Crosby, Como, Guaraldi… Mariah… these are the voices of Christmas, inclined to make even the most Grinch-like among us smile with holiday cheer. Elsewhere I have listed at great length what one should hear at Christmas, and until this year I’ve had one singer as a few meager tracks in the sizable playlists I’ve compiled.

This year I place Ingrid Michaelson, pride of Staten Island, Binghamton University, and shopping soundtracks everywhere, beyond those meager tracks and among the true practitioners of Christmas measure.

Last Saturday I had the privilege to see Miss Michaelson (seems a bit formal for someone I went to college with) at the Lincoln Theatre in downtown D.C., and I don’t think I can now go a holiday season without it. I’d seen Ingrid a number of times over the past near 20 years, but never at Christmas, though I know she brings the act at least to New York and Washington every year. Add this one to the schedule, and remind me to visit the Lincoln in ordinary time as well.

Ingrid and her girls–they were billed as “Ingrid Michaelson Trio”–are this generation’s answer to the Andrews Sisters or the Ronettes, nostalgic but hip as adult interpreters of song. No kiddie pop here–these are real musicians bringing grownup Christmas, but with a touch childlike innocence as well. Kinda like a Charlie Brown, and not too far removed from the holiday as a whole, this is what Christmas is all about.