The last few years have been sad ones for Christmas CDs, with few new discs of note. The Staple Singers’ The 25th Day of December, though is an excellent reissue from 1962 recorded well before their ’70s heyday on Stax. This collection of carols are defined structurally by folk and blues, but the personality in Pops and Mavis’ voices takes them out of church and out of genres, making the versions sound like expressions of their personalities.