Get in the holiday mood with Garth Brooks, R. Kelly and more

Just after you throw away your Halloween costume and start marinating your signature dishes for Thanksgiving, you'll usually do one more thing: pull out that dusty Christmas CD or cue up a playlist on Spotify.

[...] every year, more and more pop stars tackle the Christmas album, hoping to soothe your ears with cheery songs and create timeless holiday music of their own creation, like Mariah Carey did with "All I Want for Christmas Is You," released in 1994 but still popular today.

Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, and Kacey Musgraves are some of the brave souls who have entered the challenge of creating original holiday music, mixed with the classics, while She & Him and Sarah McLachlan stick to tradition.

Given R. Kelly's track record, you wouldn't be wrong to expect his first Christmas album to be raunchy, over-the-top camp, complete with double entendres about Christmas logs and stuffed stockings.

[...] R. Kelly always does the unexpected, and he delivers a surprise on "12 Nights of Christmas" with a charming collection of original songs that could be future Christmas classics.

[...] that's not to say there isn't any sex talk, but it's not explicit, just PG-rated references to lovemaking that won't make grandma blush at the holiday gathering.

Brooks has the fun song "Ugly Christmas Sweater" that features the humorous lyrics he's been known to write on hits like "Friends in Low Places."

The highlight is "A Willie Nice Christmas," honoring fellow Texan Willie Nelson, who adds trademark picking and smoky vocals on lines like "May we all stay higher than the angel on the top of the tree."

The Grammy winner's angelic voice suits seasonal songs perfectly, and the trademark way her soprano breaks on certain high notes gives new feeling to these mostly classic carols.

Emmylou Harris, Martha Wainwright, Canada's indie rock band Half Moon Run and the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra add depth and resonance on several of the 13 tracks.

Here, that effort sometimes sounds forced — cue the clunky percussion arrangement on "Angels We Have Heard on High" and the thumping orchestral background on "Let It Snow."