The Jazz Evangelist: top 5 jazz Christmas picks

For jazz fans, it really can be the most wonderful time of the year. That's because jazz is one of the best parts of the holiday music soundtrack, thanks to the likes of Bing Crosby, Vince Guaraldi, Ella Fitzgerald et al.

Christmas music is a gift that keeps on giving, part of family traditions in a way that other music can't claim. I even have first-hand experience of this: I made a Christmas album back in 1998 called Love at Christmas. There's a whole story to that — believe it or not lingerie purveyors La Senza actually bought many thousands of copies to sell in their stores, and that made the album take off.

But what warms my heart is that I still get emails, cards and letters from all over the world each year telling me how Love at Christmas is the music that is played during tree decorating, Christmas dinners and even during present-wrapping time. It's a thrill to know I'm part of someone's Christmas tradition.

So I thought I'd give you the gift of five holiday albums that are as constant as the angel placed upon the top of an evergreen tree.

1. Bing Crosby, White Christmas (Merry Christmas)

Bing Crosby gets the award for "Most Recognizable Voice of Christmas." His music has been at the forefront of Christmas celebrations since 1947, when the original collection of songs were released just after the Second World War. Crosby's version of "White Christmas" is the best-selling single of all time, over 50 million copies worldwide. And Wikipedia tells us that album, White Christmas, is the second best-selling Christmas album of all time, beaten only by Elvis's Christmas Album.

If you're in the mood for lush orchestras, bells chiming and an old fashioned Christmas sound, it's doubtful you'd find anything more jazzily satisfying than this.

2. Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas

If it wasn't for a cab ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and a radio tuned to a station playing a version of "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" by Vince Guaraldi, your childhood may not have included A Charlie Brown Christmas.

A television executive named Lee Mendelson heard the song that fateful day in the cab and immediately chased down Guaraldi to ask him to provide the music for the TV special, ACharlie Brown Christmas. Since then, the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas has become a mainstay that triggers memories of being a kid. Go ahead and dance like one of the Charlie Brown kids jamming to Schroeder on the piano. You know you want to!

3. Kenny G, Miracles: The Holiday Album

If my number three pick makes you queasy like you've eaten undercooked turkey, consider this: Kenny G is a Jewish man who pulled off the ultimate Christmas sale of all time. He's parlayed his straight-ahead interpretations of holiday songs into one of the greatest-selling holiday recordings of all time, and he's put (smooth) jazz into the lives of more than eight million people around the world at Christmas.

It's no small accomplishment. And his version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is pretty darn heart-tugging. So if you believe that at Christmas it's better to give than to receive, then give Kenny G credit for pulling it off. Don't be grinchy.

4. Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Wishes You A Swingin' Christmas

Ella Fitzgerald could sing the phone book if she wanted to, so it was only a matter of time until she would record a Christmas album. Bonus, Fitzgerald's album had something that nobody else had thought of: a New Year's song. Her version of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" is easily one of the most poignant and heartfelt tunes on the album.

5. Nat King Cole, Magic of Christmas

Nobody can touch Nat King Cole's version of "The Christmas Song," not with a 10-foot pole. It's the definitive version of that song. But, surprisingly, "The Christmas Song" wasn't on the original version of this album. Cole's version of the tune was only available as a single until 1961, when record executives saw the light and replaced "God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen" with "The Christmas Song."

Special thanks should also go out to Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, who wrote "The Christmas Song" during a sweltering hot summer day, and as legend (and Wikipedia) have it, believing that if they "thought cool they would be cool."