Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You is the third studio album, and the first holiday-themed album, from American Idol season five runner-up Katharine McPhee. The album was released on October 12, 2010. The album features mostly covers, and one original song, "It’s Not Christmas Without You". The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart and sold 1,000 copies in its first week. As of January 2011, the album has sold 23,000 copies.

In July 2010 McPhee began recording the album in Los Angeles. McPhee quoted

The title track was originally recorded by Billy Squier in 1981. It also contains many other traditional tracks, a medley of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Away in a Manger" and "Who Would Imagine a King", which was recorded by Whitney Houston in 1996 for the soundtrack of "The Preacher's Wife. Trumpeter Chris Botti accompanies McPhee on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

The music video for "It's Not Christmas Without You" (co-starring actor Joel David Moore as McPhee's love interest) premiered on the music video website Vevo on December 10, 2010.

Allmusic stated: "Arriving nine months after Katharine McPhee’s 2010 bleached-blonde AAA makeover Unbroken, Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You finds McPhee going back to her roots, returning to her brunette locks and reviving the show-stopping theatrics that made her a star on American Idol. Christmas Is the Time is an old-fashioned holiday record through and through, from the reliance on standards to the soft, roomy arrangements that allow plenty of space for McPhee to hit her high notes, all without drawing too much attention to herself. It’s a setting well suited for McPhee’s strengths, and song for song, this may be her strongest album: she does well by the standards, and the pop songs -- including “It’s Not Christmas Without You” and the title track originally sung by Billy Squier—are good adult contemporary numbers. The album is simple and lean, not intent on making McPhee into a chart star, benefiting from a seasonal formula that allows her to simply sing like she did when she was on Idol."

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