Liner notes: "A strong whisper going the rounds in America is that although there's still a lot of mileage left in Bing Crosby's classic 'White Christmas', a young man called Richard Carpenter is proving a serious rival to the old crooner's popularity via 'Merry Christmas Darling', a suitably festive love song he composed and sings with sister, Karen - as the Carpenters.
'Merry Christmas Darling' is, of course, title track of this A&M collection of timeless Christmas tunes featuring everyone from Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, doing firm family favourites like 'Winter Wonderland' and 'Sleigh Ride',. to folk like lovely Claudine Longet with Randy Newman's 'Snow' and a novelty number from Liza Minelli.
The popular Baja Marimba Band recount the 12 days of Christmas through 'A Partridge in a Pear Tree', plus Julius Wechter's arrangement of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'.
While the Sergio Mendes group give their version of 'The Christmas Song'. The latter track is not to be confused
with 'A Christmas Song' from Shawn Phillips, which itself is being classed as a classic."