• Every year, celebrities try to take advantage of the holidays by releasing festive music.

• Singers like Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Michael Bublé managed to perfect the cheesy art form.

• Others, like Taylor Swift, CeeLo Green and Sia, released memorable or cringe-worthy Christmas albums.

The Christmas album is one of music’s most storied and cheesy traditions.

While some celebrities have perfected the seasonal art form – either by reviving old classics or by putting their own spin on the festive genre – others would have been better off leaving it alone.

Our six favorite and six least favorite examples are cataloged below, with each batch listed in chronological order.

Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas” is the only modern Christmas album that can be considered a classic.

Mariah Carey’s timeless Christmas album features many covers of classics and three original songs. The star, of course, is “All I Want for Christmas is You,” which is so timeless that it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 a full 25 years after its release and has topped the charts every holiday season since.

“There are the classics — the standards that everyone grew up with — and then there are the reinterpretations or new originals,” Dave Bakula, senior analyst at Nielsen Music, told The New York Times. “Mariah lives in the optimal combination of both.”

Ariana Grande described “Christmas and Chill” as her “favorite work.”

Ariana Grande’s surprise-released Christmas EP experienced a surge in popularity after she added some of the project’s six original songs to her setlist for the 2019 Sweetener World Tour. This year, it even surpassed “Thank U, Next” as Grande’s most-streamed album.

“my favorite work” she wrote on Twitter. “She rises from the dead! Thank you to all new listeners to Christmas N Chill and hello to everyone who is just discovering it. I’m so happy.”

Grande too praised an analysis of the album by Vulture’s Rachel Handler, who described the collection of songs as “surreal” and “extremely dope.”

“The first thing you need to know about ‘Christmas and Chill’ is that, unlike most celebrity Christmas albums, it doesn’t contain any covers. No, it is a completely original work; “Grande doesn’t play a playful riff on ‘Baby, It’s Cold’ ‘Outside’ because she’s too busy staying inside and having tons of sex,” Handler wrote.

Michael Bublé’s “Christmas” is his most popular album.

Michael Bublé’s essential Christmas album consists entirely of classic covers, from “Jingle Bells” to “Santa Baby” – but “Christmas” actually benefits from Bublé’s lack of originality. His rich, rat-pack-worthy voice is perfect for preserving the chestnut-roasting, mood-lifting, cheerful magic of the holiday season.

Justin Bieber’s “Under the Mistletoe” is a surprisingly entertaining listen.

These days, Justin Bieber’s brand may no longer scream “holiday cheer,” but his 2011 album “Under the Mistletoe” adapts the genre to his sound.

Anyone who convinced Busta Rhymes to jump into a wonderfully unhinged cover of “Drummer Boy” (Bieber’s trap-tinged version includes the lyrics “Playing for the King, playing for the title / I’m surprised that “You didn’t hear that in the Bible”) “) deserves a place on this list.

“A Legendary Christmas” is endearingly cheesy thanks to John Legend’s charm.

John Legend’s aptly titled album A Legendary Christmas features eight covers (including his much-discussed Wake version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Kelly Clarkson) and six jazzy originals that are equal parts endearing and cheesy. (When it comes to Christmas music, cheese is king.)

Legend is ideally suited to a project of this nature, which would have failed without the sincerity that defines his voice and his brand. “A Legendary Christmas” was even nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 2020 Grammy Awards alongside other legends like Elvis Costello and Barbra Streisand.

“Fruitcake” by Sabrina Carpenter is a fresh and charming take on holiday themes.

Aside from closer “White Xmas,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Fruitcake” is full of original bops, each one just as catchy as the last.

Similar to Grande’s EP, “Fruitcake” combines contemporary pop production, wintry references and Carpenter’s trademark wit to great effect: “A Nonsense Christmas” is a festive twist on her viral hit, “Buy Me Presents” is a cheeky ode to Santa Claus, the ideal romantic suitor , while “Cindy Lou Who” stands out as the only real tearjerker.

David Hasselhoff’s “The Night Before Christmas” has received widespread attention.

Davis Hasselhoff’s Christmas album would be endearing if it had focused on the weirdness (e.g., “Why does this exist?”). Instead, it’s just plain bad. As CBC Music so elegantly put it, the Baywatch star’s attempt to recreate Christmas classics was simply “incredibly unnecessary.”

Unfortunately, Taylor Swift’s “Holiday Collection” is the climax of the shock.

Taylor Swift was still a teenage country darling when she released “The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection” and botched seasonal favorites like “Last Christmas” and “Silent Night.” As Courteney Larocca previously wrote for BI, her “Santa Baby” cover is the EP’s worst offender: “It’s difficult to listen to her chatter about being a ‘terribly good girl’ as she tries to fit in without flirting to sneak a light blue convertible.” gag.”

Although The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection features two original songs from this generation’s preeminent lyricist (“Christmases When You Were Mine” and “Christmas Must Be Something More”), neither is executed well enough to salvage the experience.

Seth MacFarlane takes himself way too seriously on “Holiday for Swing.”

Seth MacFarlane has a surprisingly powerful singing voice, but it’s hard to separate his brand from Holiday for Swing – especially when you associate his singing with Brian, the talking dog from Family Guy. The album barely reinterprets any of his Christmas classics and takes itself far too seriously for MacFarlane’s boyish comedic instincts.

“CeeLo’s Magic Moment” is disappointing and unnecessary.

“CeeLo’s Magic Moment” was an obvious extension of CeeLo Green’s rebranding as the family-friendly coach on NBC’s “The Voice,” a much duller version of the legendary Gnarls Barkley singer who once gave us transcendent jazz-pop-funk-fusion hits like ” Crazy.”

This makes “CeeLo’s Magic Moment” seem forced and artificial.

Sia’s “Everyday is Christmas” is guaranteed and unforgettable.

Do you remember (or even know) that Sia released a Christmas album last decade?

The powerhouse singer tried to bring a little tropical funk to the holiday season with “Everyday is Christmas,” but it just doesn’t work the way she obviously intended. As Katherine St. Asaph wrote for Pitchfork, the album feels “inconsistent and noncommittal, like opening a gift that someone forgot to remove the tags from.”

Gwen Stefani’s “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” is the opposite of cool.

Making Christmas music is always a bit risky; Usually it smacks more of a money grab than a serious artistic pursuit. This may be the death knell for pop stars who are already struggling with this anti-artistic stereotype.

This is the case with Gwen Stefani, who previously released albums like “Return of Saturn” and “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” but now makes tasteless country pop about getting married.

For many fans, Stefani’s fourth solo album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas, marked her unfortunate fall from the cool-girl pedestal. There’s no hint of personality or quirkiness about the album – Stefani just delivers the billionth faithful rendition of “Jingle Bells” and duets with her husband Blake Shelton on the title track, which is a standout from the original set.

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