In addition to piano accompaniment on the title track by its composer Jim Brickman, this particular holiday release of original recordings (number six for Mathis) is distinguished by duets with guest vocalists Susan Boyle, Natalie Cole, Gloria Estefan, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Billy Joel, and The Jordanaires.

Mathis recalls, "My producer, Fred Mollin, and I wanted to do some duets,"[7] and the number of singing partners for this one project far exceeded the tally of pairings arranged for any of his previous studio albums.

In addition to covering several familiar holiday favorites "we decided that we wanted a newer song and we came up with Jim Brickman's ["Sending You a Little Christmas"].

"[6] Joe Szczechowski of Examiner.com was a bit more equivocal in his comments, describing it as a "solid" collection with Mathis in "fine vocal shape" but finding it lacking in comparison with his previous Christmas albums in noting that "there's nothing on Sending You a Little Christmas that would be considered a landmark recording.

[5] Mathis appeared on the ABC daytime talk show The View on December 9, 2013,[9] to perform "Sending You a Little Christmas" and was also interviewed during the visit by Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, and guest co-host Clinton Kelly.