Should you buy any of the NOW That's What I Call Christmas! CDs? Well, that depends. Are you the type of person who buys a whole CD just to get one or two songs off of it? If so, here's a good way to get, say, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", Elton John's "Step Into Christmas," and Burl Ives' rendition of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" all in one simple package. Back in 2001 when Volume 1 of NOW That's What I Call Christmas! was released, that probably would have made sense, but now, when it's so easy (and so much cheaper) to buy individual songs from online stores like iTunes, it really isn't your best option to buy a two-disc set just for a handful of tracks.

If, however, you are looking for a kind of "Christmas music sampler," then these NOW discs are ideal, providing a far broader mix of all Christmas music flavors than one might initially expect. But are you prepared for the jarring range of genres represented in these mixes, and are you going to find enough songs to justify a purchase of the entire albums?

Personally, I think you'd be better off buying your favorite tracks individually and making your own, personal Christmas mix instead of just buying someone else's, especially when that mix seems to be trying to satisfy all tastes in music at once. But, hey, like I said, everyone's got a different preference for Christmas music, and maybe yours is "toss-everything-into-one-pile, random-assed."