Darlene Love is synonymous with the holiday season in the New York metro area. The Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood has also long provided a festive backdrop for the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year.

Combine the two and you have the highlight of the bergenPAC Holiday Magic series schedule. Love, whose impressive career dates back nearly five decades, will bring her show “Love for the Holidays” to bergenPAC on Dec. 20. The show, which has been an important part of the New York holiday music scene for years, will feature songs from Love’s new holiday album along with performances by Steve Van Zandt [The E-Street Band and Sopranos], Leslie Gore, Paul Schaffer and others.

Over the years, Love’s holiday shows at the Bottom Line and The Apollo Theater in Manhattan were always impressive for their scope and production values, serving as a reminder that Love, whose early career success came while working with legendary producer Phil Spector in the 1960s, remains a viable force in the music industry.

Consider this review that appeared in Newsday following one of her holiday performances.

“Best of all was a moment that bordered on the mythic; Love seated atop the piano, digging into the Sam Cooke classic "A Change Is Gonna Come." Her eyes shut and fists tightened, Love sang with such impassioned abandon, the audience, for a split-second after the song's end, sat transfixed by the gospel-like fury unleashed in front of them. Then came the explosion of applause. "Love For the Holidays" indeed.”

She’s become a holiday tradition on “The Late Show with David Letterman” for nearly two decades with the host insisting that it isn’t Christmas until Love sings “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home”.

Tickets for “Love For The Holidays” range in price from $25-$75.  Here’s a closer look at the other shows in the bergenPAC Holiday Magic series:

NOVEMBER 28
Dean Martin and Friends Christmas, “That’s Amore”: The long running “Rat Pack” Musical from Las Vegas and London’s West End comes to Bergen County. Hear Mark Adams capture Martin’s spirit and style as he sings all the old standards from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets range from $29-$75.

DECEMBER 3
The Celtic Tenors: The Celtic Tenors have established themselves as the most successful classical crossover artists ever to emerge from Ireland with album sales over a million worldwide. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets range from $28-$78.