My favorite right now (I started playing today--I have about 15 Christmas albums/CDs/whatevers...and if I don't start the day after Thanksgiving I don't get to hear enough of them in the season) is Jessye Norman's "Christmastide". The title song is beautiful, and I've never heard it anywhere else, and it has a lot of beautifully arranged good songs--"The Holly and the Ivy", Once in Royal David's City", O Come, O Come, Emmanual", "I saw three ships..." AND it is sung with the American Boychoir from Princeton, whose voices really do sound angelic.

I also like the Chieftains "The Bells of Dublin" like several other folks here, and two more. One is Chanticleer, "Sing We Christmas"--a lot of classical, but the last part is a 12-minute rendition of various spiritiuals in their harmony. The word beautiful is overused, but...it is!!

And, last year, bought The Irish Tenors Christmas album. Just listened today...they do a wonderful version of "Amazing Grace", John McDermott is particularly wonderful. AND they do a great job on "The Holy City", which is sometimes called "Jerusalem".

I belong to a CD club that sends out flyers on holiday music, and it's unbelievable how much Christmas music has been recorded, by everyone from Ray Charles to Asleep at the Wheel. Ray's version of "The Little Drummer Boy" is also wonderful!