Billboard’s Top 25 Holiday Albums, From Crosby & Cole to Bublé & Bocelli

Release date: Nov. 3, 2009

Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 for five consecutive weeks beginning Nov. 28, 2009

Producers: David Foster, Renato Serio

Guest artists: Natalie Cole, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Mary J. Blige, The Muppets, Reba McEntire, Katherine Jenkins

Notes: The Italian tenor sang most of these songs in English, with a few selections in Italian, German, and French. A Spanish version of the album, titled Mi Navidad, was released a few weeks later. The album also includes “God Bless Us Everyone,” which Bocelli recorded for the 2009 film, A Christmas Carol.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which joined Bocelli for “The Lord’s Prayer” topped the Billboard 200 in January 1960 with an album titled after that classic hymn. A Christmas special based on Bocelli’s album, filmed at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, aired on PBS.

Release date: Oct. 6, 1992

Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 (Dec. 26, 1992)

Producers: Brown Bannister, Ronn Huff

Notes: This was Grant’s second Christmas album, following 1983’s A Christmas Album. Grant has since released several more, including A Christmas to Remember (1999) and Tennessee Christmas (2016), both of which also made the top 40 on the Billboard 200.

Release date: 1986

Billboard 200 peak: No. 34 (Jan. 8, 2022)

Guest artist: The Andrews Sisters, Carol Richards

Notes: This is an adaptation of Crosby’s Merry Christmas, which was first released in 1945 and which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December 1957 – interrupting Elvis Presley’s reign at No. 1 with Elvis’ Christmas Album. In 1986, Merry Christmas was transferred to CD. It included the same 12 songs in their original mono mixes. Universal Music Group changed the name of the album to White Christmas, keeping the contents and the catalogue number unchanged. A new mono re-master was made in 1992.

Release date: Oct. 21, 2016

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for two consecutive weeks beginning Jan. 7, 2017

Producers: Alex Green, Andrew Kesler, Ben Bram, Pentatonix

Guest artist: Manhattan Transfer

Notes: This was the a cappella group’s second full-length holiday album, following That’s Christmas to Me. It was the first holiday album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since Michael Bublé’s Christmas in 2011-12. Manhattan Transfer joined PTX on a version of “White Christmas” that was arranged by Grammy darling Jacob Collier.

Release date: Sept. 12, 1995

Billboard 200 peak: No. 3 (Dec. 30, 1995)

Producer: Chip Davis

Notes: This was the group’s third holiday album – and its highest-charting release ever on the Billboard 200. Olivia Newton-John recorded a vocal version of a song from this album, “Christmas Lullaby,” for the 2007 Mannheim Steamroller album Christmas Song.

Release date: Oct. 30, 2001

Billboard 200 peak: No. 5 for two consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 22, 2001

Producer: Chip Davis

Guest artist: Johnny Mathis

Notes: This was the group’s sixth holiday album.Mathis and the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club joined the group on the traditional German carol, “O Tannenbaum.” Mathis had one of the top Christmas albums of the 1950s — Merry Christmas, which reached No. 3 in January 1959.

Release date: Oct. 26, 1993

Billboard 200 peak: No. 13 (Jan. 1, 1994)

Producer: Tracey Freeman

Notes: This was Connick’s first Christmas album. He followed it up with two more which also made the top 20 on the Billboard 200 – Harry for the Holidays (2003) and What a Night! A Christmas Album (2008) – and a new one, Make It Merry, that was just released last month. Connick starred in a TV special built around When My Heart Finds Christmas which was taped at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Carol Burnett and Aaron Neville were his guests.

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Release date: Oct. 23, 2001

Billboard 200 peak: No. 3 (Dec. 22, 2001)

Producers: Various

Notes: This two-disk compilation includes tracks by seven of the artists on this list – Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Carpenters, Harry Connick Jr., Mannheim Steamroller and Celine Dion – and many more who aren’t on this list. The first of many NOW Christmas volumes, this was released three years after the NOW franchise got underway in the U.S.

Release date: Oct. 13, 1978

Billboard 200 peak: No. 56 (Jan. 4, 2020)

Producer: Richard Carpenter (Karen Carpenter, associate producer)

Notes: Karen Carpenter’s warm, intimate voice was perfectly suited to Christmas songs. This is the only album on this list by a vocal duo. It’s also the highest-ranking album on the list that was first released in the 1970s. Karen and Richard performed many of the album’s songs on The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait, which aired on ABC in December 1978. Gene Kelly was among their guest stars. Christmas Portrait was the duo’s first Christmas album. A second, An Old-Fashioned Christmas, was released in 1984, the year after Karen’s untimely death.

Release date: 1985

Billboard 200 peak: No. 25 (Jan. 4, 2020)

Producer: Steve Sholes

Notes: This compilation is an adaptation of Elvis’ 1957 classic, Elvis’ Christmas Album, which logged four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning Dec. 16, 1957. Elvis’ Christmas Album was the first of two Christmas albums Presley would record, the other being Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, released in 1971. Presley died six years later at age 42.

Release date: Oct. 16, 1967

Billboard 200 peak: No. 108 (Jan. 9, 1982)

Producers: Jack Gold, Ettore Stratta

Notes: This was Streisand’s first holiday album. The striking cover photograph was taken on June 16, 1967, during the rehearsal for her concert, A Happening in Central Park. Streisand released a second holiday album, Christmas Memories, in 2001.

Release date: Oct. 21, 2014

Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 for two consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 13, 2014

Producers: Pentatonix, Ben Bram, Bill Hare

Guest artist: Tori Kelly

Notes: This was Pentatonix’s first full-length Christmas album, following a cleverly-titled holiday EP, PTXmas. Kelly joined the vocal group for an unlikely medley of “Winter Wonderland” and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” The album also includes the Oscar-winning “Let It Go” from Frozen. Pentatonix won a Grammy for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella for co-arranging “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” with Bram. This is the highest-ranking album on this list by a vocal group.

Release date: late 1982

Billboard 200 peak: No. 54 (Jan. 21, 1984)

Producer: William Ackerman, George Winston

Notes: This tribute to the winter season was one of the first new age albums to achieve multiplatinum success. It was the pianist’s first album to reach the Billboard 200, where it remained for 178 total weeks.

Release date: Oct. 12, 2004

Billboard 200 peak: No. 26 (Oct. 30, 2004)

Producer: Paul O’Neill (Robert Kinkel, co-producer)

Notes: This was the act’s third holiday album, following Christmas Eve and Other Stories and The Christmas Attic. In 2012 Trans-Siberian Orchestra toured with a live production of The Lost Christmas Eve, performing the rock opera in more than 100 arenas across North America.

Release date: Oct. 15, 1996

Billboard 200 peak: No. 48 (Dec. 22, 2012)

Producer: Paul O’Neill (Robert Kinkel, co-producer)

Notes: This was the act’s first studio album. The album includes “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24),” which was released in 1995 by the hard rock band Savatage. That version made the Hot 100 Airplay chart three years running – with the artist billing changed to Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 1996. O’Neill died in 2017 at age 61.

Release date: Nov. 22, 1994

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for three nonconsecutive weeks beginning Dec. 10, 1994

Producer: Kenny G

Notes: This was saxophonist’s first holiday album and the first holiday album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since Mitch Miller and the Gang’s Holiday Sing Along With Mitch in January 1962. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” received a Grammy nod for best pop instrumental performance. Kenny G had hits with two similarly-titled follow-ups, Faith – A Holiday Album and Wishes – A Holiday Album.

Release date: Oct. 12, 1987

Billboard 200 peak: No. 20 for three consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 26, 1987.

Producer: Jimmy Iovine

Notes: This all-star collection was the first in a long string of A Very Special Christmas albums, which raised millions for the Special Olympics. The artist line-up could hardly have been more star-studded, including Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, U2, Madonna and Bon Jovi – and that’s just for starters. The second edition, released in 1992, climbed higher on the Billboard 200 (No. 7), but didn’t chart as well over the long haul.

Release date: Oct. 30, 1998

Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 for two consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 19, 1998

Producers: David Foster, Ric Wake, Bryan Adams, Tony Renis, Carole Bayer Sager, R. Kelly, Humberto Gatica

Guest artists: Andrea Bocelli, R. Kelly

Notes: This is the second-highest-ranking album by a female vocalist. It was Dion’s first English-language holiday album, though she had released holiday albums in French in 1981 and 1983. “I’m Your Angel,” an unlikely collab with R. Kelly, logged six weeks atop the Hot 100 and received a Grammy nod for best pop collaboration with vocals. “The Prayer,” a perhaps more suitable collab with Bocelli, received a Grammy nod in that same category the following year.

Release date: Oct. 9, 2007

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for five consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 8, 2007

Producers: David Foster, Humberto Gatica

Guest artists: Andy McKee, Brian McKnight, Faith Hill, Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Notes: This is the third-highest-ranking album on this list by a male vocalist. This was the first holiday album to top the Billboard 200 since Kenny G’s Miracles – The Holiday Album in 1994. It was the best-selling album in the U.S. in 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a feat that eluded even Kenny G’s album (which was the eighth best-selling album of 1994). Noël received a Grammy nod for best traditional pop vocal album.

Release date: 1999

Billboard 200 peak: No. 6 (Jan. 2, 2021)

Producer: Lee Gillette

Guest artists: Natalie Cole,Anthony Hamilton

Notes: This is the second-highest-ranking album on this list by a male vocalist. This was an adaptation of Cole’s The Magic of Christmas, which was first released in 1960. It was reissued under the title The Christmas Song in 1999 with several added tracks, including an alternate version of “The Christmas Song” featuring Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole.

Release date: Sept. 15, 1984

Billboard 200 peak: No. 50 (Jan 7, 1989)

Producer: Chip Davis

Notes: This was the group’s first holiday album. It includes two versions of the traditional English carol “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen – a “Renaissance version” and a “rock version.”

Release date: Sept. 15, 1988

Billboard 200 peak: No. 36 (Dec. 24, 1988)

Producer: Chip Davis

Guest artists: The Cambridge Singers

Notes: This was the group’s second holiday album. It’s the highest-ranking album on this list that was released in the 1980s.

Release date: Oct. 28, 1994

Billboard 200 peak: No. 3 (Dec. 17, 1994)

Producers: Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff, Loris Holland

Notes: This is the highest-ranking album on this list by a female vocalist and the highest-ranking album released in the 1990s. The album spawned “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in each of the last three holiday seasons and is currently knocking on the door of No. 1 yet again. Carey released a sequel to the album, Merry Christmas II You, in 2010. It climbed nearly as high on the Billboard 200 (No. 4) but hasn’t shown the same staying power. In 2019, a 25th anniversary deluxe edition of Merry Christmas was released featuring live renditions, new songs and remixes.

Release date: Oct. 21, 2011

Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for five consecutive weeks beginning Dec. 10, 2011

Producers: David Foster, Bob Rock, Humberto Gatica

Guest artists: The Puppini Sisters, Shania Twain, Thalía

Notes: This is the highest-ranking album on this list by a male vocalist and the highest-ranking album that was released in this century. The album has topped Billboard’s weekly Top Holiday Albums tally for a record 40 weeks (through the chart dated Dec. 10, 2022). In April 2012, the album won a Juno Award in Bublé’s native Canada for album of the year. It was the first, and is still the only, holiday album to win in that top category. The album was also nominated for a Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album. The album was re-released in 2012, with four additional tracks. Bublé also released a reworked version of “White Christmas”, featuring Twain, as a single. This version premiered on Bublé’s NBC special, Home for the Holidays, on Dec. 10, 2012. Bublé had a hit Christmas EP in 2003, Let It Snow!, which is the highest-ranking EP on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Top Holiday Albums chart. But that was just the warm-up for this holiday perennial.

Release date: December 1965

Billboard 200 peak: No. 6 (Jan. 1, 2022)

Recording engineer: Soul S. Weiss

Notes: The set was released in 1965 alongside the classic TV special of the same name. Guaraldi composed most of the music, though he also included versions of traditional carols such as “O Tannenbaum.” The album’s strong showing on this list is especially impressive because it doesn’t count the album’s first 20 years of sales activity – from its release to the introduction of the Top Holiday Albums chart. The album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 and the National Recording Registry in 2011. A sad note: Guaraldi died in February 1976 of a massive heart attack. He was just 47.