Christmas Portrait


Christmas Portrait is the first Christmas album and ninth studio album by the American popular music duo Carpenters, released on October 13, 1978.

Background

The album includes a revised version of the duo's signature Christmas song, "Merry Christmas Darling". It also includes one of two versions of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town".

Album artwork

The original album cover by Robert Tanenbaum is modeled on Norman Rockwell's 1960 painting, "Triple Self-Portrait", done as a cover for The Saturday Evening Post.

CD reissues

The standard CD version of Christmas Portrait, first issued in 1984, is a "Special Edition" compendium of selected tracks from the Carpenters' two Christmas albums into one 70-minute program, with tracks from each interspersed in the running order; "Ave Maria" was remixed at this time in order to include a choral track that went missing in 1978 and was later found.
In 1996, a two-CD set titled Christmas Collection was issued internationally, containing Christmas Portrait and An Old-Fashioned Christmas together in their original respective track lists. Richard Carpenter remixed most of the Christmas Portrait tracks for this release due to the original master tapes having deteriorated.

Commercial performance

On April 16, 1998, Christmas Portrait was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipment of one million copies in the United States since its 1978 release.
In December 2011, Christmas Portrait: Special Edition re-entered the Billboard 200 album sales chart at No. 150 and eventually achieved a new chart peak position of No. 126. In December 2012 and then in December 2013, the album again re-entered the Billboard 200 album sales chart and attained a new chart peak position of No. 114. In January 2019, it reached a new peak position of No. 67 on the Billboard 200. In January 2020, it reached another new peak position of No. 56 on the Billboard 200.
By the end of November 2014, Christmas Portrait was the twenty-third best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the U.S. during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking, having sold 1,950,000 copies according to SoundScan.

Track listing

All lead vocals by Karen Carpenter, except where noted.
Notes

"Merry Christmas Darling"

  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. "Mr. Guder"
  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. "Ticket to Ride"
  3. "Saturday"
  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. " Close to You"
  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. " Close to You"
  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. "You're the One"
  3. " Close to You"
  1. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  2. " Close to You"
  3. "You're the One"

    "Christmas Song"

  1. "Christmas Song"
  2. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  1. "Christmas Song"
  2. "Merry Christmas Darling"
  1. "Christmas Song"
  2. "Winter Wonderland/Silver Bells/White Christmas"

    "Silent Night"

  1. "Silent Night"
  2. "Jingle Bells"
  3. "Ave Maria"

    "Ave Maria"

  1. "Ave Maria"
  2. "Merry Christmas Darling"

    Charts