A Christmas Album is the fifth studio album and the first Christmas album by Christian music singer Amy Grant. The album was recorded in nine studios in mid-1983 and was released later that same year.
It was issued on the heels of Grant's immensely successful 1982 LP Age to Age. Primarily for the audiences she attracted with Age to Age, A Christmas Album features well-known sacred and secular standards alongside original songs, and tracks from this album continue to receive airplay to this day during the holiday season on both secular and Christian radio stations. Although not as successful as Age to Age, A Christmas Album still peaked in the Top Ten of the Christian chart and spawned a Top 20 Christian radio single in "Emmanuel." The album would eventually be certified Gold in 1985, and Platinum in 1989.[2]A Christmas Album was listed at No. 40 in the 2001 book, CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music. In 2016, Grant re-recorded the song "Tennessee Christmas" as the opening track of her Christmas album of the same name. The song was released as a single from the album and charted at No. 50 on the BillboardHot Christian Songs chart in December 2016.[3]
A Christmas Album was the first Amy Grant album to be released in the Compact Disc format. The original CD issue had a manufacturing flaw that caused a small, but noticeable jump during the transition between tracks 3 and 4. The remastered version does not have this defect. The album was also released as a promotional only vinyl picture disc version in a die cut sleeve.