A Charlie Brown Christmas

Merry Christmas was released in 1994, and 16 years later Mariah Carey delivers a sequel, appropriately titled Merry Christmas II You and also featuring the diva in a sexy little Santa suit. The similarities don’t end there, either: Mariah revives her original seasonal tune “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and often touches upon the classy, clean updated traditional vibe of her readings from the 1994 set. Underneath this surface, Merry Christmas II You has a different vibe than its predecessor, derived in large part from the numerous originals here. Five of the 12 full songs bear a Carey writing credit (including that revival of “All I Want for Christmas Is You”) and these new tunes sometimes give Merry Christmas II You a lively modern feel, particularly the jumping Jermaine Dupri/Bryan-Michael Cox co-written opener “Oh Santa!” and the slow groove of “When Christmas Comes,” highlights that balance the too saccharine sentiment of “Christmas Time Is in the Air Again” and “One Child.”

Conceived and recorded over the past 2.5 years by Sono Luminus, Imagine Christmas is the perfect album for your holiday celebrations, evoking a very deep sense of nostalgia while remaining wonderfully modern. Includes: Frosty the Snowman - Ensemble Galilei, December: Christmas - Bruce Levingston, White Christmas - Irina Muresanu & Matei Varga, Holly Jolly Christmas - Jasper String Quartet, Walking in the Air - Ronn McFarlane, Twas The Night Before Christmas - Cory Hills, Santa Claus Is Comin to Town - Kathryn Bates, Christmas Time Is Here - Caleb Nei, Joy to the World - Cuarteto Latinoamericano & Lydia Lewis, Good King Wenceslas - Stewart Goodyear, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Skylark Vocal Ensemble and Silent Night.

Dubbed the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune nearly 30 years ago, Erich Kunzel – one of the most successful classical crossover artists of all time – has recorded over 70 albums for Telarc; one of the most popular of those is 1990s Christmas with the Pops. The warm and wonderful Christmastime Is Here, named for the Vince Guaraldi classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas that's given a spirited reworking here, is something of a sequel to that collection. With the exception of a punchy Dixieland arrangement of "Jingle Bell Rock," Kunzel and the orchestra – working with the Indiana University School of Music Singing Hoosiers, under the direction of Dr. Michael Schwartzkopf – play most of the classics here very straightforwardly. That is to say, charming, elegant and engaging, just not overly innovative. Telarc's true stroke of genius is having some of its top jazz vocalists perform on lush but smartly restrained arrangements of various classics – like Tierney Sutton on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and John Pizzarelli on "Silver Bells." The disc also showcases two of the label's newest artists, Ann Hampton Callaway (a haunting "I Wonder as I Wander") and Tony DeSare (doing Mel Tormé proud on a dreamy version of "The Christmas Song"). This is 2006's premier holiday disc for lovers of jazz, pop and classical music.

If you could only have two Christmas CDs, Kathleen Battle's "A Christmas Celebration" would definitely be one (and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would be the other.)While Battle has been known to be a temperamental diva (leading to a quasi-banishment from operatic roles), her pretty, soaring soprano is without peer. So good is her voice that I would consider several of the cuts on this disc to be definitive performances, not only of Battle's repertoire, but of all performances ever of that song. Case in point would be her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria". Haunting and stunning at the same time, it's as if the angel itself were singing.