Dylan's album, Christmas in the Heart, was released in October 2009, comprising such Christmas standards as "Little Drummer Boy", "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus". Critics pointed out that Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, and the Ray Conniff Singers". Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album were donated to the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme. The album received generally favorable reviews. In an interview published in The Big Issue, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan replied: "There wasn't any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too".
