It's that time of year, when the world falls in love. And every song you hear seems to say, "Merry Christmas."

Wait. I think I heard that somewhere before. Anyway, it's almost here - that magic day that comes just once a year. I hope your shopping is done. (I hope mine is done, too, by the time this posts!) So this year, I want to share with you my favorite Christmas albums. These are ones I listen to every year without fail.

The Christmas Album by The Manhattan Transfer

I blame this one on my dad. He has always been a huge Manhattan Transfer fan as I was growing up, so of course I loved them too. This may be my super-all-time-favoritest album for Christmas ever. If you haven't heard it - you need to. It's gorgeous and peppy and fun. Go download it on freegal right now. Go...oh. What? You only have 7 tracks to download and there's 11 total? Ok, just come by my office and I'll sing the other four for you so you don't have to wait until next week to finish your album. That's how much I want you to hear this album. I think my favorite song on the album is the very first one - Snowfall. It's sad that we lost lead singer Tim Hauser (he's the bald guy in the picture) last year. As the founder and driving force behind the group, he has been and will be missed.

Christmas Songs by Jars of Clay

This one's all me. I've been a Jars of Clay fan since high school. You may have heard of them because of the song, Flood, that came out in the 90's. I think I like this album so much because of their song choice. They picked some standards like O Little Town of Bethlehem or God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. But they also picked songs that aren't often sung like Love Came Down at Christmas and In the Bleak Midwinter. My favorites are Wonderful Christmastime, written Paul McCartney, and Christmastime is Here from Charlie Brown. If you can't get the physical CD because some else has it checked out, you can also listen to this album on hoopla. You don't want to miss this mellow Christmas celebration.

Christmas Collection From The Carpenters

Ok, so I picked one because of my dad and one I liked. This last one has to be my mom's favorite album. It never feels like Christmas until I hear Karen Carpenter singing "Merry Christmas Darling." It seems like we always listen to this one in the car as we are travelling places over the holidays. I think Karen is the more famous of the siblings, but Richard has got some musical chops too. He did all the arrangments and played the piano - which let me tell you as a pianist, those parts are HARD! Besides Merry Christmas Darling, I also like their Carol of the Bells arrangement and Nutcracker medley. You can check out the one of the three CD copies if other folks will share, or you can also catch this one on hoopla.

Well, that's it. Those are my favorites. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Happy listening...and eating cookies...and opening presents...and watching The Christmas Story...

:) Amanda