Rainy days and Mondays always made Karen Carpenter blue. Maybe she should have played her two Christmas records, Christmas Portrait and An Old Fashioned Christmas. Both are readily etched into this recent 31-piece collection--great value for fans of this brother-sister duo who captured the pop airwaves during the mid-1970s and early 80s. A number of good performances mark the collection, including songs from their Christmas TV special and a great deal of numbers backed by full orchestra prove the duo could extend their pop sensibilities to timeless holiday fare and singular works such as "Little Altar Boy," a song that Richard Carpenter claims was among his sister's greatest performances. --Martin Keller