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A Motown ChristmasEvery holiday season, I marvel that every record collector - hell, every person - on the face of the planet doesn't own A Motown Christmas. A remastered, expanded (25 tracks!), budget-priced version of a 1973 two-LP set, this CD contains highlights from a variety of Christmas albums and singles released by the Detroit-based rhythm & blues label during their "Golden Decade" from 1962 to 1971 (read more). A Motown Christmas is simply magnificent, but it tends to gather dust in record store bins. Perhaps this is because oldies radio stations play the same handful of Motown songs over and over and over, obscuring the fact that the label was an incredibly inventive and prolific hit factory for more than a decade. Containing nearly all the best Christmas tracks from Motown's vaults, A Motown Christmas qualifies as a consumer's delight, and it is far superior to the rest of Motown's many other various artist Christmas packages, which tend to be brief and random in their selection (more below). I recommend it almost without reservation.

The important thing to remember about Motown's Christmas songs is that they were more Motown than Christmas, translating the big beat and pop savvy of Hitsville USA into Yuletide cheer. To name just a few of the highlights: the Temptations' lush "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer;" the Jackson Five's frenetic "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town;" and Stevie Wonder's earnest "Someday At Christmas." In addition, two tracks are otherwise hard to find: Michael Jackson's "Little Christmas Tree" (recorded specifically for the original 1973 LP), and Marvin Gaye's gently pacifist "I Want To Come Home For Christmas" (recorded but not released in 1972, then added to the CD reissue). Even at their most maudlin - the Supremes tracks, for instance - these songs are hipper than almost anything else released for the holidays throughout the 60's and early 70's.

And, that brings me to my only real criticism of A Motown Christmas. Like most holiday collections, it favors familiar titles - traditional songs and pop standards - over original compositions. While Motown Christmas does, in fact, include some original songs by Motown writers, it skips over excellent titles like "Christmas Every Day" (written by Smokey Robinson and recorded by the Miracles) and "Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year" (written by Pam Sawyer and Leon Ware and recorded by the Jackson 5). Instead, we get lesser seasonal fare like the Temptations' "Silent Night" and Stevie Wonder's "Ave Maria."

A Motown Christmas Vol. 2The Stars Come Out For Christmas

As mentioned above, A Motown Christmas culls tracks from a variety of sources - mostly from six full-length albums by five of the label's biggest stars. All of them yield their own rewards, but foremost among them is the Jackson 5's remarkable Christmas Album (1970). The Temptations' mighty Christmas Card (1970) is almost as good, but it doesn't hit with quite the kinetic force as the Jacksons' tour de force. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles contributed two solid albums, Christmas With The Miracles (1963) and A Season For Miracles (1970), followed by lesser efforts from the Supremes (Merry Christmas, 1965) and Stevie Wonder (Someday At Christmas, 1967). Even further, Motown released a handful of non-LP Christmas singles and a 1968 compilation entitled Merry Christmas From Motown. Collectors should note that the latter album was repackaged (literally - the record label remained unchanged) in 1970 as Christmas Gift 'Rap, and then it was reissued on CD in 1993 in a rather bowdlerized version.

And, that's a bunch of Christmas records, despite the fact that such Motown stalwarts as Gladys Knight, the Four Tops, and Marvin Gaye never released formal Christmas albums - not, at least, during Motown's fabled Golden Decade, if at all. Which is to say, a lot of great music remains beyond A Motown Christmas - some of it never officially released at the time.

Thankfully, after first reissuing A Motown Christmas on CD in 1992 (remastered with a bonus track in 1999, later made available for download and streaming), the label unleashed a mother lode of such rare treasures, both as bonus tracks on individual CD reissues and subsequent compilations. The first such anthology - and still the greatest - was Christmas In The City (1993), subtitled "Rare And Unreleased Motown Holiday Classics." Consisting exclusively of elusive Detroit pearls, it's a collector's delight. Among the highlights: the Motown house band (aka the Funk Brothers), romping through "Winter Wonderland"; Kim Weston's chimerical "Wish You A Merry Christmas"; an unreleased Supremes track better than anything on their Merry Christmas album; and no fewer than four Marvin Gaye cuts - none released at the time. These include his heartbreaking 1972 Vietnam protest song, "I Want To Come Home For Christmas," and his lovely "Purple Snowflakes," which is an alternate version of his 1965 hit, "Pretty Little Baby."

A Motown Christmas Vol. 2Christmas With a Twist

In 2001, the astute marketing department at Motown took the best cuts from Christmas In The City, added a few more rarities, and tossed in some leftovers from their catalog. They released this hodgepodge as A Motown Christmas Vol. 2. The inclusion of such heretofore unreleased cuts as the Funk Brothers' "Xmas Twist" (credited to the Twistin' Kings) and the Supremes' "O Holy Night" (featuring a rare Florence Ballard lead vocal) make Motown Christmas Vol. 2 more attractive (not less) to major Motown fans (like me). But, the overall quality cannot compare to the original collection - especially to casual fans. And, at a mere 14 tracks (compared to 25 on the first volume), Motown Christmas Vol. 2 smacks of exploitation. If, like the first volume, Motown Christmas Vol. 2 had been stretched to 25 tracks, consumers could have purchased nearly the complete Motown Christmas catalog in two easy steps.

Instead, Motown Christmas Vol. 2 functions as an imperfect - though perfectly enjoyable - sequel to the 1973 masterpiece. Still, the two discs combined contain about two-thirds of the Motown Christmas songs I consider "essential," and I purchased well over ten CD's to collect them all. Most people have better sense....

But what of all those other Motown Christmas albums - the dozens upon dozens of choices you'll encounter when flipping through the racks or browsing sites like Amazon? Motown, you see, has become a master of catalog exploitation, shoddily packaging brief bits of their rich legacy for impulse purchase nearly everywhere - from record stores to truck stops. Take, for instance, the widely distributed, 12-song 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Motown Christmas (2003) (and its 2005 sequel). Those are 12 great songs, but they'll cost you about the same as the 25 great songs on A Motown Christmas. So, buyer beware.

Motown Christmas CarolA Dickens of a Dilemma

Still, Motown's Christmas legacy is almost as deep as it is broad. All those myriad collections are mined from the same rich vein, and at least one, A Motown Christmas Carol (1995), rises nearly to the level of the original Motown Christmas. Consisting of 19 songs (mainly traditional Christmas carols) interspersed with spoken greetings from Hitsville's brightest stars, A Motown Christmas Carol proves what the label can do when they, well, try. Here, they even threw in a previously unreleased Supremes track (later added as a bonus track on the girls' Merry Christmas) to induce holiday rapture in Diana Ross' legions of fans.

All the same, it's no substitute for A Motown Christmas. Besides, at the risk of repeating myself, each individual piece of the Motown Christmas catalog has wonderful moments not included on Motown Christmas or similar albums. For instance, the Miracles' "Christmas Everyday" (1963) - one of the best original Motown Christmas songs - is available only on discs such as the group's highly recommended Our Very Best Christmas (1999). Translated, that means I bought them all. A Motown Christmas will suffice for almost everyone else....

I wrote this article - the first draft of it, anyway - around the turn of the 21st century. Thereafter, Motown, as had long been their habit, continued to exploit their catalog, and it's worth noting that I am just skimming the cream off the top. There are dozens - perhaps hundreds - of Motown Christmas albums on the market, especially in Europe where "Tamla" is practically a holy sacrament. Still, along the way, the label pulled some impressive tricks out of their bag. In 2009, Motown released The Ultimate Motown Christmas Collection, a 2-CD, 51-track compilation that pulls tracks from virtually every album described herein. It's great, though less so than it first appears. For starters, 16 of those tracks are brief "season's greetings" from the label's roster - charming but inconsequential. Mainly, however, there's just no matching the distilled brilliance of the original Motown Christmas. Unless....

If you're not a "collector" in the pure, obsessive sense of the word, then you'll appreciate Classic Motown Christmas (2014), an eleven "disc" digital album featuring just about every holiday track the label has ever released - including the complete original Motown Christmas. You can't hold it in your hands, but Classic Motown Christmas will provide literally hours of listening pleasure. (Oddly, the album later disappeared from Amazon, but it remains on Apple Music and Spotify.)

Ultimate Motown Christmas CollectionPostscript

Of course, Motown didn't cease to exist after their "Golden Decade." The Temptations recorded another holiday record, Give Love At Christmas in 1980, and the Four Tops finally waxed theirs - Christmas Here With You - in 1995. Much, much later, Smokey Robinson recorded a solo holiday album, Christmas Everyday (2017), as an Amazon exclusive. And, while Gladys Knight & The Pips recorded nary a noel note for Motown, they ultimately recorded two Christmas albums after they left the label for greener pastures.

But, more to the point, Motown continued to sign and record young artists during the decades that followed. In 1989, the label put together Motown Christmas Album: Christmas Cheers From Motown, a brand new collection mingling stars from their current roster (The Boys, Johnny Gill) with stars from their glorious past (Temptations, Smokey Robinson). Many years later, an almost completely fresh batch of artists - including Toni Braxton and India Arie - recorded the simply-titled Motown Christmas (2014), released though the label's gospel division, followed by A Motown Gospel Christmas in 2018. An original EP called A Motown Holiday showed up in 2020, and the following year the label expanded it into an album, Christmas With Motown, combining the new 2020 tracks with catalog recordings going as far back as the 1960's.

All of these albums have their moments, and I certainly won't stand in the way of progress. But, they serve mainly to remind us of what once was, and what would never again be - that Motown once was a sound, and not merely a record label. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • Christmas Everyday (Miracles, 1963) Top 100 Song
  • Christmas Everyday (new version) (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1968)
  • Christmas Everyday (Temptations, 1980)
  • The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) (Supremes, 1965)
  • Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • Deck The Halls/Bring A Torch Jeannette Isabella (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • Give Love On Christmas Day (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • Go Tell It On The Mountain (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • I Believe In Christmas Eve (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • I Want To Come Home For Christmas (Marvin Gaye, 1972)
  • It's Christmas Time (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • Jingle Bells (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • Just A Lonely Christmas (Supremes, 1965)
  • Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
  • Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Temptations, 1970)
  • Little Bright Star (Supremes, 1965)
  • Little Christmas Tree (Michael Jackson, 1973)
  • My Christmas Tree (Temptations, 1969)
  • My Favorite Things (Supremes, 1965)
  • One Little Christmas Tree (Stevie Wonder, 1967)
  • Purple Snowflakes (Marvin Gaye, 1964)
  • Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Temptations, 1968) Top 100 Song
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Jackson 5, 1970) Top 100 Song
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Miracles, 1963)
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Supremes, 1965)
  • Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Temptations, 1970)
  • Someday At Christmas (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • Someday At Christmas (Temptations, 1970)
  • Someday At Christmas (Stevie Wonder, 1966) Top 100 Song
  • Twinkle Twinkle Little Me (Supremes, 1965)
  • Up On The House Top (Jackson 5, 1970)
  • What Christmas Means To Me (Stevie Wonder, 1967)
  • White Christmas (Supremes, 1965)
  • Winter Wonderland (Funk Brothers, 1968)
  • Wish You A Merry Christmas (Kim Weston, 1962)
  • Won't Be Long Before Christmas (Supremes, 1967)
  • Xmas Twist (Twistin' Kings, 1961)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

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