This charming collection of golden classic Christmas favorites stretches from 1935 to 1954. Rhino scores big with the idea of marketing music of such quality for a lesser cost. This record features everybody and everything from the Bing himself to Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to "All I Want for Christmas," a comedic, hilarious family favorite. What would Christmas be without "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!," a wintry cry for a snow-white landscape, sung proudly here by Vaughn Monroe? With its goal of making Christmas memorable, this collection of songs -- from the youthful "Here Comes Santa Claus" to "White Christmas," Bing Crosby's dreamy, reflective hit -- should appeal to all ages. At least one can imagine and dream for a white Christmas with the help of Bing, though most of the world really never receives one. Blank-faced and affectless, here’s Christmas for the shoegazers from the duo briefly toasted at the start of the last decade. Kevin Shields and David Holmes produced, and you can bet Beach House were listening. 39. Neil Halstead The Man in the Santa Suit Bublé's Christmas has sold a whopping 2.78 million in the UK according to Official Charts Company data, has spent over seven months in the Top 10 in total over the last seven years and is the UK's 20th biggest selling album since 2000. The record features 14 covers of Christmas classics plus two new songs - the most popular are his takes on It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

Here's AllMusic's countdown of the 30 most essential Christmas albums, from Ray Charles to Bing Crosby to James Brown and even Charlie Brown. Unwrap these albums early and get ready for the Yuletide season.

Side guide

Probably not one to play when you’re unwrapping the presents. A character study that begins grimly, then offers hope, as the narrator says things are getting better – before ripping the rug away without ceremony. Do you want to know the truth of it, she asks: “Charley, hey, I’ll be eligible for parole come Valentine’s day.” 5. Marvin Gaye Purple Snowflakes With British arranger/conductor Robert Farnon handling the transatlantic sessions, Tony Bennett's 1968 Christmas album turned into a swinging affair, from the version of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (how did this song become associated with Christmas?) to seasonal standards like "White Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Bennett's warm style was especially winning on this kind of material, making an inevitable assignment a winning combination of singer and songs. It wasn’t a hit at the time, but took off when it was included on a 1991 reissue of the 1968 Atco compilation Soul Christmas. To which you can only say: why did it take the world so long to notice? It’s a Christmas song that stands up regardless of the season. And according to the publishing body Ascap, it’s now the 30th most performed Christmas song of all time in the US. 6. Tom Waits Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis Right after World War II, when Muddy Waters was roughing up the blues in Chicago, Charles Brown was smoothing them out in Los Angeles. In 1947, he wrote and sang the most enduring R&B Christmas song ever penned, “Merry Christmas, Baby,” (though the credit went to his bandleader Johnny Moore), later the basis for one of Elvis Presley’s greatest performances. He also sang and wrote “Please Come Home for Christmas,” another timeless standard. Never has an artist been better served by the December holiday. —Geoffrey Himes

The Staple Singers are worried: too many wars, too much space exploration means people are “searching for light and can’t seem to find the right star”. Jesus isn’t just another baby boy, they warn. So show some respect. Glorious. 16. The Watersons Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy Elsewhere, there are strong showings for more recent releases including Kylie Minogue's Kylie Christmas (Number 15, 139k sales) and Leona Lewis' Christmas, With Love (Number 18, 122k sales). The Top 20 biggest Christmas albums of the 21st Century POS

Release

Autry, the singing cowboy, had the original recording on three of the most popular Christmas songs of the 20th century: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane).” Autry co-wrote the last song and sang them all with his languid, disarming tenor. Autry released a Christmas single every year during his peak years, and this anthology offers 26 different songs, all of them a pleasure to hear. —Geoffrey Himes Like Cristina’s Things Fall Apart, Christmas Wrapping was originally written for the Zé label’s 1981 compilation – the most punching-above-its-weight Christmas comp ever. It’s a fabulous stream of consciousness, during which Patty Donahue talks herself from wanting to miss Christmas to knowing she can’t miss Christmas, that bursts into joy at its horn refrain. 3. Low Just Like Christmas A gorgeous bauble from the mid-00s wave of Scandinavian music that crossed electropop with the feyest indie. Sally falls in love on a Tuesday before Christmas, “at a gig with a band that we both liked”. But will she end up by herself “or in the perfect kiss”? 41. Solomon Burke Presents for Christmas The mother of all solo instrumental albums, and with good reason. Mixing traditional carols with Pachelbel's Canon and a few originals, George Winston produces a solo piano album of unparalleled -- and undeniable -- beauty. How can music be simultaneously stirring and soothing, relaxed yet exalted? Millions have found the answer here, and an industry has spent decades trying to duplicate it. Love them, hate them, or just acceptthem as a sort of immutable fact of life, it's officially Christmas song season in 2023. And although there’s been a fair amount of disposable novelty rubbishwritten over the years, the reality is that a lot of Christmas songs are bangers.

There's a deep sense of comfort that comes from a well-curated Christmas playlist, with finely-aged classics following one after the other and invoking all the cozy holiday memories of the past. Proving Christmas songs take a few years before they can truly enter the festive hall of fame, the newest song on the most-streamed chart is Sia's original Santa's Coming For Us, released in 2017, at Number 40. The star at the very top of the tree is twinkly-eyed crooner Michael Bublé. His seasonal set – entitled Christmas, just to really hammer it home – is the ONLY Christmas Number 1 Album in chart history with the word "Christmas" in the title. Extra festive! It spent three non-consecutive weeks at the top on its release in 2011, and has returned to the Top 10 every year since!

Tracklist

Roy Wood’s enduring contribution to the season owed a huge debt to Phil Spector – there’s almost certainly a kitchen sink section at work somewhere in the mix – but it transcends imitation by its sheer verve. It was recorded in summer, with the studio air conditioning turned down to make everyone feel wintry. Attention to detail, right there. 8. Slade Merry Xmas Everybody Completing the mini-run of joyless Christmases, here’s the most joyless of all – when the only way to pay for Christmas is to rob and deal and kill. The climactic “jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way” is not intended as cause for celebration. 20. Lindstrøm Little Drummer Boy After its original release on Cadet Records in 1966, Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas was out of print for years until a 1992 reissue. With pensive, meditative, precise playing, it's a must-have and features a definitive jazz hit version of "Little Drummer Boy." A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector codified the sound of Christmas: maximal, filled with signifiers of the season (there is nowhere sleigh bells can’t be draped). Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) was the standout on a record on which the quality didn’t drop from start to finish. 9. Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Before she treaded ever so slightly into secular pop fare, Amy Grant was a giant in Christian music—and she’s still seen as such. There’s one branch of Christian music in particular that she does better than just about any pop star—Christmas music. A Christmas Album is unapologetically spiritual and sonically quite bold, full of sweeping orchestral arrangements, weird synthy pathways and twangy, down-home touchy-feelies (It’s impossible not to yearn for home when you hear “Tennessee Christmas,” whether you hail from the South or not) alike. I can’t readily supply another Christmas album that sounds like this one. The horns on jaunty instrumental number “Praise the King” sound like an actual choir of angels, and I’m convinced the spirited “Love Has Come” will thaw even the iciest hearts. If you need an album to play for the Scrooge in your life, you can’t go wrong with Amy Grant’s hearty Christmas masterpiece. —Ellen Johnson Two of the greatest British folk voices combine for a drinking song that, if we’re honest, is unlikely to be ringing out in pubs this Christmas. The asceticism of the British folk tradition can be a useful astringent amid the sleigh bells and tinsel. 34. Tracey Thorn Snow in Sun Christmas 1973 brought not just Wizzard but the most enduring of all British Christmas singles. Forty-six years later, people still bellow “It’s CHRISTMAS!” in Noddy Holder’s face, which, apparently, gets a little wearisome. The whole thing was Jim Lea’s mum’s idea – why didn’t Slade have a song they could release every year? She got her wish. 7. Donny Hathaway This Christmas Yoko Ono’s is the original version and Galaxie 500’s rendition is more celebrated, but Thea Gilmore gets the perfect ratio of iciness to wonder – it sounds like a Christmas tree, if such a thing were possible. The 2009 album Strange Communion is highly recommended. 26. The Temptations Rudolph The Red-Nosed ReindeerJoni Mitchell is bereft, too, on this gorgeous piano ballad, when Christmas just makes her mourn her relationship and flee Laurel Canyon for her home in Canada, where there might be a frozen river she could skate away on, away from everything. 21. David Banner The Christmas Song Truthfully, this version is only here because the Fountains of Wayne original – an homage to the Kinks’ Father Christmas – isn’t on Spotify. But what a perfect, sad song: “And he’s a big red cherry / But it’s hard to be merry / When the kids are all laughing / Saying: ‘Hey, it’s Jerry Garcia.’” 38. The Everly Brothers Christmas Eve Can Kill You Big Star’s Third is the least likely album to contain a Christmas song, but amid the desperation and despair was this huge burst of fervour. Did Alex Chilton mean it? Was it a joke? Its effect is magnified by the music that surrounds it on the rest of the album. 31. Calexico Green Grows the Holly On the 2000 charity album It’s a Cool Cool Christmas – which was pretty strong – Belle and Sebastian took on the most beautiful of all the Christmas hymns. Something so delicate suited them. Also recommended: El Vez merging Feliz Navidad and Public Image. 17. The Staple Singers Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?