Imagine songs like “Merry Christmas, Baby” or “Christmas Day,” but with new titles and lyrics removed from Christmas, delivered on a record that didn’t bear a kitschy cover of the band putting ornaments on a tree. If this was the case, would the Christmas Album get the respect it deserves?

Recorded in 1970, and released in ’73, McCoy Tyner’s epic Extensions LP is now, at last, back in print via Blue Note’s ongoing Tone Poet series …

In many ways, Irish Heartbeat was Van Morrison’s reawakening. He was opening himself up once more to the idea of collaborating; giving up the singular vision which he had been pursuing for a collective one. This also spawned a reawakening in the public eye. Though Morrison seemed able to confer directly with his core audience with any output, it was this record that grabbed the ears of the masses once more.

Smack dab in the middle of John Fahey’s first decade shifting around the tectonic plates of traditional music came The New Possibility.

Recorded in 1969 but unreleased/unknown until now, Down Lucky’s Way is a little hard to describe — minimal modal folk jazz? Maybe! Guitarist Lucky Ranku called it “healing music,” and that might be the most right on. The gentle but propulsive groove, the free-floating melodies, the comradely interplay … it just makes you feel better. Highly highly highly recommended.

When Bob Dylan’s Christmas album appeared in 2009, it was both totally unexpected and 44 years overdue. In this instance, we’re glad he waited. Christmas in the Heart features Dylan singing songs you know by heart in a voice without restraint. There’s fun for the whole family, and all for a good cause. It’s enough to make a believer out of anyone.

… Spector, a Jew born on Christmas day, did what few were or are capable of doing. He made the largesse—both genuine and contrived—of Christmas even bigger.

‘Tis the season. George Winston’s 1982 collection of seasonal solo piano recordings. Via Windham Hill Records.