Happiest Season (Music From and Inspired By the Film), various artists (Atlantic)

It's definitely progress that one of the most hyped holiday film debuts in 2020 has a plot revolving around two lesbian lovers trying to navigate Christmas traditions. (There's no shortage of naysayers about this, but to hell with them.) It's also so 2020 that the film is premiering not in theaters, but on streaming site Hulu. Although this soundtrack is nominally a "various artists" collection, it would be an incomplete overview if I didn't acknowledge that most of these songs were created just for this collection by a group of performer-writer-producers including Daniel Crean, Eren Cannata, Justin Tranter, Kennedi Lykken, Caroline Pennell, and Shea Diamond. They work their modern pop-chart magic on a solid uptempo "Jingle Bells" featuring BAYLI, and typically reverent versions of "O Holy Night" from Jake Wesley Rogers and "Silent Night" by LP. Originals include Anne-Marie's exuberant "Think of Christmas," Brandy Clark's poppy strum "Only Time of Year," kennedi's dreamy waltz "Christmas Morning," and Carlie Hanson's folky "Chosen Family," an ode to the oft-raised notion that people have birth families and chosen families. I definitely want to highlight Shea Diamond's neo-soul contributions to this collection, the Specter-influenced duet with Bebe Rexha "Blame It On Christmas," and his "Mrs. Claus," yet another female-positive reclaiming of the Christmas myth. Also appearing here is Sia's "Candy Cane Lane" from her Christmas album of a couple years ago, and a new midtempo holiday song from Tegan and Sara, "Make You Mine This Season." Plenty of contemporary hit fun for your playlists.