We love those classic Christmas recordings.

And we cherish the chance to hear Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, the Beach Boys, Darlene Love and other greats sing these standards each and every Christmas season.

Yet, we also like to spice things up and add some new voices to our holiday playlist.

Thankfully, we never have any shortage of contenders trying to make the cut. That’s because there are dozens upon dozens of new Christmas albums released each season.

We’ve combed through the offerings and have come up with what we consider to be the best of the bunch.

Here are our picks for the top 10 new Christmas albums for 2025:

1. “On This Winter’s Night: Volume 2,” Lady A

The country act’s first seasonal offering, 2012’s “On This Winter’s Night,” was a joyous affair that included sparkling versions of such Christmas classics as “The First Noel” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

Thirteen years later, the platinum-plus-selling Nashville trio — consisting of lead vocalists Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley as well as the multi-talented Dave Haywood — returns with an equally good follow-up record.

This second installment, in what hopefully will grow into a lengthy series, includes solid takes on “O Holy Night,” “Winter Wonderland” and other favorites. It also features guest appearances from Ricky Skaggs on “Why We Sing Noel” and Chris Tomlin on an absolutely gorgeous version of “Silent Night.”

Listen to: “Silent Night” (featuring Chris Tomlin)

2. “Greatest Gift of All,” Stryper

The holidays are about to get heavy – but in the right way – as powerhouse metal act Stryper finally releases its first-ever Christmas album.

The SoCal outfit, best known for the platinum-selling ‘80s offering “To Hell with the Devil,” thoroughly rocks us around the Christmas tree as it thunders through a mix of holiday classics and originals.

As far as the latter goes, we are really enjoying turning up the volume on “Still the Light” — which features some blistering guitar work from Michael Sweet and Oz Fox — and the Black Sabbath-esque “On This Holy Night.”

Truly great stuff from Christian metal’s most legendary band.

Listen to: “Still the Light”

3. “Greatest Hits Christmas,” LeAnn Rimes

The country crooner — blessed with one of the finest singing voices in the history of the genre — has a long history with holiday recordings. It began in the mid-‘90s when she recorded “Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart” as a promotional/bonus single for her blockbuster major-label debut, “Blue,” and has continued through the years.

This generous collection, which is big enough to warrant a double-LP release for vinyl fans, gathers up so many of her classic Christmas recordings — “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” — as well as three new cuts.

Collectively, these songs serve to underscore that Rimes stands among the greatest Christmas music interpreters of the last 30 years.

Listen to: “Little Drummer Boy”

4. “Let Me Carry You This Christmas,” Darius de Haas

The versatile vocalist has quite a track record in the theater world, having appeared in Broadway productions of “Rent,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Carousel,” “Marie Christine” and other plays. He’s also fashioned an impressive career as a concert/recording artist, performing with both the Boston and Cincinnati pops orchestras and releasing a number of albums.

Now, he’s making his mark in the seasonal music realm with this 11-track outing. He’s blessed with a beautiful voice — which many know from him doing the singing parts for the character of Shy Baldwin on Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — and he puts it to great use on “The First Noel,” “Silent Night” and other holiday tunes.

Listen to: “Who Would Imagine a King”

5. “Come Home for Christmas,” Matthew West

The contemporary Christian singer-songwriter, who gave voice to such chart-topping hits as “More,” “You Are Everything,” “Hello, My Name Is,” “Grace Wins,” “Broken Things” and “The God Who Stays,” is inviting music lovers to “Come Home for Christmas.”

This eight-song offering follows is yet another Christmastime delight for West, who previously recorded “The Heart of Christmas” in 2011 and “We Need Christmas” in 2021. The set is a mix of original tunes and holiday standards. And, as an added bonus, it even includes a “kids version” of West’s excellent Thanksgiving ode “Gobble Gobble.”

Listen to: “Because of Bethlehem”

6. “Nollaig — A Christmas Journey,” Celtic Woman

These PBS favorites originally came together for a one-off performance in Dublin, Ireland, in 2004 and are still going strong 21 years later. And now they are embarking on “A Christmas Journey.”

It is not — to put it mildly — their first such journey. Celtic Woman, which some have described as “’Riverdance’ for the voice,” has released approximately 215,334 seasonal albums over the years.

Or it could be 215,335 — since the group might have released another since I started writing this.

The reason the collective keeps releasing holiday platters — and the reason we keep buy them — is that it does a really good job with the Christmas songbook.

And that’s certainly the case, once again, with this fine collection of wintery tunes.

Listen to: “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”

7. “Christmas Time Is Here,” Herb Alpert

The legendary trumpeter — who turned 90 earlier this year — has delivered such a gorgeous set of Latin-flavored holiday songs with “Christmas Time Is Here.”

The collection of mostly instrumentals kicks off with a true jaw-dropper — with Alpert pouring such emotion and feeling into a softly held version of “Feliz Navidad” — and then continues to shine through such Christmas classics as “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Sleigh Ride.”

Of course, this is not the first holiday rodeo for Alpert, who achieved massive success with 1968’s “Christmas Album” — recorded with his Tijuana Brass band — and then followed up with the well-received “Christmas Wish” some 50 years later.

Listen to: “Feliz Navidad”

8. “Christmas,” Natalie Grant

A lot has happened since this Seattle native released her first seasonal offering — “Believe” — in 2005. For starters, she won a mind-blowing four consecutive Dove Awards for female vocalist of the year from 2006-2009. (And then she’d add a fifth such trophy to her collection in 2012.)

Twenty years after “Believe,” Grant returns with “Christmas,” another gorgeous set of holiday favorites (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” etc.) and other tunes. We especially love her work with MercyMe’s Bart Millard on “Silent Night.”

Listen to: “Silent Night”

9. “Snow Globe Town,” Brad Paisley

“Brad Paisley Christmas” was a fine holiday affair, filled with cool covers of seasonal staples (“Silent Night,” “Winter Wonderland,” etc.) as well as a few more unorthodox selections (notably, the PC-diss-track “Kung Pao Buckaroo Holiday”).

The country music star’s long-awaited follow-up — coming 19 years after that first 2006 Christmas outing — is another intriguing platter that mixes tradition and novelty.

Paisley, a decent vocalist and excellent guitarist, sounds like he’s having a blast on “That Crazy Elf (On the Shelf),” “A Marshmallow World” and other fun tunes. Yet, listeners are likely to enjoy his work on the slower numbers even more.

Listen to: “The First Noel”

10. “It’s Christmas,” Eric Benet

The R&B crooner, responsible for such top 10 hits as “Spiritual Thang,” “Femininity,” “Let’s Stay Together” and “Spend My Life With You,” returns with his 10th full-length studio outing — which also happens to be his second offering of 2025.

“It’s Christmas,” which follows the release of “The Co-Star” in June,” is warm and smooth from start to finish, as Benet brings his equally sophisticated and soulful approach to “Please Come Home for Christmas” and other favorites.

When Benet sings a song like “Christmas Time Is Here,” it feels like you’re both in the same room, tipping back cups of eggnog and enjoying a softly glowing fire.

Listen to: “Oh Holy Night”

 

Coffee is so much a part of our culture that it’s easy to forget how complex it can be to brew a consistently good cup.

“Coffee, unfortunately is very, very easy to screw up at home. It’s one of those tricky things,” said Heather Perry, chief executive officer of the rapidly growing Klatch Coffee chain.

Specialty Coffee Association of America proclaimed Perry the nation’s best barista in 2007, after a Long Beach competition. She went on to the World Barista Championship in Tokyo, where she came in second.

Perry has mastered the complexities of coffee. She and her staff share their knowledge in three-hour, $150 classes at Klatch’s headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga. Topics include brewing methods, using an espresso machine and the art of the latte.

But what if you’re not ready for that?

“As complicated as coffee is, it’s pretty simple to improve most people’s coffee program at home,” she said.

The equipment

There are two main brewing methods.

Drip is when hot water filters through coffee grounds. Home brewing machines make eight to 12 cups of coffee, usually taking several minutes. Espresso is when hot water is forced through coffee in a special machine. Home espresso machines make one or two shots at a time in less than a minute.

If you have baristas to grind a bag of coffee for you, they may ask what kind of machine you need it for.

Espresso shots from Klatch Coffee are pulled at company’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

Espresso is more finely ground than drip coffee, and an espresso shot is often stronger and more complex than a cup of drip coffee.

Klatch Coffee ground beans—on the left, ground for pour-overs, and on the right, ground for espresso—are seen at the company’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

If you go to a big box store this holiday season, you may see as many Keurig machines on its shelves as brewers. Keurig machines brew cups of coffee from K-cups, single-use containers filled with pre-ground coffee. Nespresso is a similar product with pods instead of K-cups.

Nespresso is more like espresso, and Keurig is more like drip coffee, according to a Business Insider article.

Both products offer convenience, but Perry pointed out their coffees are very expensive and customers have no control over the outcome.

Fresh coffee beans await roasting at Klatch Coffee’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

The coffee

Perry has three pieces of equipment on her kitchen counter at home: a brewer, an espresso machine and a coffee grinder.

“If you are doing home espresso, you need to have a grinder. It is life-changing,” said Perry. “It doesn’t have to be a $500 purchase. You can get a great grinder for $100.”

Klatch is big on whole beans and fresh grinding.

“Think of grinding your coffee like peeling a banana. That oxidation that occurs, the same exact thing happens with coffee,” Perry said.

Air causes coffee beans to lose freshness, people should only grind as much as they need and reseal the bag or put the coffee in an airtight container away from light and heat.

Freshly roasted coffee beans, labeled with their identification, are seen at Klatch Coffee’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, ready to be packaged and sold. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

Klatch’s coffee bags have stickers on the back with the date the coffee was roasted. People should wait at least five to seven days after that date to start using the beans because they have high levels of carbon dioxide. Some coffees are sold in bags with “degassing” valves that release carbon dioxide without exposing the beans to outside air.

Visual test

At Klatch’s headquarters, Perry demonstrated an easy way to test the freshness of your coffee. She put some grounds in a bowl and then poured water over them from a pot with a long, narrow spout. She said you can do the same thing in your coffee brewer’s filter basket.

Fresh coffee beans float to the top, demonstrating their quality, at Klatch Coffee’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

“As soon as the water hits the coffee, you should see a bloom happen. See how it’s bubbling up? That’s what you want your coffee to do. If we were using stale coffee, you would see your coffee grounds would not be lifted up. They’d just be sitting at the bottom.”

“Ninety percent of the coffee experience is the aromatics. So having fresh coffee dramatically changes your experience,” she said.

“Coffee gets one-noted as it ages. What we want about coffee is all the complexity.”

The taste test

“The way that you brew coffee is called extraction,” said Perry. “We’re essentially turning water brown. So the two big terms that we’ll use are overextraction and underextraction.”

Overextraction happens when people don’t use enough coffee and have a low ratio of coffee to water.

“Overextracted is all the way in the back of the tongue, one-note and bitter,” said Perry. “The majority of the coffee you’re going to taste out there is overextracted.”

Generic coffee makers don’t hold enough coffee, she said.

“Use more coffee is what I almost always tell people.” Instead of brewing a 12-cup pot, brew an eight-cup pot and fill up your coffee basket.”

She said a good rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 to 8 ounces of water.

“Make sure you’re using water you would drink. Coffee is 98% water,” she added.

Underextraction is when you don’t extract enough of the flavor of the coffee into the water. The water may not be hot enough or pass through the grounds too quickly.

“The coffee is thin-tasting. It’s usually pretty sour when it’s underextracted as well. You’re going to taste it in the front of your mouth. So when you take that sip of coffee there’s nothing in the back. It’s one-noted. Coffee should always be complex.”

Heather Perry, chief executive officer of the rapidly growing Klatch Coffee and an award-winning barista, explains the various tastes of an espresso shot, starting with the crema at the company’s headquarters and roasting facility in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

Perry gave a lesson on how to begin experiencing espresso. She said take a shot, skim off some of the foam, called crema, and see what it tastes like. Next, taste the beverage under the foam. Finally, stir them together and taste again.

“You’re crema tells you a lot about the shot. It tells you it’s fresh. It tells you it’s a nice-bodied coffee as well,” said Perry. “Espresso’s going to change from top to bottom. It’s going to change from your first sip to your last sip.”

First steps

Between the grounds, the water and the equipment, there are a lot of variables to master when you get serious about brewing coffee.

“It feels like there’s a lot that’s out to get you,” Perry said. “That’s why if you follow a few basic rules, it sets you up for success.”

Luis Miranda, director of coffee culture, said Klatch cafes dial in their espresso machines — that means make adjustments to their settings — six to eight times a day and are constantly pulling shots to get optimal results.

He compared brewing coffee to driving a car.

“You have to learn a lot of things to drive a car. What are the symbols on the road? How much brake do you do? How much should I turn? At the start, it’s not going very good. You’re in the high school parking lot with your dad and you’re not having a good time. But give it six months and you’re perfectly fine. You don’t even think about it anymore.

Don’t be afraid to fail, Perry said.

“It’s like the first pancake. Toss the first pot. Try it again.”

Information: klatchcoffee.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By JACK BROOK, Associated Press/Report for America

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal immigration crackdown began Wednesday in New Orleans under an operation that a Homeland Security official said would target violent criminals, expanding the Trump administration’s sweeps that have unfolded in other U.S. cities.

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The aim of the operation is to capture immigrants who were released after their arrests for crimes such as home invasion, armed robbery and rape, Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

She did not say how many agents would be deployed under the operation. Louisiana has been preparing for weeks for an immigration crackdown that Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has said he would welcome.

“Sanctuary policies endanger American communities by releasing illegal criminal aliens and forcing DHS law enforcement to risk their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that should have never been put back on the streets,” McLaughlin said. “

The Trump administration also launched immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. Landry is a close Trump ally who has moved to align state policy with the White House’s enforcement agenda.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s posted a surprise third-quarter profit and its strongest comparable sales in more than three years as an extensive overhaul of the 167-year-old New York department store begins to resonate with shoppers.

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After posting its back-to-back quarterly jumps in comparable sales Wednesday, Macy’s raised its financial guidance for the year. However, even the elevated sales guidance issued Wednesday was below last year’s annual sales numbers, sending a note of caution about the mood of the American consumer.

Shares slid 7% before the opening bell.

Comparable sales, a good barometer of a retailer’s health, have been an ominous sign at Macy’s for several years now, serving each quarter as a reminder that the storied department store chain had a long way to go.

On Wednesday, however, Macy’s posted a solid 3.2% increase for the quarter ended Nov. 1, following a 1.9% increase during the second quarter. The figure includes licensed businesses like cosmetics.

“As we enter the holiday season, we are well-positioned with compelling new merchandise and an omni-channel customer experience that delivers both inspiration and value,” Chairman and CEO Tony Spring said in a statement. “With a strategy rooted in hospitality, our teams are focused on driving long-term, profitable growth.”

Macy’s strong performance is notable because all retailers are navigating a challenging environment with consumers pulling back as prices rise amid a U.S. initiated trade war. Yet, shoppers have remained resilient and delivered a strong start to the holiday shopping season that kicked off over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Under Spring, who took over the top job almost two years ago, Macy’s has closed unprofitable stores while investing heavily in modernizing its namesake brand. The company, which also operates its upscale Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chain of cosmetics, has beefed up customer service in the fitting areas as well as the shoe department. It’s also been trying to differentiate its luxury business from its rivals by adding exclusive merchandise.

Black Friday Shoppers queue to enter Macy’s flagship store in New York on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Those changes appear to be paying off.

Macy’s reported net income of $11 million, or 4 cents per share, for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share was 9 cents, catching industry analysts who had expected a loss of 13 cents off guard.

The company last year earned $28 million or 10 cents per shared.

Net sales fell slightly to $4.71 billion, from $4.73 billion, reflecting the closure of poorly performing stores. But that still outperformed projections of $4.55 billion from analysts.

The stores it’s overhauled, 125 of them, booked comparable sales growth of 2.7% growth, outperforming the pace when all stores are included.

“While it would be an exaggeration to say that Macy’s is a retailer at the very top of its game, there is no doubt that it is now becoming a more proficient player on the retail field,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “The sloppy and slapdash execution that once plagued the chain has largely disappeared – at least in stores the company will retain – and has been replaced by a more disciplined adherence to good standards.”

Macy’s now expects annual earnings per share of between $2 and $2.20, well above its previous guidance of $1.70 to $2.05 per share. It also projected annual 2025 sales in the range of $21.47 billion to $21.62 billion, up from its previous guidance of $21.15 billion to $21.45 billion.

Wall Street had been projecting earnings of $2 per share on sales of $21.3 billion, according to FactSet.