The Greatest Gift of All, Stryper (Frontiers)

These guys carved out a niche for themselves many decades ago by being both Christian rock and heavy metal, so it's kind of surprising they haven't made more of Christmas before now. For 2025 they dropped this full album of old-school metal. The selections include the title song; "On This Holy Night," a midtempo take on the story of Jesus; "Still the Night," a fist-pumping holiday anthem; "Heaven Came (On Christmas Day)," and "Reason For the Season" as original holiday tunes by the band. They fill out the collection with a previously released version of "Winter Wonderland," plus "Go Tell It On the Mountain," "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," and "Joy to the World." Weirdly, only Amazon has the full album; Spotify and Apple have "On This Holy Night" as an EP with "Still the Light" and "Winter Wonderland." Can't say listening to real live metal once more made me particularly nostalgic, but I wouldn't want to discourage fans of the genre from adding this to their holiday library.