What's Your Favorite Christmas Album?

Okay, I will admit it.

I love Christmas carols.

As you have probably noticed in my recent videos of the girls, we have had Christmas music playing in the background for weeks now. Yes, even my daughters have grown to love it.

It has the magical ability to put all of us in a great mood, which is never a bad thing. Amanda has already learned to words to "Rudolph", "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas."

I also enjoy selecting Christmas books for each of my piano students, and it's fun to see an increase in practice time once I start assigning things like "Silent Night" or "Jingle Bells."

Last night one of my students played "Holly Jolly Christmas", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Joy to the World." My face broke out in a wide grin and my mood positively soared as we played the duets flawlessly. What a blast!

You would think that by the time Dec. 25th rolls around, I would be entirely sick of the familiar carols.

But I'm not. I love every single note of it.

And another confession... I'm always a little bit sad when the Cape Cod radio station reverts back to playing oldies after the holiday season ends.

As you may have guessed, I have a fairly extensive collection of Christmas music in my CD library. I have the old stand-bys like The London Brass, Narada Nutcracker, Bing Crosby and Josh Groban's "Noel."

But my all-time favorite Christmas album had got to be Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas."


In our house, this CD can be heard at least once per day, no exaggeration. (In fact, when Amanda first heard "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" on the radio, she excitedly announced,"This is the 'Charlie Brown song!!!'")

When we're not listening to the actual CD, I frequently sit at the piano and play pieces like "O Tannenbaum" or the rocking "Christmas is Coming." Amanda requests "Skating" each time I pull out the book, which is really fun to play, even though I haven't yet managed to play it at Vince Guaraldi's fast tempo!

However, my very favorite track on the album to play or listen to has is "Christmas Time is Here." I'm sure you remember this one...



So, what's your favorite Christmas album? Maybe you have something that I should add to my collection?

Use the COMMENTS button and let me know!