

Pentatonix: “Christmas in the City” -- After achieving major success as an a cappella group, Pentatonix have started incorporating instrumentation. And on “Christmas in the City,” the group’s eighth holiday album, Pentatonix don’t shy away from employing instrumentation here, with drums, horns and more filling out the songs. As for the songs themselves, there’s plenty of festive spirit to the originals “Santa Be Good To My Baby,” “Blitzen” and “Bah Humbug.” But it’s worth noting that a couple of tracks (“The Love Medley” and “Human”) don’t really fit the Christmas theme. And the post-mortem concoction of the duet with the late Frank Sinatra on “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” is just plain tacky.

Straight No Chaser: “Holiday Road” -- The nine-member ensemble stays true to their a cappella roots on their fifth full-length holiday effort, and their vocal blend and ability to vocally craft a rhythm section continues to make their songs feel complete. This time out, there is a pair of appealing originals, “Christmas Is Different” (with a guest vocal from Hunter Hayes) and “Very Merry Christmas,” as well as some well chosen covers.

Herb Alpert: “Christmas Time Is Here” -- The ageless 90-year-old Alpert keeps rolling along. He’s busy touring again with the Tijuana Brass and now he’s released this holiday album. Alpert’s trumpet takes the role of the vocals on this all-instrumental project and that in itself makes this a different kind of Christmas album. His playing is crisp and clear and fans of his music figure to be pleased with “Christmas Time Is Here.”

Matthew West: “Come Home for Christmas” -- One of Christian music’s most popular artists, West’s new Christmas album -- his third so far in a two-decade-plus career --  is highlighted by a trio of originals -- the title song, a rich, orchestrated ballad that’s about returning to a spiritual destination, “Because of Bethlehem,“ a piano-laced, orchestral ballad inspired by a book of the same name by Max Lucado and “Dysfunctional Christmas,” an Appalachian-tinged tune that describes holiday gatherings for many -- or perhaps most -- families.

Natalie Grant: “Christmas” -- The Christian music star takes a few risks with instrumentation and arrangements that work on songs like “Jingle Bells,” “Go Tell It On The Mountain” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” while “Christmas Looks Good On You” is a cheerful, lightly bopping pop tune. And yes, Christmas looks good on Grant.

Stryper: “The Greatest Gift of All” -- The Christian metal band’s first Christmas album comes with five rocking and melodic originals and five standards, which stay true to the classic-styled metal sound.

Yellow Snow: “Volume 1” -- This band, led by Mike DiBiase, brings rocking energy and plenty of originality to this standout Christmas album. On “Let It Snow,” DiBiase alters the vocal melody just slightly and injects some refreshing riffs into this holiday classic. “Drummer Boy” goes heavy and dark before an instrumental segment lightens the song a bit. Rich horns bring a bit of swing to a crunchy “Mr. Grinch.” The original songs (including the soul-tinged rock of “Main In Red” and “Backdoor Santa” and the hard-charging “Father Christmas Vol. 1”) are even better.

Various Artists: “It’s a Wicked Cool Christmas” -- Leave it to Steven Van Zandt, owner of Wicked Cool Records, to put together the best Christmas compilation album this year. Highlights include garage rock kings The Woggles rocking through “Santa’s Coming (Ho Ho Ho),” Prima Donna’s “Gimme Christmas” rocks briskly in a Ramones-meets-Cheap Trick way, Kurt Baker’s beachy “Christmas in the Sand” and Ryan Hamilton’s funny and rollicking “To Heck with Ole Santa Claus.”

Eric Benet: “It’s Christmas” -- The classic pop feel of “It’s Christmas” evokes warm nostalgia, but offers a timely message of Christmas being an occasion to heal the divisions that have defined recent times. That theme runs through a trio of originals -- the lushly orchestrated ballads “Christmas Morning,” “Give Love On Christmas Day” and “I Really Don’t Want Much For Christmas.” The music and messages make “It’s Christmas” one of this year’s better holiday releases.

Jake Shimabukuro: “Tis The Season” -- The man who has made the ukulele cool has made a charmer of a holiday album. While his uke is the central instrument, Shimabukuro features several guest vocalists (including the late Jimmy Buffett) and instrumentally duets with the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma on John Lennon’s “Happy XMas (War Is Over).” 

Mark & Maggie O’Connor: “A Christmas Duo” -- A live Irish-tinged folk outing by this Grammy-winning husband and wife, there’s some serious musicianship at play here (just check out “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”).

Wycliffe Gordon: “Holiday Fun” -- Gordon and his big band take a jazzy trip through this set of holiday classics (plus a version of Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimney”). Gordon and his crew (with vocalist Ashley “AE the Cool” Elim being a not-so-secret weapon) respect the songs, but find ways to tastefully elaborate instrumentally on the songs. 

Emmaline: “The Christmas Album” - If relaxed jazz is your sound for this season, this eight-song collection, featuring Emmaline’s smooth vocals, should entertain you.