The Christmas set for 2009 pulls from a smaller selection of albums than usual, primarily last year's Sarah McLachlan Winter Songs album and a YoYo Ma collection featuring well-knowns like Chris Botti and YouTube sensation Jake Shimabukuro; there are also tracks from the Starbucks offering for 2008 (The Hotel Café presents Winter Songs).

Sweets -- well, to my ear, there's an overall sweetness to the collection this year, lots of women's voices -- not just Sarah, but new (to me) artists like Brandi Carlile, Meiko and the duo Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson, all from the Starbucks album, and all doing Christmas originals rather than remakes. There's also lots of classical and jazz rhythms instead of the usual beats laid over classic Christmas tunes … The "treats" are a couple of older tracks, notably from Bright Eyes, Morphine and the Jan Garbarek / Hilliard Ensemble track that always drives my desire to hear Christmas music.

And this time there's also a strong "winter" vibe underlying a number of the tracks … just a little tip of the hat to the folks up north, where the motto these days seems to be: Snow early, snow often.