A Very Trainor Christmas is a Christmas album and the fourth major-label studio album by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. Honest OG Recording and Epic Records released it on October 30, 2020. Trainor involved her family members in the creation, co-writing its songs with her brothers, Ryan and Justin, among others. Featured artists include Earth, Wind & Fire, Seth MacFarlane, Trainor's cousins Jayden, Jenna, & Marcus Toney, and her father, Gary. The album includes cover versions of Christmas standards, such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951) and "Last Christmas" (1984), as well as six original recordings.
Trainor promoted A Very Trainor Christmas with public appearances and televised performances. It was supported by the single release of Trainor and MacFarlane's cover of "White Christmas" (1942), which reached number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. Several other tracks received music videos. Critical commentary for the album was generally positive, with praise directed towards Trainor's charisma and the material. It reached number seven on the US Top Holiday Albums chart and the top 50 in the Netherlands and Sweden. A deluxe edition was released on October 29, 2021.
Background
Meghan Trainor forayed into Christmas music by contributing the original song "I'll Be Home" to the Epic Records extended play I'll Be Home for Christmas in 2014. She featured on Brett Eldredge's cover version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1944), for his 2016 album Glow, and released a cover version of "White Christmas" (1942) two years later for a Spotify playlist.
In January 2020, shortly before the release of Trainor's third major-label studio album, Treat Myself (2020), Billboard announced that she had started writing original Christmas songs, planning to release them later in the year. Three months into the COVID-19 lockdowns, she decided that it was the right time to complete her Christmas album: "We're gonna be here for a minute. Let's do the album now while we're stuck at home and not traveling." With the gloom surrounding the world at the time, her intention with the project was to "spread some joy this year". In a June 2020 interview, Trainor stated that she had been "trying to finish my Christmas album", further confirming the project.
Trainor recalled that most of the work for the album, including the photoshoot, was done in July and August when the weather was hot. Trainor pre-recorded two music videos and fifteen performances five months into her pregnancy, for later use. She wanted the album to feel like "a pop Christmas", something that could be played throughout the year, and decided to include original songs along with covers. On September 9, 2020, Trainor officially announced the album title as A Very Trainor Christmas on her social media accounts, along with the release date and artwork, which features her biting a candy cane while clad in a Christmas hat and a tinsel and bows-adorned dress. A trailer for the album was released the following day, consisting of home footage of Trainor and her family.
Composition
Trainor's entire family participated in the creation of A Very Trainor Christmas, as songwriters, background vocalists, producers, and instrumentalists. Her cousins Jayden, Jenna & Marcus Toney, and father, Gary, appear as featured artists, while her brother Justin took part in production and songwriting and Ryan in the latter. Regarding this decision, Trainor stated that she is "a Christmas baby", and had always dreamed of releasing "a Christmas album and to do it with my family makes it that much better". Earth, Wind & Fire and Seth MacFarlane were chosen as collaborators due to them being her family's interminable preferences. Trainor stated that her family "worship[s] the ground they walk on – so to get them to feature on this album still doesn't feel real. Best Christmas Present Ever!"
A Very Trainor Christmas contains ten cover versions of Christmas standards, such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951) and "Last Christmas" (1984), as well as six original recordings—"My Kind of Present", "I Believe in Santa", "Holidays", "Christmas Party", "Christmas Got Me Blue", and "Naughty List". A Target edition of the album includes "I'll Be Home" and a cover version of "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (1964). The deluxe version includes the original song "Christmas Coupon", and covers of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (1963).