Christianity Today’s 2021 Christmas Albums Roundup

Author - Umn ministry

December 02, 2021

Here are our favorite new releases by Christian artists, including The Porter’s Gate, Chris Tomlin, and more.

Last year at this time, my family was weighing decisions about whether to have Christmas gatherings. This year, we started celebrating earlier than usual, like we’re making up for lost holiday cheer. We have already decorated Christmas cookies and put the tree up before Thanksgiving. My Christmas 2021 playlist has been in the works since mid-October.

Perhaps, like me, you have an annual Christmas playlist that is populated almost entirely with nostalgic favorites. Mine always includes Amy Grant’s Christmas album and a collection of wintery orchestral pieces that my mom has played on repeat every November and December for as long as I can remember. It takes a lot for a new song or album to break into my Christmas rotation.

This year, there are plenty of new Christmas releases with tracks that have already landed in my 2021 holiday playlist. Here are six fresh albums to accompany the season as you move through moments of joy, solemnity, excitement, solitude, and celebration.

Advent Songs by The Porter’s Gate

Advent Songs captures the somber hopefulness of the season in beautifully arranged originals that invite meditation and repose as we observe a period of waiting. I love festive, upbeat Christmas songs, but this year, The Porter’s Gate offers a welcome call to rest and seek quiet in the relentless holiday going and doing. Songs like “The Reign of Mercy” and “Isaiah (O Come)” reflect on the cosmic reality of the Word becoming flesh. Others, like “Mary’s Lullaby (Black Haired Boy)” and “Simeon’s Song,” are human and intimate, coaxing the listener to think about earthy, fleshly details of the Advent story.