Welcome to a special edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc's review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts. With the most wonderful time of the year officially in full swing, it's worth going back and highlighting some great holiday hits and Christmas curiosities made available to stream and download in the last month or so. Which ones are you excited to find under the tree?

Elton John, Step Into Christmas (Mercury) (iTunes / Amazon)

One of the best "recent" additions to the modern Christmas music canon, "Step Into Christmas" celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To celebrate, Elton John has released a digital mini-album that brings together many of his holiday hits: the original "Step Into Christmas" and B-side "Ho! Ho! Ho! (Who'd Be a Turkey At Christmas)"; an alternate live vocal of "Step" recorded for a Gilbert O'Sullivan British TV special; early '80s cuts "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Cold As Christmas (in the Middle of the Year)"; 2006 single "Calling It Christmas," a duet with Joss Stone; and a live version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" included in a deluxe Goodbye Yellow Brick Road box set.

Mitch Miller, Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch (Expanded Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

We're thrilled that our pals at Legacy Recordings have brought Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music's 2016 CD expansion of one of the most successful Christmas albums of all time to streaming! Are you ready to sing along with Mitch? Between 1961 and 1964, Mitch Miller invited television audiences to "follow the bouncing ball" as he conducted his cheerful chorus on musical favorites of every kind. Miller's television show was an offshoot of his hit series of Columbia "Sing Along" LPs, just one of the avenues by which Miller practically defined popular tastes in the '50s and early '60s. At Columbia Records, the onetime child prodigy and trained oboe player nurtured the careers of Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, and Doris Day, and established the role of the producer in pop music. 1958's Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch went to No. 1 on the charts and hit the Top 10 for three years after that! The LP features rousing renditions of beloved carols including "Silent Night," "Deck the Halls," "The First Noel" and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." This expanded edition adds eight rare bonus tracks including spirited versions of the Broadway favorites "Be a Santa" and "Pine Cones and Holly Berries," as well as the original recording of "Must Be Santa," a favorite of none other than Bob Dylan. Mitch also offers "Season's Greetings" and "Auld Lang Syne" from a long out-of-print holiday collection.

Jimmy Boyd, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Expanded Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

For all their enduring popularity, the short window of Christmas airplay and chart activity meant that most holiday singles rarely had massive Billboard success in their day. One notable exception: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," a 1952 chart-topper first laid down by Mississippi teen Jimmy Boyd. (It's hard to believe - or maybe it isn't - that this song caused some controversy with church groups on original release, leading Boyd to travel to Boston (where the archdiocese led a boycott on the song and explain the joke of the song to the press.) Boyd later turned to acting, with stints in the series Bachelor Father and the drama Inherit the Wind. This newly-assembled collection brings together most of the contents of a 10" of holiday tunes that followed "I Saw Mommy," plus a few various seasonal single sides he cut for Columbia afterward.

Liberace, Christmas At Liberace's (Columbia) (iTunes / Amazon)

Here's another Christmas rarity from the Columbia catalogue! 1954's Christmas at Liberace's invites listeners piano-side to hear the great man tickling the ivories in his inimitable style, accompanied by the orchestra of his brother George. Liberace's first yuletide album, it's never seen a complete and official CD release, making this digital premiere all the more welcome. (His subsequent Dot Christmas LP A Liberace Christmas, from 1963, remained in print for considerably longer.) Light up the candelabra!

Various Artists, A Country Christmas Vols. 1-4 (RCA Victor)

Vol. 1: iTunes / Amazon
Vol. 2: iTunes / Amazon
Vol. 3: iTunes / Amazon
Vol. 4: iTunes / Amazon

Between 1982 and 1985, RCA's Nashville arm assembled four LPs of old, new and non-album holiday songs by some of the biggest acts on the roster: Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Alabama, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride and more. While some are incomplete due to licensing restrictions (Ronnie Milsap and The Judds' catalogues are controlled by different labels now), they're still great listens if you're a fan of the genre and the season.

Various Artists, The Windham Hill Christmas Collection (Windham Hill/RCA/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

Having excavated much of the legendary New Age label's deeper catalogue throughout the year, Legacy caps things with a Yuletide collection that's larger than a Christmas tree: 71 recordings (clocking in at four and a half hours!) by Jim Brickman, Liz Story, Will Ackerman, Tuck Andrews and other mainstays of the Windham Hill roster.

Liz Story, Songs of Christmas (Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

Additionally, Story - the gentle pianist who's rebuilt her career this year after health issues kept her away from recording and touring - has released a super-sized Christmas collection of her own, featuring 1994 holiday album The Gift and various rare seasonal tracks from Windham Hill collections.

Various Artists, 50's Christmas Classics Vols. 1-3 (Legacy)

Vol. 1: iTunes / Amazon
Vol. 2: iTunes / Amazon
Vol. 3: iTunes / Amazon

These three packages offer truth in advertising: here's a load of rare '50s Christmas tunes from the Sony catalogue, each one running over two hours in length! There's plenty here to enjoy from stars of yesteryear including Spike Jones, Buddy Clark, The Fontane Sisters, Vaughn Monroe, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Sammy Kaye, Arthur Godfrey, Jimmy Dorsey, Dinah Shore, Gayla Peevey, The Four Lads, and more. These three volumes add up to a remarkable digital box set that will transport you back to Christmastime in the Eisenhower era. It's a nostalgic trip worth taking.

Hugo and Luigi with Their Children's Chorus, The Sound of Children At Christmas (RCA Victor) (iTunes / Amazon)

Here's another new-to-digital rarity, this time from the RCA Victor catalogue.  Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore's credits were many and diverse, from adapting "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to writing a Broadway musical (Maggie Flynn) and producing Sam Cooke, The Isley Brothers, and The Stylistics. This delightful album found them leading a children's chorus from their usual RCA New York home base of Webster Hall. Four medleys of classic carols and popular Christmas favorites comprise the LP.

Santa Claus and The Polar Elves, Santa Claus in Person (RCA Victor) (iTunes / Amazon)

Columbia rival RCA took a cue from Mitch Miller and His Sing-Along Gang for this novelty LP inviting kids of all ages to sing along...not with Mitch, but with Santa Claus himself (and his Polar Elves)! The jovial Santa Claus in Person hasn't been heard of since 1959...and now it's sounding brand-new in this digital remaster.

Robert Goulet, The Columbia Christmas Recordings (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

We already announced this one a few weeks back, but it's so nice, we've included it twice! Way back in 2014, TSD's own Joe Marchese compiled Robert Goulet's Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings release on CD for Real Gone Music, bringing together the late actor-singer's two full-length Christmas albums plus rare singles and a trio of tracks recorded with his then-wife, Carol Lawrence - all beautifully remastered by Sean Brennan at Battery Studios. While the collection included every holiday track then catalogued in Columbia Records' inventory, it turns out that one rarity was never properly documented and slipped between the cracks. "The Secret of Christmas" was composed by the Oscar-winning team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen for the 1959 film Say One for Me. Bing Crosby introduced the ballad in the Frank Tashlin-directed comedy and on record (for Columbia, natch). Though it never entered the most-recorded tier of Christmas songs, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Captain and Tennille and Julie Andrews all cut versions of their own. Goulet recorded his lush, heartfelt rendition (perhaps at the tail end of a session with Lawrence) - truly the sound of Christmas! - and it was promptly shelved for reasons unknown.

In 1978, the track showed up on a 6LP box set from Columbia Special Products with the nondescript title of The Music of Christmas. Incorrectly credited to both Goulet and Lawrence, it disappeared again...until now. Big kudos to Second Disc reader Rich D. for bringing "The Secret of Christmas" to our attention when he discovered it on the now-rare box set (so rare that a copy has never been sold on Discogs, and the album wasn't even listed on the site until recently). Our truly amazing friends at Legacy Recordings (thank you, Jeff and co.!) scoured the archives and found the pristine master which now makes its digital debut as a 30th track on the digital edition of The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings. Enjoy this moving gift from the late Robert Goulet to you; it may well be the finest recording of the song, and it's happily a secret no more.