5. Michael Mclean: The Forgotten Carols
Most Christmas albums try to include a new song, hoping it will catch on as the “new Christmas classic”. But, most of them, of course, SUCK! But, with “The Forgotten Carols”, Michael Mclean has added to the Christmas catalog the best new Christmas songs in a generation. The songs tell the story of a woman name Constance, a nurse who moves in to the home a kindly old gentleman named John, to help care for him for the Holidays, while his family is away on vacation. Constance, who is uptight, and has very little use for Christmas, gradually has a change of heart, as she gets to know John and learns the stories behind some very special Christmas ornaments that he has in his possession. John may be older than he seems, as he tells of experiences with the Innkeeper of Bethlehem, Joseph the husband of Mary and George Friedrich Handel among others -- from each of whom John has acquired a memento which he hangs on his Christmas tree to remind him of that person’s connection to the celebration of the birth of Christ. All the songs are wonderful, but the most touching song is the story of Joseph -- “Joseph (I was not his father, he was mine)”.