As far back as I can remember Christmastime is a time of music and singing Christmas carols. I made a list of holiday music which is meaningful to me. Since I am a freak about holiday music, there were a lot more albums I could have added but decided to spare you. The list is in alphabetical order and is not based on my favorites. My favorites are A Charlie Brown Christmas, December, Light of the Stable and Simply Christmas.   

​A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi Trio
A Christmas Album by James Taylor
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector
A Very She & Him Christmas by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward
Christmas by Michael Bublé
Christmas Songs by Diana Krall
Christmas with the Rat Pack 
Cool Yule by Bette Midler
December by George Winston
Light of the Stable by Emmylou Harris
Merry Christmas Baby by Rod Stewart
Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey
Miracles The Holiday Album by Kenny G
My Christmas by Andrea Bocelli
Simply Christmas by Leslie Odom Jr.
Songs for the Season by Lyle Lovett
When my heart finds Christmas by Harry Connick Jr. 
Women of Christmas in the Garden of Lilith 

A Charlie Brown Christmas
​by Vince Guaraldi Trio
released in 1965 this album is always a pleasure to listen to all year round. ​

A Christmas Album by James Taylor released in 2004. I purchased this as a CD at a Hallmark card store. His version of Deck the Halls is wonderful. 

A Christmas Gift for You by Phil Spector - this album came out in the mid 1960s. My father brought the album home one December in 1966 and it was an instant family favorite. I always loved the album cover too. My sister and me always danced to Sleigh Ride by the Ronette's. Too bad about Phil. 

A Very She & Him Christmas by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward - this one is fun is a great cocktail hour addition. Their version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is delightfully fun. 
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Christmas by Michael Buble - this one is great. Santa Baby is tops! Put a Rolex under the tree for me!

Christmas Songs by Diana Krall - is she just the coolest woman on the planet? This is jazzed up music to listen to for cocktail hour. 

Christmas with the Rat Pack - you have to add some Frank Sinatra with a little bit of Dean and a dash of Sammy Davis Jr. to your playlist don't you? 
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Cool Yule - Bette Midler - Divine Miss M can sing and covers some old favorites. From a Distance is the stellar song on the album.  

December by George Winston - I first purchased this album in the early 1980s and have replaced it on CD and iTunes since then. It is officially holiday season when I listen to it in December. I cannot say enough about Joy his version of Jesus Joy of Man's Desiring by Bach. I dance around the room like a snowflake. It is the most spiritually uplifting song. 

Light of the Stable by Emmylou Harris - This has been a favorite since the album came out decades ago. Her bluegrass Christmas Time's A-Comin' makes if official and Little Town of Bethlehem is pure and sweet so is her The First Noel. Her voice is sweet and soothing. 

Merry Christmas Baby by Rod Stewart
​I remember going into a shop in Scottsdale in 2013 and hearing this music and went right out and purchased this CD. 

Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey
This album is probably one of the most sold Christmas albums along side White Christmas. She is darling here and All I Want for Christmas is the song we all long to hear.  

Miracles The Holiday Album
by Kenny G 
This album came out in the 1980s and has been a holiday staple for years. 

My Christmas by Andrea Bocelli
​It's Andrea Bocelli - there is nothing else to say. 

Simply Christmas by Leslie Odom Jr.
This is the most recent Christmas music I own. You know him from the musical Hamilton. His voice is silky velvet. All of the songs are perfectly performed however, First Noel is my favorite. I will just say it, this is my favorite Christmas album. ​

Songs for the Season by Lyle Lovett Although there are not too many songs on this one which I purchased on iTunes a few years ago, this is a lot of fun. 

When My Heart Finds Christmas
​by Harry Connick Jr.
​What Are you Doing New Year's Eve is the one song on the album I look forward to listening to every year. It's the last track.  
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Women of Christmas in the Garden of Lilith by various female artists
I purchased this CD at a Starbuck's store many years ago. The covers are by artist you know like Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, Karla Bonoff, Christine McVie and Victoria Williams.  
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These are arrangements made while taking classes with Ikebana instructor Ping Wei. 

​Wildflowers

Let us not plant hate seeds in our city.
Instead replace them with wildflower seeds.
Wildflowers are very pretty.
How about drive-by flower seed tossing along our way?
And stop the drive-by shootings each day.
Love—not hate is the message to be said.
Flowers for the living have more beauty and meaning.
Than wreaths for the dead.

written by my mother Patricia Colbert
April 1995

This is my favorite holiday season music. The song Joy which is from Bach's Joy of Man's Desiring reminds me of snowflakes dancing. It is so beautiful. 

Christmas cookies I have baked over the years. 

A nativity scene may be used to describe any depiction of the Nativity of Jesus in art, but in the sense covered here, also called a crib or manger in the UK and crèche in France (meaning “crib” or “manger” French), it means a three-dimensional commercial or folk art depiction of the birth or birthplace of Jesus, either sculpted or using two-dimensional (cut-out) figures arranged in a three-dimensional setting.

After his return to Italy from a voyage to Egypt and Acre in 1220, St Francis of Assisi introduced three-dimensional nativity scenes. Some accounts state he used statues or costumed people, but Thomas of Celano, biographer of Francis tells how he only used a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass. Francis’s first biographer, Brother Tommaso da Celano, says that Francis was merely emulating what he had seen elsewhere in previous years when, in 1223, he asked his friend Giovanni Velita, a nobleman from the nearby town of Greccio, to construct a nativity scene, consisting of the straw-filled manger, ox and donkey, in a cave near the town of Greccio, for a Christmas Eve mass at which Francis preached.

I purchased this nativity at a wonderful store called Jackalope in Santa Fe, New Mexico several years ago. I believe it was made in Mexico.