The Best of Christmas in July from 2025

Well, here we are at the end of another great season of Christmas in July. But before I go, I wanted to share this one last thing with a you, a collection of some of the best tracks that I shared with you last year during the 20th anniversary season. Yep, the first Christmas in July happened in 2006, a really long time ago now. We haven't done twenty different season though because I skipped a few years in the middle there for various reasons. If you weren't with us last year, this will be a good introduction to what the season held. If you like what you hear, I think all of the shares from last year are still alive, you can go in and download them all and get a bunch more music like what you find here, though these are the best of the bunch in my humble opinion. 2025 was the first year where I took the time to snap a picture of each LP as I was recording it, I thought that was a nice addition. Good to be able to see what the LP looked like that you're listening to. (I have a folder in the download that includes all the original album covers.) Back when I started, I don't think you could snap a quick picture with your phone, though if you could it was really low quality and low-resolution. The times have really changed. Anyhow, let me jump into the track list and see if I can come up with something to say about each track included here.

1. Mel Kaiser, Engineer-Street Noises At Xmas Time

Some SFX to start out the LP. 

2. Sarah Vaughan-Arranged & Conducted By Don Costa-Snowbound

I think this is an LP I found while in St. Augustine for our honeymoon. The wife was very understanding when we had to find the local record shops during our stay.

3. Lenore Engdahl, Pianist-Snow Flurries

Don't remember much about this one, but I like little piano bits like this.

4. The Hi-Lo's With Frank Comstock & His Orchestra-June In January

I don't think the Hi-Lo's ever released a Christmas album, but I feel like they had enough Christmas-adjacent stuff that you could probably put something together.

5. J.J. Johnson-Winter's Waif

This is the first of a handful of jazz noodlings in the collection this year. Maybe I should have put all of them together in the track list.

6. Bill Conti-Ice Skating

Some soundtrack music that to my ears sounds like incidental music from one of those early eighties primetime dramas like Dallas or Dynasty, maybe Hart To Hart. Hard to place, but every time it plays that's where my mind goes.

7. Jean-Pierre Rampal, Maurice André, Saint-Laurent Children's Choir (Alain Çazade & Bertrand Lemaire, Directors) & Instrumental Ensemble (François Rauber, Director)-Jingle Bells

The sort of thing that I love to find. An honest-to-goodness Christmas song right in the middle of an otherwise non-Christmas LP. How great is that?

8. The Budapest Gipsy Orchestra-Winter Song (Téli Dal)

I'm a sucker for anything with winter in the title. 

9. Steve Jennings-No Christmas

Hard to find song poem stuff around here, but that's what we have here. There were four or five different albums by this same guy (and some woman, I forget her name), all of which featured songs you've never heard of . This was the only thing in the pile that had any Christmas content so I grabbed it.

10. Statler Records-Tale Of The Toy Shop

Music for ballet dancing. Do people dance to non-Tchaikovsky music while doing ballet? Nah...

11. Ed Kilbourne-Chilly Winds

One of those Christmas-adjacent songs that I pick up when I see it.

12. Diahann Carroll With Bonnie, Jeffrey, Stephanie, Darla, Stephen, Wendy, Jackie, Allison And Francine-Arranged And Conducted By Milton DeLugg-Button Up Your Overcoat

Something she recorded for a kiddie record, Milton DeLugg is just the cherry on top.

13. Walter Brennan With Orchestra And Chorus Conducted By Joe Leahy-A Star In The East

I think most hardcore Christmas record collectors are familiar with Brennan's Christmas LP, but few know of a couple of Christmas tracks on this later LP of his.

14. Paul Desmond And Friends-Greensleeves

Some more of that jazz I was talking about earlier. I need to dig up a stereo copy of this one, but that's going to take some time.

15. Peoples Gas Club Chorus, Director-George Haase, Accompanists-Helen Nettinga & Ferris Healey-Winter Wonderland

This is why I have to check nearly every plain white record sleeve I come across, you never know what you might find inside. Sometimes it takes forever to look through the smallest pile of records, but it's all worth it when you find a treasure like this.

16. Elinor Gene Hoffman-Picture Books In Winter

I think this is the first (only?) spoken-word record of the day. Short and sweet.

17. The Yale Theater Orchestra-James Sinclair, Conductor-Holiday Quickstep

I find a lot of Christmas tracks from various groups at Yale. Possibly more so than any other college out there. Not sure why, I just think they like their holiday music.

18. Texas Lutheran College Choir-Paul Engelstad, Director-Carol Of The Drum

A very early version of this track, an alternate title for The Little Drummer Boy. I don't think this one preceded Harry Simeone's claiming of the authorship of the song though. Those are hard to find, but they exist.

19. Angel Serrano-Huerfano Sin Navidad

The only Spanish language track of the day. I apologize for the way it sounds, sort of like it's coming and going. The record was pressed off-center and this was the best I could get off of the vinyl. I remember having to build a stack of records on the platter so that this one sat high enough to be able to move it without the spindle holding it in place. I nudged it around until it spun a little truer, but clearly not as true as it should have been. Also, I used part of the LP cover for this record on my CiJ Best-Of in 2024.

20. Tom Paxton-Prayin' For Snow

Tom Paxton was the author of The Marvelous Toy, a Christmas-adjacent song that has been covered by a lot of folks out there. It was nice to find another song from him that I could use here.

21. Max Roach-In The Red (A Xmas Carol)

More of that jazz stuff I warned you about, this time with an actual Christmas title! And it's really, really long, like you'd expect from some of the jazz records of this period.

22. Cincinnati Children's Choir-Karen Wolff, Director-O Chanukah

The only Chanukah track from this collection, and one of the few I had this season. Sometimes you've got to take what you can get.

23. Leo Arnaud And His Orchestra-Holiday For Strings

I know it's not really a Christmas song, but I couldn't resist. The LP cover was just great and the song itself is such a great version, the very definition of Space Age Pop music.

24. Phineas Newborn, Jr. With Dennis Farnon And His Orchestra-Moonlight In Vermont

Some more piano music for you from a hard-to-find LP on the great RCA Victor. Some records you see about once a week in the thrift stores, some you see once. You have to grab those when they turn up.

25. The Laurie Johnson Orchestra-My Favorite Things

Another LP where the cover sold it before I saw something Christmas related that I could share.

26. Niles Township High School East-Girls Glee-Richard Rusch, Director-Take Me For A Sleigh Ride

I find lots of locally produced records like this and I like to grab what I can from them. It rarely rises to the level of best-of, but I thought this was a nice little song.

27. Patty Weaver-Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year

Never heard of her. But if you sing something even slightly related to Christmas, I will find it and record it!

28. Nashville Youth Symphony, Harry Lantz-Conductor-Children's Christmas March

More of that local Christmas music. I like it.

29. David Mallett-Northern Lights

Maybe it's related to Christmas, maybe it's not. But I often imagine the northern lights twinkling over Santa's workshop in the winter. They don't get any daylight during the winter, so this is about all the natural light they get.

30. Jackie Vernon-Slides Of A Ski Lodge

A comedy bit with exactly zero Christmas content, but skiing is a wintertime sport so I think it counts. And in case you don't recognize his voice, Jackie Vernon was the voice of Frosty the Snowman in the animated special. Happy Birthday!

31. Reginald Dixon At The Organ Of The Tower Ballroom, Blackpool-Wedding Of The Painted Doll

I can't resist a good organ record. And it's not really a Christmas song, but I like to throw it in the pile.

32. Carl Sandburg-In De Vinter Time

Yep, that Carl Sandburg, doing a little wintry tune.

33. Jamestown High School A Cappella Choir 1990-1991-James A. Bogey, Conductor-Fum, Fum, Fum

Another local Christmas track, but a song I've always enjoyed. I had a version of this on a bargain-basement Christmas LP when I was a kid, and it's stuck with me all these years.

34. Jim Borden-I Wonder As I Wander

A unique folky album that included a full side of Christmas tunes. Not sure if this was the absolute best track  on there, but it fit in with the space I had. The other tracks will likely find a space on a future second-best collection.

35. Chorus With RKO Studio Orchestra, Conducted By Hugo Winterhalter-New Year's Eve On Time's Square (Auld Lang Syne)

Bringing up the rear is this soundtrack cut that adds to the Christmas music of Hugo Winterhalter. He released a 10" Christmas record that was once expanded to a 12" with the addition of a couple of non-Christmas tracks. Someday I want to put all of his stuff in the same pile to show what a real label could do with his Christmas discography. 

Oh, a little bit about that cover. It's my homage to the June Christy album This Time Of Year from 1961, an all-original set of music for the holiday season. My wife and I spent the Christmas season of 2025 in Santa Fe, NM with her family, and one of the things we wanted to see was snow (you don't get much of that in southwest Florida). Problem was, they were having a very dry winter and there was nothing around other than the occasional very dirty patch of ice in the shadows. So one day we drove up into the Santa Fe National Forest to the East, it's up at a higher elevation and had gotten some snow earlier in the season. We eventually found a hollow where the snow had persisted and we got the chance to run around and play in it for a few minutes. I remember posing for this picture and trying to remember what June Christy looked like on her LP cover. I think I'm close enough, though not perfect. Everything else is just me playing around with GIMP and making it look like a real album cover. Just a few minutes before this picture was shot, we had pulled off at a different spot alongside the road and tried to walk down a trail to find some snow. The trail was covered in ice though and I soon wound up flat on my back and in a lot of pain. I was sore the rest of the trip and struggled to put on my jacket every day. I was worried that I had broken something but it healed quickly enough that I think it was just a sprain, but it sure did hurt. I wasn't going to let it get in the way of having a good trip though. We saw stuff all over the state of New Mexico, from Carlsbad to White Sands, with Roswell and the Very Large Array in between. (I think I even shared a track or two with you during Christmas in July this year from records I bought when I was out there.) I'd never spent a Christmas away from home before, so it was a very different experience for me. Anyhow, I was pretty proud of the cover this year, I hope you enjoy it. Have a go at the download and let me know what you think. I'll see you again when it's much closer to Christmas! This is Ernie (Not Bert)-The Best of 2025 Christmas In July!

MEGA

If you enjoy this best-of, don't forget that there are a bunch of similar collections in the archives. Here's a list of all the years that we did a similar best-of. All these should include working download links so you can download and listen to the best tracks from all these years.

2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. (Note: there was no Christmas in July for 2016, 2014 and 2013. I was busy doing other things during those years and couldn't get my act together to share any music.)

Also, a few years ago I went through all the Christmas in July tracks that didn't make the best-of collections and put together a few second-best-of collections. It's a tongue-in-cheek title because the songs making up these collections are in many cases just as good as the tracks on the actual best-of's. What happens is I have more than one version of a song and I try not to duplicate them. So I have to pick one and the other goes unused. Same thing with an artist, I only want to use one track from them so the others I may have go into the reject pile. So there are lots of great tracks here that you'll enjoy. I think I'm due to make a few more of these collections since it's been a few years since I put these together. Maybe I'll work on that in the off season. Ha, who am I kidding, there is no off season around here. If I'm not posting, I'm recording and prepping for the next round of posts. Being a Christmas blogger is a hard like.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

And that's all I've got for you today. If there's nothing here for you to enjoy today, you must not like Christmas music! See you at Christmas time!