Most Christmas albums follow a setin-stone stylistic template: generic crooning, gospel-choir harmonies, the requisite sleigh bells and at least one original song about one’s baby not being around for the holidays. Michael McDonald, the reigning king of blue-eyed soul, deserves a tall mug of hot cocoa for mixing things up a bit: Season of Peace runs the gamut from greasy funk (“Children Go Where I Send Thee”) to swampy zydeco (“Christmas on the Bayou”) to traditional, violin-led folk (“Wexford Carol”), with enough room for standard Yuletide merriment. He even bursts into an abrupt vocal scat on a sassy rendition of “White Christmas/Winter Wonderland,” quoting the “wop-bop-a-loo-bop” from Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.”