If one were to ask who is the best-selling Christmas artist, answers would invariably range from Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby to Mariah Carey, Josh Groban and Kenny G.

But the honor actually goes to Mannheim Steamroller, whose dozen Christmas albums (and counting) have racked up nearly 32 million sales to date. While Mannheim sounds like the name of a German heavy equipment apparatus, it is actually the nom de plume of Chip Davis, an Omaha, Neb.-based composer/producer who has been churning out neoclassical New Age holiday and secular music under this stage name since 1974.

Mannheim Steamroller returns Thursday to Colorado Springs for a Christmas show at Pikes Peak Center.

Born Louis F. Davis Jr., the Ohio native is a musical iconoclast who wrote his first piece of music at age 6 and eventually worked at an ad agency writing jingles before founding this musical persona after numerous record labels shot down his neoclassical music pitch.

“(Mannheim Steamroller) was just my notion of trying to create a sound that was different but also at the same time had classical roots to it,” Davis said in a phone interview.

“I see it as an eclectic mix of classical forms alongside modern-day, rock ’n’ roll instruments and some older instruments from the 18th century like the harpsichord. (Those major label execs) said that there wasn’t a place on the shelf for something that was eclectic like that, but at the same time they wanted to know if I could send them a box of my debut album because they wanted to pass it around in their office.”

With labels uninterested in his project, Davis founded the independent label American Gramaphone and released the first in the “Fresh Aire” series of records in 1975 at a time when the New Age genre was coming into being.

Having gotten a foothold for Mannheim Steamroller with “Fresh Aire,” Davis next indulged his childhood adoration of the holiday season via 1984 the album “Christmas.”

That fascination with Christmas music grew into a cottage industry for Mannheim Steamroller, leading to another 11 Noel releases and a highly popular annual holiday tour.

Two traveling troupes of Mannheim Steamroller perform across the country every holiday season. Hip surgery a decade ago means Davis no longer performs on the tours.

But Davis remains intimately involved with preparations for the Christmas tours, which he promises will tap into the holiday spirit fans have come to expect.

“These tours are a combination of the live music and sound effects like in some cases where there is a thunderstorm happening with one of the pieces,” he said. “There is also a multimedia show that includes slides and film. And then of course, the musicians and the live orchestra.”