 Clarkson has cited the color red as the album 's only theme . A color traditionally associated with Christmas , she affiliated the color to various emotions in the holidays . Wanting to stray away from her usual pop sound , she described Wrapped in Red 's music as a representation to explore different genres such as jazz , country and Memphis soul . She recalled , " What 's cool about Christmas albums is you can do jazz , rock and roll , you can do pop , you can do blues , like you can do all that stuff and it works — cause it 's all classic and it 's <unk> sounding . " She also noted that the album 's multitude of styles positively contributes to her artistic goal , saying , " My best friend from childhood heard it and said , ' This is what you sound like , before everything else . ' And I agree , It 's my core sound . Back in the day , when artists came out with things like " Fall to <unk> " and " Bridge over <unk> Water " , those songs <unk> genres . It wasn 't , ' Where is it going to fit ? ' You <unk> to whatever the song calls for . And that 's exactly what I did — without having to have an umbrella for everything . " 
