Christmas in Our Hearts

Background

According to Chan, the title track and first single of the album, Christmas in Our Hearts, was originally an arrangement titled Ang Tubig ay Buhay ("Water is Life"), based on a poem written by Chari Cruz-Zarate. He set the words to music, intending to make it a silver jubilee song for the Assumption High School Class of 1963. He described Ang Tubig ay Buhay as a very beautiful poem, which is why he found it easy to compose a tune for it:

It was a catchy, pretty melody, which I felt was too precious to use only for a Class Homecoming. So I decided to turn it into a Christmas song.

Before production started, Chan had attended Mass at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati, when songwriter Rina Canizal knocked on his car window. Canizal later wrote the words of "Christmas in Our Hearts" using Chan's melody for Ang Tubig ay Buhay.

Commercial performance

Christmas in Our Hearts is the best-selling album not only by Chan, but by an Original Pilipino Music (OPM) artist to date. Just weeks after the album was released, it was certified triple platinum by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) in 1990. In December 2006, it was awarded with a Double Diamond certification by the PARI on GMA Network's SOP (Sobrang Okey Pare) for selling more than 600,000 units in the Philippines. It makes Chan the only Filipino artist to achieve the feat, with two Double Diamond albums—the other one being Constant Change. It makes the album the best-selling OPM Christmas album of all time. In addition, it always tops album charts during Christmas season. The album has sold over 800,000 copies in the country to date.

25th Anniversary Edition

In celebration of the album's 25th anniversary, Universal Records announced on their Facebook page that Christmas in Our Hearts is to be re-released in a special 25th Anniversary Edition. It was first released online on iTunes, Spotify and Spinnr on October 30, 2015, and was released on CD on November 11, 2015.

Track listing

All tracks were produced by Jose Mari Chan.

1. "A Wish on Christmas Night" {Chan, Pinky Valdez)
2. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" {N. Regney, G. Shayne)
3. "Mary's Boy Child" {Jester Hairston)
4. "Christmas in Our Hearts" (with Liza Chan) {Chan, Canizal)
5. "A Christmas Carol" {Leslie Bricusse)
6. "A Perfect Christmas" {Chan)
7. "Give Me Your Heart for Christmas"
8. "This Beautiful Day"—Jaymie Magtoto {Bricusse)
9. "The Sound of Life" {Chan, Valdez)
10. "Christmas Children" {Bricusse)
11. "Little Christmas Tree"
12. "When a Child Is Born" {Zacar-Jay)
13. "It Is the Lord!" {Chan)
14. "The Lord's Prayer"
15. "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" {Irving Berlin)
16. "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" {Meredith Willson)

Note: In the music video version of the song called "Christmas in Our Hearts", while Liza decorates the Christmas tree, José comes down the stairs to help her finish it and close to the end, they light the candles and sit down enjoying their moment.

Personnel

Credits were taken from Titik Pilipino.