 Celine Dion worked on These Are Special Times with her longtime partners David Foster and Ric Wake, who produced most of the songs. The album contains seven original compositions: "Don 't Save It All for Christmas Day" (co-written by Celine Dion; covered by Avalon in 2000 and Clay Aiken in 2004), "Another Year Has Gone By" (written and produced by Bryan Adams), a solo version of "The Magic of Christmas Day" (recorded in 1999 as a duet with Rosie O'Donnell and included on a charity album, A Rosie Christmas), "The Prayer" (duet with Andrea Bocelli; each artist sang it solo on the 1998 soundtrack to Quest for Camelot), "Christmas Eve," "These Are the Special Times" (written by Diane Warren; covered by Christina Aguilera in 2000) and "I 'm Your Angel" (duet with R. Kelly, written and produced by Kelly). Other tracks include inspired arrangements of standards like "O Holy Night," "Blue Christmas" (Diana Krall on acoustic piano), "Adeste Fideles," "Ave Maria" and new versions of the modern classics "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Feliz Navidad." On the latter track and "Les cloches du hameau," Dion is joined by her family. In October 2007, the album was re-released as a Collector's Edition that includes a DVD of Dion's CBS television special for These Are Special Times.
