This is the definative Elvis Christmas Album and one of the best Elvis compilations ever released! All the songs included on other Elvis Christmas CD's are included here, plus several alternate takes/versions and a christmas message from Elvis himself! The songs are as excellent as the lay-out of this deluxe package. Included are (of course) the CD, a well documented booklet and a beautiful pop-up of Graceland on a snowy winter night! Except for the pop-up this release is similar to the regular CD of "If Every Day Was Like Christmas". The CD starts with a powerful version of "If Every Day was Like Christmas", goes through all-time-classics like "White Christmas" and "Silver Bells" and ends with "Silent Night". Also included is an unreleased alternate take of "It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You)" and "Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees". If you want to buy a christmas album from Elvis, the regular version of this CD is the one, if you are an Elvisfan, this collector's edition is absolutely essential!

Elvis captures all the moods of Christmas here: the happy, excited, loving, festive, worshipful, reverent, the sad and the lonely. This CD reflects the mixture of feelings that many of us have about Christmas. Combine that with Elvis's magnificent voice and ability to express those emotions in song, and you get a powerfully emotional Christmas music CD. "Merry Christmas, Baby" is one of our favorites. I love to hear Elvis sing religious Christmas carols such as "The First Noel". This is our favorite Elvis Christmas CD and I highly recommend it.

Details: The CD is 1 hour and 3 minutes long. All tracks are in stereo except tracks 2-8 and 24. I find the audio quality to be acceptable with good stereo separation on the stereo songs. A 16 page booklet with liner notes is complete with credits, 2 photos of Elvis (besides the one on the cover), and text about the individual songs.

Between 1957 and 1971 Elvis cut many holiday tunes and chances are the one your looking are on this disc. Featuring 25 total songs (a few are alternate takes), this is the most comprehensive Elvis Christmas album released to date. From early classics such as "Blue Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", and "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me" to the 1966 title track to the 1971 recordings of "Merry Christmas Baby", "Winter Wonderland" and the wonderful renditions of holiday classics such as "Silent Night", "Silver Bells", "I'll Be Home For Christmas", plus many more, this is the best and most complete Christmas album released by any artist, ever!

This CD has all of Elvis' Christmas songs he ever recorded

plus 4 bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased!). Prepare to get comfortable on "Merry Christmas Baby", because it's slow and bluesy, plus it's nearly six minutes long. I really love that song. Some of my other favorites are "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me", "Blue Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", and of course "If Every Day Was Like Christmas." That song is very powerful and very moving. Celebrate the holiday with Elvis as he croons many of his wonderful Christmas classics.

Elvis Presley hit it big during an era when recording an album of Christmas songs was expected of all the biggest pop stars. And they didn't come any bigger than Elvis, but it was considered almost a mortal sin for "Elvis the Pelvis" to be recording Christmas carols as well as the standards firmly belonging to Bing Crosby. Elvis's first Christmas recordings were a first for mainstream rock & roll and they set such a high standard that few acts to follow dared even to attempt to record their own (the Beatles certainly never did).

The only person capable of matching Elvis was Elvis himself, and when his record company told him they were tired of re-issuing his same collection of songs from 1957 year after year, he recorded a new batch of instant holiday classics for release in 1971 that were almost as good. The main difference was that things were changing in Elvis's life; more mature in his 30's with a child of his own and a marriage that was more closely reaching its end every day, the later Christmas recordings have a far more serious and gloomy edge than the first set recorded during the early days of rock & roll when Elvis represented all that parents across the country feared most for their kids. The contrast is staggering.

Each Christmas album when released initially had additional tracks included as well, traditional hymns and gospel tunes not necessarily specific to the Christmas season. However, none of those tracks made their way onto this compilation CD of ALL (including alternate takes) the Christmas music the King recorded in his lifetime. Every song on this CD is pure Christmas and pure Elvis, which is to say absolutely fantastic.

It is 25 tracks, ranging from traditional Christmas carols to pop holiday standards to raunchy rhythym & blues. In some cases you have alternate recordings exceeding the initially released track (this is particularly the case with "I'll Be Home Christmas Day"), and in some cases you wonder if there's indeed any difference at all ("Holly Leaves And Christmas Trees"), but there is no more definitive collection of Christmas songs on one disc (and not likely more than one, either) that exceeds either the artist nor the range of material covered. If you're an Elvis fan that presently lacks any of the King's Christmas recordings, this is the one CD which will give you ALL of them. If you're a fan of rock & roll who needs something other than choir music to put you into the spirit of the season, who could possibly be better than Elvis to turn the trick? Merry Christmas, and enjoy this CD!