Eileen Ivers performs Saturday in Branchburg

“It’s just something I didn’t think about,” Ivers said. “I’ve been making albums for awhile (since 1994) but I didn’t think about this kind of a show. But I ended up really enjoying making that album and doing the Christmas shows.”

What makes Ivers’ holiday concerts work is that the events are different than most of her peers' shows.

“That’s the way it has to be,” Ivers said. “It can’t be like any other show. My Christmas show has to have some of the unusual.”

Her Christmas album was hardly typical. The album has some traditional, some popular and just enough quirky.

“I wanted to have a little bit of everything on the disc,” Ivers said. “It’s good to have some funny songs on there, some offbeat ones to balance the traditional.”

Ivers, 46, who will perform Saturday (Dec. 17) at the Theatre at Raritan Valley Community College with her band, Immigrant Soul, impresses with such traditional songs as "The Wexford Carol," "The Holly Tree" and "Hark The Herald Angels Sing." Ivers offers a terrific version of "Deck the Halls."

“I love doing that song,” Ivers said. “ 'Deck the Halls' goes back 2,000 years with an Irish hornpipe. It’s a wonderful song to do.”

And then there are the off-kilter Irish songs, such as "Don Oiche Ud I Mbeithill."

“There really is nothing as fun as doing the Christmas songs,” Ivers said. “It’s incredibly satisfying. Maybe I enjoy it so much because the Christmas show is different every year. But what I like is that it has the same feel. You can see the joy in the audience during the show and afterward. I come out in the lobby and say hi and hug those who come out. It’s like a big party.”

The party is over for Ivers after the holidays. She will finish work on her next album, "Beyond the Bog Road," in January. The disc, which will not be previewed at the show, will drop during the middle of 2012.