The Musicians

• Al Jardine
  Al Jardine
  Alan Charles "Al" Jardine is a founding member of top-selling American music group The Beach Boys, a guitarist and occasional lead vocalist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.-Early life:...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , vocals
• Mike Love
  Mike Love
  Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
  
   - vocals
• Brian Wilson
  Brian Wilson
  Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
  
   - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , vocals
• Carl Wilson
  Carl Wilson
  Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys...
  
   - guitar, vocals
• Dennis Wilson
  Dennis Wilson
  Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , vocals

Orchestra

• Violins: Robert Barene, Arnold Belnick, Harry Bluestone, Jimmy Getzoff, Bernard Kundell, William Kurasch, Alfred Lustgarten, Lou Raderman, Henry Roth, Paul Shure, Marshall Sosson, Darrel Terwilliger
• Cellos: Jesse Ehrlich, Armand Kaproff, Raymond Kelley, Karl Rossner, Joseph Saxon, Frederick Seykora
• Harp
  Harp
  The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
  
  : Dorothy Ramsen
• Woodwinds: Gene Cipriano, Billy Green, Robert Jung, Wilbur Schwartz
• Trumpets: Virgil Evans, Henry Laubach, Oliver Mitchell, Al Porcino
• Trombones: Urbie Green, Lew McCreary, Richard Nash
• French horns: David Duke, Arthur Maebe, Richard Perissi
• Tuba
  Tuba
  The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
  
  : George "Red" Callender
• Piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  : Eugene DiNovi
• Guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  : Al Viola
• Bass: Clifford Hils
• Drums: Frankie Capp
• Percussion: Bones Howe
  Bones Howe
  Dayton Burr "Bones" Howe is a Grammy-award-winning record producer and recording engineer associated with 1960s and 1970s hits, mostly of the sunshine pop genre, including most of the hits of The 5th Dimension and The Association, as well as music supervision of several films...
  
  

• • Orchestra Conducted by Benjamin Barrett
  • Special Arrangements by Dick Reynolds

Singles

• "Little Saint Nick" b/w "The Lord's Prayer" (Capitol 5096), 2 December 1963 US #3 (on Christmas chart)
• "The Man with All the Toys" b/w "Blue Christmas" (Capitol 5312), 16 November 1964 US #3 (on Christmas chart)

Reissues

• The Beach Boys' Christmas Album was first issued on CD
  Compact Disc
  The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
  
   in 1988, with the single mix of "Little Saint Nick" (in mono and with overdubbed sleigh bells) replacing the stereo LP version as the first track. It was reissued on CD in 1991, with the stereo "Little Saint Nick" reinstated as the leadoff track and four bonus tracks added: the single version of "Little Saint Nick", its B-side "The Lord's Prayer", and alternate takes of "Little Saint Nick" (utilizing the melody from the group's song "Drive-In") and "Auld Lang Syne".

• 1998 saw the release of Ultimate Christmas
  Ultimate Christmas
  Ultimate Christmas is a 1998 seasonal compilation of music by The Beach Boys released on Capitol Records. It rounds up all of the tracks from 1964's The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, including alternate versions of its lead single, "Little Saint Nick", while also including the extremely rare 1974...
  
  , a new CD compilation containing all of the tracks from the original LP, all of the bonus tracks from the previous CD except for "The Lord's Prayer", and 11 additional tracks including the 1974 single "Child of Winter
  Child of Winter
  "Child of Winter " is a Christmas song written by Brian Wilson and Stephen Kalinich ....
  
  " and several previously-unreleased tracks from an aborted 1977 Christmas album.

• Christmas with the Beach Boys, issued in 2004, is essentially a reissue of Ultimate Christmas with a new title and cover art and one song ("Christmas Time Is Here Again") deleted from the tracklist. Like Ultimate Christmas, it omits "The Lord's Prayer" from the "Little Saint Nick" single.

• Christmas Harmonies, a 2009 compilation, includes 11 of the 12 tracks from the original LP (including the single mix of "Little Saint Nick" and rare mono mixes of the other Wilson/Love compositions), as well as the alternate take of "Auld Lang Syne", the "Child of Winter" single, and two of the 1977 tracks.

Sources

• The Beach Boys' Christmas Album CD booklet notes, David Leaf
  David Leaf
  David Leaf is an American writer, producer and director known for documentaries, music programs and pop culture retrospectives. Among his best known documentaries are The Night James Brown Saved Boston , The U.S. vs. John Lennon and Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE...
  
  , c.1990.
• Ultimate Christmas CD booklet notes, Brad Elliott, c.1998
• The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience, Timothy White, c. 1994.
• Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story, Brian Wilson
  Brian Wilson
  Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
  
   and Todd Gold, c. 1991.
• Top Pop Singles 1955-2001, Joel Whitburn
  Joel Whitburn
  Joel Carver Whitburn is an American author and music historian.Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970, and put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of Billboards music and video charts...
  
  , c. 2002.
• Top Pop Albums 1955-2001, Joel Whitburn, c. 2002.
• Allmusic.com