Album cover- marker comps

When I woke up thinking about Christmas music this morning, I decided it must be a sign that my LP/CD/iTunes album cover art should be for a Christmas album. Naturally, the first one I thought of is my favorite (and the one I listened to first on November 1)....Avalon's "Joy". If you haven't listened to it, you should. It's fantastic. While listening to it and sipping my morning coffee, I sketched out three different concepts/ideas. Not being able to choose one from my sketches, I decided to do marker comps of all three. Maybe seeing it bigger and in color would help me decide.

For this one, I wanted to create the idea of a pretty desolate, cold-looking, winter landscape with a few evergreen trees. One stands out with the star though, symbolizing Christmas, and the star would stand in for the "o" in "joy". Eh...I think it looked better in my head that it does with markers on paper. It might be easier to create the scene so it would look better in watercolor or gouache, but I'm thinking this isn't my favorite.
This idea also didn't come out as well in marker, but I'm pretty sure it would be successful in either watercolor or gouache (I haven't decided which of these two media I want to use yet). The idea is that in the mug of hot chocolate/coffee/dark, warm beverage of choice, the cream would spell out "joy" in kind of loopy letters. The mug is held in mittened hands and the light blue/gray background would represent cold, winter, etc. Although the "joy" in the mug isn't super legible in this sketch, I think it would work out well in the actual illustration.
Last idea. It's pretty simple really, a red, ball Christmas tree ornament for the "O". Gold letters to keep it holiday-y but not the typical red-and-green-Christmas-color blah. A simple background of lighter and darker tints of the same color. Something a little more contemporary. The "Avalon" would probably be at the top, I'm thinking a little off-centered...aligned right maybe? This one is my favorite comp, but I'm worried it might be too simple and boring as an actual illustration. Or it could look awesome. Not sure yet.