Has unpredictable weather made it hard for you to maintain appropriate levels of holiday spirit? The right Christmas album can help, especially when it’s wafting out of your living-room stereo rather than piping in through department-store speakers. It’s not really a holiday until the melancholy chords of Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas ($14.98) skate by, peppered here and there by the cartoon characters’ voices. Their classic status may only be rivaled by Nat King Cole — the famous The Christmas Song is only one of the standards that Cole makes his own on a collection ($18.98) that was freshly remastered not long ago. Aside from Cole, few other singers are as closely identified with the season as Bing Crosby; of the plentiful compilations of his Yuletide offerings, this one, at $11.99, appears to offer the best selection for the price. A slightly wider mid-century variety can be had on Christmas with the Rat Pack ($18.98), where Frankie, Dino, and Sammy finger-snap their way through the classics. Hipster’s Holiday ($17.98) offers an eclectic and occasionally irreverent lineup, including Eartha Kitt’s seductively greedy Santa Baby. If you simply must have some seasonal novelty tunes, this collection selected by Dr. Demento ($17.98) is probably the way to go, and it does offer gems like Bob & Doug McKenzie’s Twelve Gifts of Christmas. Still, we can’t be held responsible for any violence that might erupt upon repeated playing of track 3, the barking-dog version of Jingle Bells.