Sufjan Stevens - that was the worst christmas ever, 2006

"Something about Sufjan’s voice paired with the sparse acoustic arrangements really gets across the barrenness of a Midwestern winter, when everything is blanked out by snow. Christmas is supposed to be a colorful light in the middle of that, but sometimes it isn’t, and amid the celebrations represented elsewhere in the world and on these albums, Sufjan makes sure to make a place for those Christmases."