IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE CHRISTMAS.

It's always hard finding holiday music. How many ``Winter Wonderlands'' can there be? Here's a sampling from our staff on what's catching their ears this year.

SARAH McLACHLAN: ``Wintersong'' (Arista)

It's rare when a holiday CD makes you sit up and listen, but this collection from the Canadian songstress is one that makes the familiar new. Beginning with a strong rendition of John Lennon's ``Happy Xmas (War Is Over)'' -- wishful thinking, obviously -- McLachlan balances the secular and religious nicely. She offers some unusual and compelling versions of traditional fare like ``Silent Night,'' ``What Child Is This?'' and ``The First Noel,'' while her take on such evergreens as ``I'll Be Home for Christmas'' and ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' are heartwarming. She tops it off with a tastefully simple ``Christmas Time Is Here,'' with jazz diva Diana Krall handling the piano accompaniment.

-- Rob Lowman

BOOTSY COLLINS: ``Christmas Is 4 Ever'' (Shout)

Leave it to Bootsy Collins to funk up Christmas, starting with the funnest version of ``Santa Claus Is Coming to Town'' -- renamed ``Santa's Coming.'' (I know there's no such word as funnest, but try telling a kid that). Basically, Bootsy has made a yuletide party album, with Snoop Dogg on ``Happy Holidaze,'' Charlie Daniels on ``Sleigh Ride'' and Candis Cheatham on ``Santa's Coming,'' among others, joining in to create some joy to the world.

-- R.L.

VARIOUS: ``Santa Baby'' (Hear Music)

The pluses outweigh the expected on this collection found in Starbucks. Nat King Cole doing ``L-O-V-E'' seems an odd choice for this collection. (Wasn't that recycled from the Valentine's Day CD?) But there are great standards like Frank Sinatra's ``Christmas Song'' and Eartha Kitt's ``Santa Baby'' mixed in with new interpretations by Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan and Sonya Kitchell. The find is Pink Martini doing a tiki lounge version of ``Little Drummer Boy'' with a ``Bolero''-like buildup. Very cool.

-- R.L.

BETTE MIDLER: ``Cool Yule'' (Columbia)

Midler jazzes up the holidays with well-worn classics of intoxicating cheer, such as her swinging duet with Johnny Mathis in ``Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!'' The album is Miss M's foray into the holiday genre and is anything but typical. She wishes all a kitschy ``Mele Kalikimaka.'' Elsewhere, she delights with ``What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?'' and ``I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm'' both of which are accompanied by sweeping orchestras led by Patrick Williams. Sappy as it sounds, her holiday remake of ``From a Distance'' will put a lump in your throat. The most sentimental of holidays can do that sometimes.

-- Sandra Barrera

ALY & AJ: ``Acoustic Hearts of Winter'' (Hollywood)

Some CDs are made for seasonal gatherings. You know the kind. The turkey is in the oven, the folks are milling about, and a voice dripping with honey fills the house. Other CDs are made for the mall.

This is one of the latter. It's got all your favorites -- ``Joy to the World,'' ``Silent Night,'' ``Little Drummer Boy'' -- sung with as little feeling as possible, as if Christmas was just an afterthought, focusing on the pyrotechnical warbling style of Mariah Carey instead of on real emotion. It's so cold it may, in fact, leave you frost-bitten.

-- S.B.

RICHARD CHEESE: ``Silent Nightclub'' (Surfdog)

Cheese and his Lounge Against the Machine band swank-ify Dead Kennedys' ``Holiday in Cambodia,'' Vanilla Ice's ``Ice, Ice Baby'' and Beyonce's ``Naughty Girl'' as part of this 14-song set for the holidays. These swinging versions of the hits are classic Cheese, who's sort of a Weird Al Yankovic for lounge lizards. With his calm, smooth tone, he woofs ``Jingle Bells'' in the tradition of the all-canine Barking Dogs and decides seconds into ``Last X- Mas'' by Wham that the song isn't worthy of this record. And you know he's probably right.

-- S.B.

JAMES TAYLOR: ``James Taylor at Christmas'' (Columbia)

Taylor put out ``A Christmas Album'' in 2004 as an exclusive joint venture with Hallmark. Two years later, the veteran singer-songwriter with the warm baritone repackages that same million-selling disc by giving it a new name and doing away with ``Deck the Halls.'' The new set instead includes a pair of covers. Among these is his gorgeous vision of ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' taken from the 2002 Grammy Award-winning album ``October Road'' and his newly recorded version of ``River'' by Joni Mitchell, a real downer but gorgeous nonetheless.

-- S.B.

VARIOUS: ``New Orleans Christmas'' (Putumayo) This assorted set decks the halls with blues, jazz and swing holiday classics from the Big Easy. Opening with the French Quarter's Big Al Carson placing ``Santa Claus Is Coming to Town'' under a big-band spell, the disc takes in gravel-voiced singer and trumpeter James Andrews' ``Christmas in New Orleans'' and an ivory-tickling ``God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'' from Ellis Marsalis. Best of all is the New Birth Brass Band's exuberant ``Santa's Second Line,'' which could make even Scrooge lighten up.

-- Fred Shuster

AIMEE MANN: ``One More Drifter in the Snow'' (Superego)

Indie-pop's stern governess settles in for an unexpectedly good-natured set of seasonal tunes apparently inspired by classic holiday records of the 1940s and '50s. Mann's plaintive voice is nicely offset throughout by strings and artfully sparse arrangements of such yuletide standards as ``I'll Be Home for Christmas,'' ``Winter Wonderland'' and a dreamy ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.'' But she also shines on the self-penned ``Calling on Mary'' and ``Christmastime,'' co-written by husband Michael Penn.

-- F.S.

THE DB'S & FRIENDS: ``Christmas Time Again'' (Collector's Choice)

Some say this is the best Christmas album since Phil Spector unwrapped his seasonal classic in 1963. Originally issued in truncated form 20 years ago, the charming 21-song Southern-pop bauble gathers tree-trimmers from Big Star, Alex Chilton, the dB's, R.E.M. producer Don Dixon and Whiskeytown. Music ranges from tuneful new wave to alt-country, although Marshall Crenshaw's '50s doo-wop classic ``Lonely Christmas'' and Chilton's Mel Torme turn on ``The Christmas Song'' might have you returning even after the holiday lights are back in the attic.

-- F.S.

RACHAEL RAY: ``How Cool Is That Christmas'' (Sony)

She's a chef, a traveler, a Food Network star and Martha Stewart's bete noir, but Ray still does not sing. Instead, she offers a one-stop anthology of traditional Christmas tunes (``Winter Wonderland,'' ``Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'') sung by the likes of Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson. Contemporary jazz chanteuse Jane Monheit surfaces, too, for some scatting on ``The Man With the Bag,'' and Argentine sax player Gato Barbieri gets a look in with an album-closing reading of ``Auld Lang Syne.'' The booklet includes holiday recipes and party-throwing tips.

-- F.S.

SOUNDTRACK: ``Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas'' (Immergent)

Daffy Duck gets Scrooged, along with fellow Warner Bros. cartoon characters Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird and the rest in this new Looney Tunes movie based on Charles Dickens' ``A Christmas Carol.'' Composer/bandleader Gordon Goodwin cut his orchestral teeth writing arrangements at California State University, Northridge, and he channels the great Carl Stalling to create cartoon music worthy of the film's Looney action. It doesn't hurt that Goodwin's crack ensemble -- the Big Phat Band-- is along for the ride. Most enjoyable are three extra Christmas-worthy Phat tracks (notably ``Yo, Tannenbaum''). A second disc of holiday sing-alongs with the Looney Tunes characters and a children's choir is strictly for Christmas -- and Looney -- completists. See the movie (already available on DVD) at 7 and 10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Dec. 3 on Cartoon Network.

-- Steven Rosenberg

VARIOUS: ``Christmastime Is Here'' (Telarc)

VARIOUS: ``Christmas Break -- Relaxing Jazz for the Holidays'' (Telarc)

Telarc does double-duty this holiday season with one disc of new material, the other a cobbled-together compilation. On ``Christmastime,'' some of the label's best singers power their way through holiday classics with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Ann Hampton Callaway, Tony DeSare, Tierney Sutton and John Pizzarelli are all here. The rest are choir tracks featuring the Indiana University Singing Hoosiers and a children's choir; good for hard-core holiday music lovers, not so much for jazz fans. ``Christmas Break'' features a truly relaxing set, with Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson and George Shearing on the piano, a wonderful ``O, Tannenbaum'' with Jim Hall on solo acoustic guitar, and the showstopping ``Ave Maria'' from fretboard legend Al Di Meola.

-- S.R.

VARIOUS: ``The Navity Story -- Sacred Songs'' (New Line Records)

This is a collection of songs that is meant as a companion to the New Line film about the birth of Jesus being released Friday. The songs, most of which won't be appearing in the film, are meant to be inspirational. Some are, including the opening number, ``O Come O Come Emmanuel'' by Jaci Velasquez. But Point of Grace's ``For Unto Us'' tries so hard, it sounds like it's out of a Disney animated film. Amy Grant give substance to her own ``Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song).'' The album seems to go from the overproduced to wonderfully simple, like Jo Dee Messina's version of ``Silent Night.'' ``Mary Did You Know?'' with vocals by Kenny Rogers and Wynonna, is a good rendition of so-so song. But Christian-music singer Nicole C. Mullen does a cool, catchy version of ``Angels We Have Heard on High.'' And LeAnn Rimes does a perfect country-tinged take of ``O Holy Night.''

-- R.L.

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Photo:

(1 -- color) SARAH McLACHLAN

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

(2 -- 5 -- color) no caption (CD covers)