It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

VARIOUS ARTISTS; "The Essential Winter's Solstice" (Windham Hill/Legacy)

More than 20 years ago, a little, independent record company in northern California was producing a new genre of instrumental recordings by such artists as George Winston, Will Ackerman, Alex de Grassi and Liz Story. With classical, folk, jazz and other overtones, it went without category until someone else (not them) dubbed it New Age. By 1985, Windham Hill was successful enough that the idea of producing a joint Christmas album came up. The result was the first "Winter Solstice." A tradition was born and eventually eight "Solstice" and "Christmas" albums came along. In honor of that 20-year anniversary, this is a two-disc collection of the most popular songs from those collections. — C.W.

VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Hot Apple Cider" (TSSA)

The Timpanogos Singer/Songwriter Alliance serves up a varied menu in this compilation album. It's a sampler of genres — everything from Celtic to folk to country to pop to blues — as well as a mixture of instrumental, vocal and group performances. There's a lot of originality, with a few new interpretations of traditional songs stirred in. And it all works well together. Especially flavorful are Jesse Thurgood's original "Angels"; Carrie Scott and JaNae Kotter's blend of "Still, Still, Still" and "Silent Night"; Jeff Hinton and Quint Randle with a countryesque "I Still Believe"; and Skye Pixton's soft and airy "Angels We Have Heard On High." Also contributing are Eclipse, Sam Payne, Shawn Cavalli, One Voice Children's Choir, Peter Breinholt, Jon Schmidt, Fiddlesticks, Russ Kendall and Amy Gileadi and Johnny and the Rebels. — C.W.

VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Nick Holiday" (Nick Records/Sony)

Kids (and adults) who want a little fun in their holiday music can kick back and laugh along with these 14 songs sung by various Nickelodeon cable-channel characters. SpongeBob SquarePants and friends ham it up with "The Very First Christmas," Dora the Explorer and her crew discover "Feliz Navidad," then the gang from "Blues Room" do "Spin Dreidel Spin" and "Jingle Bells," whiled Jimmy Neutron and his family and friends think about "Basking in the Warmth of Christmas." The Rugrats bunch has three tracks — "Twelve Days of Rugrats," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Toys for the Girls." — S.I.

VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Taste of Christmas" (Warcon)