Honorable mention: Alabama Christmas volumes 1 & 2
These holiday offerings, by perennial country favorites, Alabama, are packed with great -- mostly original -- Christmas songs. In fact, of the 23 songs between the two albums, only three of them are traditional Christmas Carols, the best of which is their version of “The Little Drummer Boy”. Only a couple of the songs are really forgettable, and some are very touching. Alabama has a very warm, heartfelt sound, which really works for Christmas songs. These are songs to listen to while you sit in front of a roaring fire (in the fireplace) and admire the great job you did, decorating your tree. Highlights: “Santa Claus (I still believe in you)”, “Tonight is Christmas”, “Thistlehair the Christmas Bear”, “Tennessee Christmas”, “The Christmas Spirit” and, if you can believe it, a song called “Happy Birthday Jesus” (I cringed at the title, but they pull it off). There are two songs that I especially love, because they remind me of my dad, who passed away just before Christmas several years ago -- “Christmas Memories” and “I was Young Once too”. I’m not sure why I called these albums honorable mentions. Go ahead and think of them as numbers 13 and 14, if you’d like to.
There you go. The essential Christmas Album list. You can’t go wrong with anything from the above selections. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie about something this important.