Jake Shimabukuro’s concert will include songs from his new “Tis The Season” album. Sienna Morales

Just in time for his “Holidays In Hawaii” Tour show at the MACC on Saturday, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro has released his first holiday album, “Tis The Season.”

The Maui show features Shimabukuro performing with friends, bassist Jackson Waldhoff and Justin Kawika Young of Seven Suns. Young is among the guests on “Tis The Season,” singing on “All I Want For Christmas is You,” “O Holy Night” and “This Christmas.”

“We’ve been doing holiday shows for the last four years with Justin Kawika Young,” Shimabukuro explained. “People kept asking, ‘When are you guys going to come out with an album?’ So finally we were able to get all of us in the studio. It was so much fun.”

Highlights include a ‘ukulele duet with Michael McDonald on “Winter Wonderland” (with a closing little Santa laugh), recorded on Maui at the Paia Town Recording studio. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh I thought Michael McDonald was singing on it?’ No, he’s actually playing the ‘ukulele. And they’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ He’s a really fantastic player, such a special talent.”

Yo-Yo Ma joins him on John Lennon’s peace classic “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” which was originally released on Ma’s Grammy-winning CD “Songs of Joy and Peace,” and the late Jimmy Buffett sings “Mele Kalikimaka.”

“It’s hard to listen to that one, and you get a little teary,” he said. “That was my first time recording something in his iconic Key West studio.”

Other guests include Paula Fuga, Kimie Miner and Ana Vee singing a fun, soulful “Jingle Bells,” and Pure Heart performing “At Christmas Time.” And he features a beautiful solo instrumental of “What Child Is This” and a sweet solo instrumental version of “Ave Maria.” “I’ve always loved those two pieces,” he said. “Melodically, they’re just so gorgeous.”

Pleased to finally release a Christmas collection, he said, “It is always about how much fun you had putting it together. Every time I hear a track from it, it’s like looking through a photo album. Every song that I’ve ever recorded in the studio, I can actually go right back and remember exactly what I was doing. How I was feeling or what was happening. It’s so weird. My brain just doesn’t even forget stuff that I recorded decades ago, even the Pure Heart stuff.”

In other projects, he also released the meditative four-track ambient EP “The Passing Storm,” the serene single and music video “Beneath the Waves” and “Sounds of Hakalau.” “It is something very new to me,” he explained. “I’ve never really dove into that kind of project before. So it was really exciting. A lot of it is heavily improvised; you’re just really in the moment. It’s a whole record we’re hoping to release in its entirety next year.”

As part of the project, he recorded native birds singing in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. “Then I played to the birds in the studio,” he said. “We were reacting to the environmental sounds rather than just doing our thing and putting bird sounds or ocean sounds on it. It really feels like a direct conversation with nature.”

“Beneath the Waves” was inspired by his childhood freediving memories off Molokai with his grandfather. “When I was a kid, we would take the boat out, just jump in the water, go freediving and try to catch a dinner. He always told me if I didn’t catch anything, I won’t eat.”

For his upcoming MACC show, we can expect to hear songs from “Tis The Season.”

“Justin will be singing all the songs that he sang on the album,” he said. “It will be a balance of some of the holiday tunes from the record, as well as some other fun stuff. Justin sings a couple of his originals, like ‘One Foot on Sand’ and ‘Many Feathers’ he recorded with Seven Sons.”

Shimabukuro will likely return to the MACC in March 2026 for the Allman Betts Band show. “I did a run of shows with them earlier this year,” he said. “It was really fantastic. We did all the iconic Allman Brothers tunes, so I got to play ‘Dreams,’ which was one of my all-time favorites.”

Shimabukuro’s “Holidays In Hawaii” show on Saturday begins at 7:30 p.m. in the MACC’s Castle Theater. Tickets are $37-$97 with a limited number of $137 premium tickets.