Review: Christmas Worship

Worship leaders everywhere – Your prayers have been heard.

Because we all love traditional Christmas hymns in December, right? And it only seems fitting we should sing them in church, but then … they often don’t feel like praise and/or worship. Right?

Paul Baloche’s first Christmas album (ever) releases today, appropriately titled Christmas Worship. From the PR:

Baloche says, “We all love the content of Christmas carols, but often they don’t facilitate a vertical expression of worship towards the Lord. So the idea of this album was to take classic Christmas carols that we all enjoy singing and combine them with modern worship choruses to encourage worship all throughout the Christmas season.”

Nailed it 

I wasn’t really paying attention to the theme of the album the first time I hit Play. I hadn’t read the press release yet. I just knew it was mid-October and I was importing a Christmas album. So when “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” rolled right into the chorus of “King of Heaven,” I was a little surprised … and then a little excited.

Then, “O Come Let Us Adore” seamlessly became “We Adore You,” and a really spunky version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” got a fun, new “Deo” chorus.

There are new songs too, of course, and some are not necessarily Christmas songs. I have to say, though, the Christmas hymn/contemporary mash-ups are my favorites. After a few originals, Baloche gets back to it by turning “This Is Love” into “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” and “Joy To The World” (albeit not really a Christmas song) into “Shout For Joy.”

Good stuff, and not just for worship leaders. This is great for the Christmas music playlist you’re going to start rocking at home in a few weeks, or for the collection that stays in your car. Drops today. Check it out.

Disclaimer: Integrity Music sends me free, pre-release copies so I’ll tell you what I think of them. The opinions expressed above are completely my own.