New Orleans’ history of Christmas music actually begins fairly recently: For all the great records that came out of this city in the ’50s and ’60s, only a precious few of them were seasonal. Many local legends (Armstrong, Prima, Toussaint) only recorded one-off Christmas tracks, and at least one, Professor Longhair, never waxed any seasonal music at all. That all changed in the CD era, as local songwriters did their best to put some new spice into the Christmas repertoire.

This stab at an ...