For the Holidays is the first holiday studio album by Detroit, and her third overall holiday release. Compared to the long-anticipated release of The Vehicle, the album came with little prior announcement. Detroit uploaded a simplistic music video for "California Christmas" (under the title "California Xmas") on 6 November 2013, announcing an upcoming full holiday album, Hollydaze.[2] On 11 November, she uploaded the full album to TuneCore, with the news the album would be titled For the Holidays and would be available in the next ten days.[3] The album was released exclusively on digital format on 22 November 2013.[1]
Musically, the album is composed of songs which, according to Detroit, were written all in the prior ten years.[3] As well as several new compositions, the album also includes all six tracks from the Happy Holiday and Holiday 2012 EPs.
