The end of November not only marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, it's also the unofficial end of the year for music releases (no coincidence there!). That means it's also time for us to release our Top 12 picks for the best Christian albums of 2001.

With so many incredible music releases to choose from this year, we asked a couple of editors from our sister publications to contribute to our selection process. Then, using sophisticated methodology ("Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish … "), we created an official list that reflects the overlap between our picks. The result is a best-of list we feel truly represents the cream of the crop. Also, click on any of the editors' names to view each of our individual lists, which feature a few more albums that didn't make the final cut. As always, you can click on any album image in the lists to listen to sound clips and buy the album at Musicforce.com.

Our music panel included the following contributors:

Andy Argyrakis, freelance music critic for the music channel.Russ Breimeier, music critic and co-director for the music channel.Camerin Courtney, associate editor for Today's Christian Woman magazine, as well as the singles and music channels.Michael Herman, co-director for the music channel.Mark Moring, managing editor for Campus Life magazine.

And now, without further ado, here are our winners:

#12

Katy Hudson

Katy Hudson

Red Hill

Camerin: " … writes her own songs … vulnerably lays her fears, longings, weaknesses, and growing pains before listeners … "

Russ: " … rife with the musical maturity and intelligence of a twentysomething. She's just 17 years old!"

#11

Stereotype Be

Kevin Max

Forefront

Camerin: "Kevin Max's voice has long been one of my favorites … with his cool moody, U2/Sting-ish sound … "

Mike: " … nuanced performance and production … expect something different, and Stereotype Be will take you a step further than that."

#10

Big Surprise

The Elms

Sparrow

Russ: " … perfectly balance beautiful melodies and simple rock and roll, with a bit of creative imagination thrown in."