The album features many standard Christmas tunes as well as a reworking edition of her Grammy-winning hit "From a Distance".

In 2008, Cool Yule was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category.

AllMusic editor Marisa Brown found that "the Divine Miss M shows off her stuff (including a very able backing band/orchestra) on all the tracks [...] and sounds good the whole time.

Because she doesn't add much to the songs that hasn't already been done before, Cool Yule may not replace anyone's [duet partner] Johnny Mathis holiday albums yet, but it's still a pretty strong collection of well-done Christmas standards from a well-known and popular artist.

[4] By July 2007, Cool Yule had sold 271,000 copies in United States according to Nielsen Soundscan.