As we count down the shopping days remaining until Christmas, let’s also count down the top 25 holiday albums. This list is drawn from Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Top Holiday Albums chart, which is based on actual performance on Billboard’s weekly Top Holiday Albums chart from its inception on Dec. 21, 1985, through the ranking dated Jan. 8, 2022.
Mannheim Steamroller has four albums in the top 25, more than any other artist. Pentatonix and Trans-Siberian Orchestra each have two. The top 25 includes two Various Artists albums – NOW That’s What I Call Christmas! and A Very Special Christmas – and one soundtrack – the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Nine of the top 25 albums are instrumental. Six are by male solo vocalists; four are by female solo vocalists. Two are by a vocal group (the aforementioned Pentatonix), one is by a vocal duo (Carpenters).
The most prized tracks on two of these albums were first recorded in the 1940s. Bing Crosby first recorded “White Christmas” in 1942 for the film Holiday Inn, in which he co-starred with Fred Astaire. Nat King Cole first recorded “The Christmas Song” in 1946, when he was still with the jazz trio, The King Cole Trio. These two classics were among the first five recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.
Let’s take a closer look at the top 25 holiday albums since 1985. We show the album’s release date, its Billboard 200 peak and the names of any guest artists who appeared on the standard edition of the album.
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‘My Christmas,’ Andrea 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.
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‘Home for Christmas,’ Amy Grant
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.
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‘White Christmas,’ Bing Crosby
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.
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‘A Pentatonix Christmas,’ Pentatonix
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.
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‘Christmas in the Aire,’ Mannheim Steamroller
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.
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‘Christmas Extraordinaire,’ Mannheim Steamroller
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.
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‘When My Heart Finds Christmas,’ Harry Connick, Jr.
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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‘NOW That's What I Call Christmas!,’ Various Artists
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.
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‘Christmas Portrait,’ Carpenters
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.
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‘It's Christmas Time,’ Elvis Presley
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.
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‘A Christmas Album,’ Barbra Streisand
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.
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‘That's Christmas to Me,’ Pentatonix
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.
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‘December,’ George Winston
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.
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‘The Lost Christmas Eve,’ Trans-Siberian Orchestra
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.
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‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories,’ Trans-Siberian Orchestra
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.
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‘Miracles – The Holiday Album,’ Kenny G
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.
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A Very Special Christmas,’ Various Artists
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.
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‘These Are Special Times,’ Celine Dion
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.
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‘Noël,’ Josh Groban
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.
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‘The Christmas Song,’ Nat King Cole
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.
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‘Christmas,’ Mannheim Steamroller
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.”
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‘A Fresh Aire Christmas,’ Mannheim Steamroller
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.
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‘Merry Christmas,’ Mariah Carey
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.
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‘Christmas,’ Michael Bublé
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.
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‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ (Soundtrack), Vince Guaraldi Trio
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.