Bob Dylan Christmas Album

Ok, so my wife comes home from the library with yet another Christmas album being the Christmas music freak that she is. I see it sitting on the dresser for days, with this weird looking old fashioned cover that looks like it came form the bargain bin at Zellers full of bad, no name recordings of Christmas favourites. Eventually we are standing in front of the dresser together and I make a crack about her obsession over Christmas music when she says "no, this is Dylan..seriously look..." and sure enough I take a closer look and it is a Bob Dylan Christmas album. I have to admit that I was in a bit of disbelief as that is a combination that I would never have thought of. My wife says, "I had to see what this would be like," a bit perplexed herself. Well, last night she headed out to take the girls to dance and took the CD to listen to on the way. When she returned she had an even more perplexed look on her face. The best response, however, was from my daughter who barely had words to describe it, but whose face had a look that said, "I don't know what kind of experience I just had but I think it was traumatic." Bob Dylan, whose voice just seems to get more raw and raunchy with each passing year, and Christmas music is just a odd combination to experience.
As soon as they got home, it was my chance to head out to a meeting so I took the CD with me, by this time very intrigued. I have to admit it is the best Christmas CD I have heard in a long time. I might even go as far as to say it comes second to "A Charlie Brown Christmas"... maybe. Regardless, I loved it. What I found was an beautifully weird juxtaposition of the sacred and the secular, the graceful and the gruff, the cherished and the cheesy, the consecrated and the campy. Now, I know that I have a bit of a perverse streak when it comes to music so these things, which might be all the reasons to hate this album for others, are what bring me to love it.
The album, entitled "Christmas in the Heart," is an album of 15 songs, some sacred and some secular. It has the usual secular fair including "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and some campy numbers like "Christmas Island," but what I found myself drawn to most were the secular songs. First off, kudos for including them, and so many. It doesn't shy away from the religious roots of the season. It is also here that the the sacred songs, with the wonder and awe of the story that the lyrics communicate, so abruptly collide with the gruff, gravel, I gargle with razor blades voice. But after all the versions, sung by the greatest, most refined voices in history, these versions were refreshing. There is something so real about it, and as I think about it, there is an added dimension that is missing from almost all other recordings. When he sings something like "O Little Town of Bethlehem," the lyrics capture the wonder, the arrangements and instrumentation bring us to this sacred moment in time when God, in human form and as a helpless baby, breaks into our earthly existence to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and just then Bob's voice becomes the scratchy straw, hay and wood of the common feed trough into which this Mighty God would be thrust. to me, it captures the brilliant biblical juxtaposition that is the incarnation, that is...Christmas. That and it is just plain weird at points.
Have you heard the album? What are your thoughts?