John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together on Vinyl: the 1979 RCA Original and the Reissues (2026)

If you want the record tied directly to the 1979 broadcast, buy the original RCA pressing, catalogue number AFL1-3451, in its gatefold sleeve. It was the first release of john denver and the muppets a christmas together vinyl and remains the edition most collectors mean when they say the john denver muppets christmas album. It's widely available, reasonably priced in played condition, and easy to find at used record shops every November and December.

If you specifically want a display piece — something colourful for a shelf or a gift — look instead at the Windstar-era reissues: green vinyl, pink vinyl, or the picture disc. These are not more valuable than the RCA original in most cases; they're simply a different collecting goal. Before buying either route, it's worth reading up on how to tell an original pressing from a reissue so you know exactly what you're paying for.

Because this title has been repressed more than once, and because the Windstar colour variants are often mislabelled online, it helps to see every known edition side by side — country, label, catalogue number, format, and the runout details that actually distinguish one from another. The table below is pulled from the album's Discogs master and checked on 2026-10-12.

Read this table as a timeline, not a ranking. The row that matters most for most buyers is the original 1979 RCA gatefold entry, since that's the pressing tied to the TV special itself; everything below it on the list is a later reissue aimed at fans who want the album in a new format rather than the original artifact. If you're trying to confirm which row matches a record in your hands, matching the catalogue number and country first will narrow it down faster than guessing from the cover alone.

The original a christmas together lp arrived on RCA in October 1979, timed to the ABC special "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together," which aired on 5 December 1979. The album peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and No. 13 on the Billboard country chart, and the RIAA later certified it Platinum — meaning at least a million copies shipped in the US. That sales figure is exactly why this isn't a scarce record: it was a mainstream holiday hit, pressed in large quantities and kept in print for years.

The giveaway for a true original is the gatefold sleeve itself, housing both John Denver and the Muppets cast on the cover art, paired with the RCA label and the AFL1-3451 catalogue number on the spine and labels. Foreign pressings exist too, generally on RCA's international imprints, and collectors sometimes confuse these with the domestic US issue. If you're building a broader holiday collection, this title pairs naturally with other seasonal staples covered in our guide to the best Christmas albums on vinyl.

Here's the detail most pages covering john denver christmas vinyl skip entirely: the coloured reissues were not pressed by RCA. They came out on Windstar, John Denver's own label, which also handled the album on CD in 1990 (LaserLight issued a separate CD edition in 1998, and an expanded CD followed in 2006). The Second Disc reported on 2 December 2011 that Windstar reissued the LP on "Kermit-green" vinyl, still housed in a gatefold sleeve, giving fans a modern alternative to hunting down a worn original.

• Green vinyl gatefold — the 2011 Windstar reissue reported by The Second Disc, a direct nod to Kermit's colour
• Pink vinyl pressing — a later Windstar-era colour variant aimed at the same reissue market
• Picture disc — carries the cover art printed directly onto the vinyl surface, a format collectors chase for display rather than sound quality

None of these colour pressings should be mistaken for a rare pressing from 1979. They're reissues using a different label entirely, which matters a great deal if you're trying to identify a muppets christmas vinyl copy correctly before buying or selling.

There's no single trustworthy published dollar figure for this album, and you should be skeptical of any site that states one with confidence. Because the original RCA pressing is Platinum-certified and was produced in very large numbers, it falls outside the kind of genuine scarcity that drives prices on lists like the most valuable vinyl records or our top 100 most valuable vinyl records — this is a common holiday LP, not a short-pressed rarity.

As a general rule, value on a common title like this tracks condition and completeness far more than pressing year: a clean gatefold with no splits, an unmarked inner sleeve, and a record graded Near Mint under a proper vinyl grading standards framework will always outsell a beat-up copy, regardless of which label pressed it. Coloured Windstar vinyl and the picture disc sometimes command a premium purely on visual appeal and because they're less commonly stocked secondhand, but that's a collector-demand effect, not rarity in the traditional sense. For accurate pricing context on holiday titles generally, our guide to Christmas vinyl records worth money is a better starting point than any single number quoted for this LP.

Start with the catalogue number: AFL1-3451 on the spine and labels points to the 1979 RCA pressing. If the record you're holding instead shows a Windstar logo on the label, or if the vinyl itself is green, pink, or printed with artwork as a picture disc, you're looking at a reissue, not the original broadcast-era pressing. This distinction matters whether you're buying for nostalgia or trying to flip a copy for a fair price.

Beyond the catalogue number, compare the label typography, the presence or absence of a gatefold, and the runout etching against the verified pressing table above rather than relying on a seller's description. This is exactly the kind of detail covered in our broader guide on how to identify rare vinyl, and it applies just as much to common holiday titles as it does to genuinely scarce pressings. Scanning the barcode or searching the catalogue number in an app like VinylAI can quickly confirm which edition you're holding before you commit to a price.

Because this LP was a holiday gift item for decades, surviving copies run the full spectrum from pristine, barely-played shelf copies to heavily worn records with ring wear, seam splits, and scratched vinyl from being handled every December. The gatefold itself is often the weak point: repeated opening and closing over forty-plus years leads to split spines, which knocks a copy down a full grade or more under standard criteria.

When grading your own copy, check the vinyl surface under raking light for fine scuffs, inspect both inner gatefold panels for creasing, and confirm the original inner sleeve is present if you're trying to establish completeness. Colour vinyl pressings show scuffs differently than black vinyl and can be harder to grade accurately by eye alone, so take extra care with the Windstar green and pink editions. If you're new to this process generally, our how to start a vinyl collection guide covers grading basics that apply directly to a title like this one.

Treat A Christmas Together as a condition-driven buy, not a scarcity-driven one. Decide first whether you want the historical original tied to the 1979 TV special or a colourful Windstar display piece, since both are legitimate collecting goals but shouldn't be priced the same way. Learning to tell an original from a reissue, as outlined above and in our colored vinyl guide, will save you from overpaying for a common pressing dressed up as something rarer.

Before you buy, cross-check the catalogue number and label against the verified pressing table, inspect the gatefold and vinyl surface carefully, and keep in mind that even a Platinum-certified holiday classic like this one is valued on condition first. A quick scan with VinylAI can confirm the exact edition in seconds, which is far more reliable than guessing from a listing photo alone.