Sarah McLachlan said making the holiday album Wonderland — a decade after releasing Wintersong — should make one thing clear: She loves Christmas.
“I am serious fan of Christmas,” McLachlan told Billboard. “It’s my favourite time of year. I have an insane amount of decorations. My kids are really into it.”
At her B.C. home, McLachlan hosts an open house potluck on Christmas Eve where friends and family members sing carols.
Wonderland was recorded in Montreal and Vancouver with producer Pierre Marchand and features musical contributions from Montreal band Half Moon Run and the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra.
McLachlan, who will be 49 in January, said it wasn’t easy coming up with a second holiday album.
“The first one was challenging enough — how I would lend my voice to it and create something new,” she recalled. “It was even harder this time.”
In addition to recording “obvious Christmas songs” like “Let It Snow,” “White Christmas” and “Silver Bells” — as well as the traditional Canadian song “Huron Carol” — McLachlan said she wanted to include songs that expressed the feeling of the season.
One of those is the 19th century spiritual song “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” which features the vocals of Emmylou Harris and Montreal’s Martha Wainwright. (Other Canadian artists to cover the song include Anne Murray and Bruce Cockburn.)
A bonus on one edition of the album is Randy Newman’s 1967 song “Snow,” which McLachlan described as “wonderfully depressing.”
She said: “Christmas is a tough time for some people and there’s such beauty in that loneliness and sadness.”
In the Billboard interview, McLachlan said she does not typically play a lot of music in her home. “It’s always in my head,” she explained.
But the Halifax-born singer said her daughters — 14-year-old India Ann Sushil and 9-year-old Taja Summer — are “hugely” into music.
“There’s always competing music in various rooms in the house,” she said, “so it’s a bit of a din, actually.”