Winter Wonderland (various artists)
Amazon; Discogs

This was released via Starbucks in 2008. I'm listening to it again in 2021 to write a review. I like the variety of artists.

1. "Do You Hear What I Hear?", by Pink Martini: Nice rendition.

2. "Caroling, Caroling", by Nat King Cole: I haven't heard this song a lot, in fact I'm not sure if I've heard any other renditions. But this is nice.

3. "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer", by Lena Horne: She starts by implying that Rudolph might have been an alcoholic. But most of the song is a nice jazzy number.

4. "Mistletoe and Holly", by Frank Sinatra: I'm not at all familiar with this song. And I can't manage to care too much about it.

5. "2000 Miles", by KT Tunstall: This is quite nice, but it's too similar to the Pretenders' version for there to be much point to it.

6. "Winter Wonderland", by Goldfrapp: Nicely ethereal, with just a bit of subtle electronica.

7. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", by Dean Martin: An average rendition; good, but nothing special.

8. "Frosty the Snowman", by Ella Fitzgerald: Starts out with some new lyrics by backup singers. This is quite a nice rendition.

9. "Greensleeves", by Vince Guaraldi Trio: I already have this as a bonus track on the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's nice, but I don't need it here. (But I suppose I could just as well say since I have it here, I don't need it there.) Either way, it goes on a bit too long for my taste.

10. "What a Wonderful World", by Beth Orton: This has always been one of my favorite songs, and I'm a bit of an Orton fan, so it's nice to hear her rendition. It's beautiful, but it's not going to replace Louis Armstrong's version in my memory. Still, I'm glad to have it here... even if I'm not sure why it's on a Christmas album.

11. "The Man with All the Toys", by The Beach Boys: This song is familiar enough, and it's kind of quirky. I like it, but I'm glad it's fairly short.

12. "Little Drummer Boy", by Peggy Lee: When thinking about Christmas music, I could easily confuse Peggy Lee with Brenda Lee. I really shouldn't do that. Anyway, I don't much care about this rendition, but at least it's short.

13. "White Christmas", by Diana Krall: This is nice enough, I guess.

14. "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?", by Mindy Smith: I'm not really familiar with any specific rendition of this song, so I suppose this one's as good as any.

15. "Silent Night, Holy Night", by Mahalia Jackson: If you ever asked me to name a gospel singer, Jackson would probably be the first one to come to mind, even though I'm not really familiar with her work. And there wouldn't be many others that did, because I'm not all that familiar with the genre. But it works brilliantly with this song. Despite it not being my favorite genre and my generally preferring secular Christmas songs to religious ones, I'd have to call this the highlight of the album.