Darren Criss Announces First-Ever Holiday Album Featuring Songs with Adam Lambert, Evan Rachel Wood

The holidays are closer than you think!

PEOPLE can exclusively announce that Darren Criss will be releasing his first-ever holiday album A Very Darren Crissmas on Oct. 8, filled with covers of holiday classics, new songs and collaborations with stars such as Adam Lambert.

"I always knew that if I ever made a Christmas album, it would have to be much more than just a collection of songs you already knew," the 34-year-old actor tells PEOPLE. "I'd want it to be a journey through songs that not only had a personal significance to my life, but also a unique introduction to songs folks had never heard before, and a re-introduction to a few they might think they know – but have never considered differently."

"Every eclectic choice led this album to feel astutely true to its namesake: a very, indisputably, 'me' Christmas," Criss adds.

A PEOPLE exclusive trailer of the album also teased the variety of tracks on the upcoming record.

"So... Darren Criss... made a holiday album," the trailer starts as clips of each song play in the background. "With songs you know, songs you don't, songs you thought you knew... and songs you never knew you needed."

And the album's cover art? Darren Criss can be seen portraying his own family: his brother Chuck, his mother and his late father opening presents on Christmas morning.

Along with dropping first single "Happy Holidays / The Holiday Season," Criss will also release jazz track "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man with the Bag" alongside Lambert, "Somewhere in My Memory" with Evan Rachel Wood and the original song "Drunk on Christmas" with country star Lainey Wilson.