30 essential Christmas albums

It seems as if every artist has done a holiday record at some point in their career. Each year brings a new batch of Christmas albums, some recorded to cash in on a hot new fad, some crafted with posterity in mind. The great, and maddening, thing about Christmas albums is that there are no strict rules about what constitutes a successful holiday album. Records ignored upon their initial release turn into enduring seasonal classics, novelties become beloved perennials and blockbusters become the bond that ties together generations. What follows is a list of albums The A.V. Club feels have become embedded into the fabric of the Christmas season, spiked with a couple of recent records that already show signs of being modern classics that will stand the test of time.

30. Burl Ives, Have A Holly Jolly Christmas (1965)

Arriving in 1965, a year after Burl Ives narrated the Rankin/Bass stop-animated television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas certainly carries some of the same jovial spirit as that seasonal perennial even if the versions of “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” on this record are different than the ones on the show. They’re in softer focus and a tad slower than the ones recorded for the show, a vibe that is sustained throughout the record. Although it occasionally hints at Ives’ roots as a folk singer, it’s a collection of sweet, pillowy pop that’s so warm, it sounds as if it was sung by Santa himself.