The Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection

The Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection is Reba McEntire's twenty-third studio album, and second Christmas album, the follow-up to her 1987 album Merry Christmas to You. The album features mostly new, original holiday tunes with only a couple of traditional favorites. The children featured on "The Angels Sang" are actually the class of her son Shelby who was in the third grade at the time. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard country chart and is currently certified Gold by the RIAA.It has sold 940,000 copies as of December 2013 in the US, and over 1 million copies worldwide.

The album was followed by a CBS made-for-television movie also called Secret of Giving. The film starred McEntire and aired on Thanksgiving night in 1999. It featured songs from the album as its soundtrack.

Personnel

 * Reba McEntire – lead vocals, arrangements
 * Jimmy Nichols – keyboards, backing vocals
 * B. James Lowry – acoustic guitar
 * Biff Watson – acoustic guitar
 * Jeff King – electric guitar
 * Brent Mason – electric guitar
 * Jerry McPherson – electric guitar
 * Terry Crisp – steel guitar
 * Paul Franklin – steel guitar
 * Richard "Spady" Brannan – bass guitar
 * Glenn Worf – bass guitar, upright bass
 * Eddie Bayers – drums
 * Paul Leim – drums
 * Eric Darken – percussion
 * Larry Franklin – fiddle
 * Will Smith – autoharp
 * Joe Chemay – backing vocals
 * Liana Manis – backing vocals

Production

 * David Malloy – producer
 * Reba McEntire – producer
 * Derek Bason – engineer, digital editing
 * Kevin Beamish – engineer, mixing
 * Daniel Kresco – engineer, assistant engineer, mix assistant
 * Steve Marcantonio – engineer
 * J. R. Rodriguez – engineer, assistant engineer
 * Alex Chan – assistant engineer
 * Scott McCutcheon – assistant engineer
 * Patrick Murphy – assistant engineer
 * Denny Purcell – mastering
 * Carole Ann Mobley – production coordinator
 * Cindy Owen – art direction
 * Karen Cronin – design
 * Ron Davis – photography
 * Sandi Spika – hairstylist, wardrobe
 * Narvel Blackstock – management