Christmas Music, Part I

One of my absolute favorite things about Christmas is the music. Its festive, its thought-provoking, it ushers in that "Christmas feeling," and its the one time of the year you can hear praise music playing over the loudspeakers in the mall. Its that happy background reminder of why we celebrate this season at all. So I've decided to take the next several days to share with you some of my favorite Christmas albums. Perhaps you'll discover something new, or share in my enjoyment of a certain album. I also encourage you to share music with me that I may not know about! Happy listening everyone!

Today I'm going to start with a classic. Whether or not you're a country music fan, you can't help but be amazed at Martina McBride's beautiful, clean and powerful voice. I've seen her in concert, too, and I can attest to the fact that she's the real thing. This is her first Christmas album, entitled "White Christmas," originally released in 1999.

I often judge a Christmas album by its rendition of "O Holy Night," my favorite Christmas tune of all time, and a powerful song when done well. This album holds one of my absolute favorite versions of that song. She also covers all the favorites, exactly the way you already know them. And yet because she can sing, they're not boring at all.

She brings renewed love to classics like "White Christmas," Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow," "I'll Be Home for Christmas." And then she does beautiful renditions of favorite "reason for the season" songs like "Silent Night," "O Come All Ye Faithful," and "Do You Hear What I Hear." If you're looking for an album with all your favorite Christmas songs, sung by a true master of vocal control and power, I highly recommend this album. I've had it for years and its still one of my favorites.