Jill Barber has always had a voice steeped in nostalgia, the kind that glows like candlelight and lingers like memory. So it feels almost surprising that it took this long for her to cut a Christmas album. She finally dives in with A Holly Jolly Jill Barber Christmas, a collection shaped by the same holiday touchstones that opened the season for her growing up in Canada. Think Bing Crosby’s velvet warmth, Ella Fitzgerald’s sparkle, Nat King Cole’s glow, and the pure joy of the Muppets harmonizing their way through “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Those records were far from background noise. For Barber, they were the atmosphere, the sounds that made everything feel possible.

Produced and arranged by Grammy-nominated Drew Jurecka, the album leans into that world with style and intention. Jurecka surrounds Barber with sweeping strings, while a tight jazz band with Ewen Farncombe on piano, Nathan Hiltz on guitar, Chris Banks on bass and Davide Direnzo on drums gives the songs a soft swing and a sense of ease. It is the kind of production that never shouts, it glows.

Barber brings a few surprises too. She teams up with her brother Matthew Barber for a sweet sibling duet on “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” turns “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” into something sly and sultry, and gives Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” a big-band lilt. She even adds two brand-new originals to the mix, songs written just for this moment in her catalog, and they fit effortlessly into the set, warm, tuneful, unmistakably her.

A Holly Jolly Jill Barber Christmas is built for December in all its moods. It works for cocktail parties and quiet nights alike, background glow or front-and-center soundtrack. Most importantly, it feels like Jill Barber joining the holiday canon she grew up loving. A record made to return to, year after year, the way the great ones always do.