For the title cut of Neil Diamond’s third Christmas album, he worked the titles of songs from his catalogue into the lyric. That sounds jokey, but the song is charming as it swells and grows from verse to verse. He has strings, horns and chimes backing him as he makes essentially silly lyrics uplifting and meaningful, and that spirit of straight-faced, self-aware fun characterizes the album. As a singer, he uses a gritty, rock ’n’ roll burr on some phrases for urgency, even if it’s just to get someone to take a sleigh ride with him, and when he adopts a voice-of-wisdom tone, he’s credible, no matter how clichéd the insight. A Cherry Cherry Christmas ends by dealing with the awkward reality that many of the great Christmas songs were written or performed by Jews. For the occasion, he covers Adam Sandler’s “The Chaunukah Song,” and only the hard rock guitar winks to the listener; Diamond sings it as seriously as possible. That commitment and good humor makes the album a winner, though only the title track is necessary.