{"id":2483,"date":"2008-12-23T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T12:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/amy-grants-favorite-christmas.html"},"modified":"2008-12-23T12:07:48","modified_gmt":"2008-12-23T12:07:48","slug":"amy-grants-favorite-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/amy-grants-favorite-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Amy Grant&#8217;s Favorite Christmas Albums"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"AmyGrantPicforIdolchatter.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/imgs\/AmyGrantPicforIdolchatter.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span>Discussing her own recent Christmas compilation with Amy Grant the other day, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/singing-with-sarah-and-writing.html\" target=\"_blank\">I asked the Christian rock diva<\/a> about her favorite Christmas albums of all time. The classic Nat King Cole disc is a given, and we&#8217;re going to give her a pass on Mannheim Steamroller, which Grant admitted she hadn&#8217;t listened to in years. Here&#8217;s her top six:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n1. <b>Ray Charles, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Spirit-Christmas-Ray-Charles\/dp\/B000003432\/ref=pd_sim_m_1\" target=\"_blank\">The Spirit of Christmas<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> The R&amp;B master at the height of his powers in the mid-80s sings mostly secular wintry chestnuts.<br \/>\n2. <b>Vince Guaraldi, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Recording-Television\/dp\/B000000XDJ\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1229979989&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> The soundtrack of the classic holiday special doesn&#8217;t spare the religious part of the season, with happy, jazzy versions of &#8220;What Child Is This? and &#8220;Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.&#8221;<br \/>\n3. <b>Natalie Cole, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Holly-Ivy-Natalie-Cole\/dp\/B000002HGK\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1229981339&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Holly &amp; Ivy<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> The master&#8217;s daughter takes a turn with a quietly hip set of classics.<br \/>\n4. <b>Sarah McLachlan, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wintersong-Sarah-McLachlan\/dp\/B000HBKCDC\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1229980497&amp;sr=1-2\" target=\"_blank\">Wintersong<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> This album is full of surprises, beginning with John Lennon&#8217;s &#8220;Happy Xmas (War Is Over)&#8221; and ending with a duet with Diana Krall&#8211;and of course lots of beautiful singing.<br \/>\n5. <b>Mindy Smith, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/My-Holiday-Mindy-Smith\/dp\/B000V9KE92\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1229980875&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">My Holiday<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> The Nashville up-and-comer combines country and cool in this collection from last year.<br \/>\n6. <b>George Winston, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/December-Piano-Solos-20th-Anniversary\/dp\/B00005NNDO\/ref=tag_tdp_sv_edpp_i\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;December<\/a>&#8220;<\/b> The album that made Windham Hill synonymous with Yuletide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discussing her own recent Christmas compilation with Amy Grant the other day, I asked the Christian rock diva about her favorite Christmas albums of all time. The classic Nat King Cole disc is a given, and we&#8217;re going to give her a pass on Mannheim Steamroller, which Grant admitted she hadn&#8217;t listened to in years.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-entertainment","category-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Amy Grant&#039;s Favorite Christmas Albums<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/amy-grants-favorite-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amy Grant&#039;s Favorite Christmas Albums\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discussing her own recent Christmas compilation with Amy Grant the other day, I asked the Christian rock diva about her favorite Christmas albums of all time. The classic Nat King Cole disc is a given, and we&#8217;re going to give her a pass on Mannheim Steamroller, which Grant admitted she hadn&#8217;t listened to in years.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/amy-grants-favorite-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-23T12:07:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/AmyGrantPicforIdolchatter.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul O&#039;Donnell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Amy Grant's Favorite Christmas Albums","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/12\/amy-grants-favorite-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Amy Grant's Favorite Christmas Albums","og_description":"Discussing her own recent Christmas compilation with Amy Grant the other day, I asked the Christian rock diva about her favorite Christmas albums of all time. 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