Longtime fans of the Prefab Four will recall their 1967 rendition of "Riu Chiu" and the 1976 single "Christmas Is My Time of Year," which are the two bonus cuts on this otherwise freshly produced album from 2018 if you buy the CD from Target. Following on from Good Times, the Adam Schlesinger-produced reunion album from 2017, this album was put together in much the same way with the same producer, with only one actual Monkee per track. Most of the new recordings are solid power pop featuring Micky Dolenz with Schlesinger and other musicians, and these include Andy Partridge's "Unwrap You at Christmas" and Rivers Cuomo's "What Would Santa Do," the shambling title song written by Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey, "House of Broken Gingerbread" written by novelist Michael Chabon and Schlesinger, and covers of Big Star's "Jesus Christ," Roy Wood's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday," Sir Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime," and a swampy version of "Merry Christmas Baby." The late Davy Jones is brought into the proceedings via unreleased performances he recorded in 1991 that were punched up by the producers, "Mele Kalikimaka" and "Silver Bells." Mike Nesmith flew in performances of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" and "Snowfall" that were largely produced by his sons Jonathan and Christian, and Peter Tork makes a single appearance on banjo and vocals for "Angels We Have Heard on High." If the descriptions make you think this album was patched together with Scotch tape and baling wire, don't let that put you off sampling at least some of it, particularly the four freshly written songs.
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