It always amazes me how many different renditions of Christmas carols and popular holiday songs there are. In fact, at this point finding a "traditional" collection of Christmas music is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Linda Eder's concert collection Christmas Stays the Same balances on the line between traditional and modern versions of holiday music; whether you like the result probably depends mainly on how much you like Linda Eder.

The 90-minute program is a filmed version of Eder's 2001 live concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena, and was originally broadcast as a "Bravo TV Special." A total of 20 songs are performed, with Eder providing a bit of an introduction to the crowd before each one.

All in all, I thought the performance was adequate but not particularly compelling. Eder has a very smooth and pleasant-sounding voice, so the vocal part of the performance is certainly handled well. However, the song arrangements are tame and uninspired. On the one hand, they're not completely faithful to the "traditional" sound (which is, of course, more relevant to something like "Silent Night" than "Here Comes Santa Claus"), so if you're looking for songs that you can immediately recognize and hum along with, these songs don't fit the bill. On the other hand, Eder's renditions aren't really innovative, either: she doesn't take any of the music in a new direction or add any particular spark to the songs.

In fact, what's probably the most damning thing to say about Christmas Stays the Same is that the title is very apt: the songs all more or less sound the same, and they all sound like the kind of thing that you'd hear being piped into a department store or an elevator. The best songs of the set are the ones that either tend more toward the traditional (like "The Little Drummer Boy") or actually take a bit of a step further away from the traditional (like "Son of a Preacher Man"). Overall, though, Christmas Stays the Same is passable but entirely forgettable.

The song list is as follows:

Christmas Stays the Same
Here Comes Santa Claus
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Don't Rain on My Parade
Christmas Through a Child's Eyes
Rudolph Medley
If I Should Lose My Way
The Bells of St. Paul
O Come, O Come Emmanuel / What Child Is This?
Silent Night
Gold
The Little Drummer Boy
Ave Maria
Do You Hear What I Hear
Vienna
O Holy Night
If I Had My Way
God Bless America

The DVD

Video

Linda Eder: Christmas Stays the Same appears in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. While the brief opening segment, with Eder outdoors at a stable, looks pretty awful, the actual concert looks quite good. The edge enhancement is too heavy in many scenes, and the middle- and longer-distance shots are rather soft, but the close-ups look excellent, and the colors look nice. Contrast is also handled very well, which is a good thing considering that Eder is wearing a black dress in front of a largely black-draped stage.

Audio

Two audio tracks are provided: a Dolby 2.0, which is the default, and a superior 5.1 track (they can be switched on the fly or from the audio menu). The 5.1 has a richer, fuller sound to it overall, mainly in the instrumental portions of the track, while the 2.0 is understandably more center-focused. Eder's voice is natural-sounding and clear in both tracks, but a shade flat-sounding even in the 5.1 track.

Extras

There are no special features on this DVD. You can select specific songs from the playlist in the menu, though.

Final thoughts

Linda Eder: Christmas Stays the Same is a rather bland concert DVD of Christmas songs. If you're a fan of Eder, you'll probably like the disc, but if you're strictly browsing for a nice compilation of holiday music, this DVD is worth a rental at best.