Culled from Windham Hill's five best-selling
Celtic Christmas collections, this 19-track
Best Of features atmospheric yuletide classics and originals from some of contemporary Celtic music's most celebrated performers. Highlights include
Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill and
Donal Lunny's lush "Third Carol for a Christmas Day,"
Altan's "Soillse Na Nollag (The Lights of Christmas)" and former
Silly Wizard fiddler
Johnny Cunningham's "King Holly, King Oak." These are reverently performed and arranged tunes that despite their occasional nose-dive into new age, factory-preset keyboard-land, manage to provide the audio equivalent of a well-tended fireplace.