Just like all of us, country stars have their favorite thoughts and memories that are connected to Christmas.
Keith Urban‘s view of Christmas from Australia as a child was a bit different than the U.S. because Christmas time is summer down under:
“I have great memories of getting up early and going and jumping on your parents’ bed and getting them up. You know, and then of course you tear open the presents and then it’s done and it’s like eight in the morning, and you’ve got all morning now to sort of wish you had more presents to open. We had great Christmases growing up. I really, really enjoyed them. Mostly, we’d go to the beach, you know, ’cause there it’s summertime. Load up the station wagon and head off to the beach.”
Dierks Bentley has one child whose birthday and Christmas day coincide and as the proud father shares, they try to make it extra special for the birthday girl as well and he shares, the special holiday is all about the children:
“It’s tough kind of for Jordan because her birthday IS on Christmas, so it’s kind of one of those things where we try to give her an extra present or two. It’s kind of tough to share your birthday with Jesus. You can get a little overshadowed on that one, but she’s good about it, but we just tell her, ‘All these Christmas trees and lights, these are all for you.'”
“Christmas didn’t lose any of its real meaning, as far as its religious meaning with Jesus’ birthday. But as far as like the whole tree and all of the Christmas spirit stuff, the secular stuff, it just kind of goes away to be honest. But then you have a family, and all of a sudden, it’s like I’m all Clark Griswold out there decorating the tree, putting lights up around the house, you know. So, all of those things that you did as a kid and appreciated as a kid, you get a chance to do over again when you have kids, because you kinda become one again.”
Lady Antebellum‘s Dave Haywood recalls his favorite Christmas present:
“My favorite Christmas gift was probably my very first guitar from my Grandpa about 15 years ago. And more recently, I got a red Gibson about 5 or 6 years ago. That red one we use on stage was given to me by my Dad for Christmas years ago.” (Note: The guitar is on Lady A’s first album cover.)
Lady A‘s Hillary Scott had some childhood ornaments that it took her a few years to get used to:
“My mom, I gave her such a hard time when I was a little girl, because she went to some store and got these, it’s like snowmen with an icicle hanging down from the bottom, so I thought they were so gawdy. But you know what? Now that I’m older, I love ’em. And if they’re not on the tree, I’m like, ‘Mama, where are they? Where are the snowmen icicle lights this year?” [laughs]
Florida Georgia Line‘s Tyler Hubbard has a favorite Christmas gift and it involved two wheels and a handle bar:
“My best gift for Christmas one year I actually got a dirt bike. And it was big, ’cause dad would always act like, ‘You’re not gonna get much this Christmas, times are tough’, whatever, whatever. So you never had a whole lot of expectation, and that one Christmas there was like hardly anything under the tree and I’m just like, ‘Well, I guess he was right’, and then he took me outside and there was a dirt bike in the yard, and for me, that was like the best thing ever. I was probably fifteen-years-old or somethin’, but yeah, that was an awesome day.”
Carly Pearce shares one cinematic holiday tradition that she and her mother share:
“My mom and I, we have two movies that we watch every year. We watch The Family Stone and we watch The Holiday and that’s kind of our thing. We may watch them twice. I always know it’s Christmas when my mom and I are on the couch watching that. And now it’s like we have a glass of wine and we eat popcorn and that’s just a very special time for me. And I would say, my parents, we’re very big animal people. So, when I see the animal stockings that look identical to our family pets, when they’re hanging I know it’s Christmas, which my mom puts those out pretty early ’cause she loves them.”
Luke Combs describes what he loves about the holiday season:
“You know what I love more than, more than the presents and stuff is; cause I grew up in the mountains. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. I was born in Ashville, went to college in Boone which is even more in the mountains. So I love, and I love the snow and the decorations man, I’m into that, like that, like it gets me in the mood for the season and stuff.”
Garth Brooks, who just wrapped up seven shows in Nashville and his World Tour, knows the true meaning of the holiday season:
“Christmas is about love. The holiday is about love. That’s still a time where I believe that’s still going to win. Love one another. Smile a little more. Hug each other. That’s what the holidays are all about.”
Sam Hunt recalls getting a horse one special Christmas and if that wasn’t enough he got another animal that went along with his horse:
“I was still pretty young – 8, 9, 10 years old – so one Christmas, we got a little steer calf. It had a little rope, and I’d try to ride a calf, you know? He sort of grew up with us and grew into a bull and ended up getting after my grandmother one afternoon. We had to get rid of him. He was just playing, but she wasn’t really the playful type, yeah. Those are probably the two most exciting.”
Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year for Chris Young, who counts many blessings when he gets together with family … additionally, Chris has many songs on his phone and one Christmas song that stays on his phone year-round just for his niece:
“It’s one of those things that’s a little bit infectious. You know, you see everybody kind of get more excited about, you know, being home with their family. And, you know, it’s closing the year out. I just think there so many things that are magical about it. It would be tough to narrow it down.”
“The song on my phone that I would hate to admit is on my phone. The first thing that actually pops in my head is actually because of my niece. So, and I do have ‘I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas’ on my phone, like the original version. I don’t know if that’s one you’re supposed to be embarrassed of because I have an excuse. Plus, it’s just a fun song. That’s probably the most random one, at least that’s recent on my phone. You could probably go way back and find some old pop songs on there that you would kinda just chuckle at. But that one is one of her favorites.”
Lee Brice will soon embark on his annual post-Christmas camping trip, a traditional that he hopes goes on forever:
“We talk about this all the time, me and the few guys that have been going. We talk about when we went, and we’ve guessed that it was about ’98 or ’99, so we’re going on twenty years, okay?with this tradition. It’s the day after Christmas, we go into the woods, [in] South Carolina, Waccamaw River. We go up, we get lost in the swamp [and] we go for three or four days. So, I wanna keep it going. Hopefully, I can look back twenty years from now and we can never have missed a year.”
Cole Swindell has never released a Christmas song, but someday he sure would like to and he already has a favorite to think about:
“When Christmas rolls around you hear all the Christmas music and I’d love to have a song on there, but ‘Mary Did You Know?’ is one of my favorite Christmas song, I know that’s? Hey I don’t know I gotta pick a good one before we go in. But yeah, I’m excited for the season and just to hear the music it gets you in the mood and just like time of year everybody’s just happy and yeah, just ready for Christmas.”
Luke Bryan recalls his most meaningful Christmas gift and one of his family’s traditions:
“By far the best Christmas present I have ever gotten and will ever get was when my wife Caroline went and found my brother’s old pickup truck from 1996 that they found the VIN number and it was down in Louisiana and it was still on the road. And her and my dad went down, they picked it up, brought it to Nashville and Christmas Eve night pulled into the driveway with it.”
“We have a pajama night and we do chili dogs on Christmas Eve, and we’ve always done that. My mother comes up and we go shop. She makes me go shop with her so we have to pick out all the right stuff. We have to get the proper buns, the proper wieners. All beef wieners for the chili dog cooking. It’s a ritual. So, we’re eating chili dogs in pajamas, and so it’s special anytime you can come up with fun traditions and hold true to them. Yeah, so cooking chili dogs in a onesie is pretty special.”
The guys of Rascal Flatts realized early in their careers how important it was to have enough time off during the holidays to be with their families as the trio’s Jay DeMarcus explains:
“Well I think several years ago what we decided to do was take a certain section of the calendar and just block it out for the holidays so that we would make sure that we were with our families. And as we started to have kids it became even more important to be with their wives and our families so that we could start those traditions with them. And it’s harder when you’re a new artist you’re not so much as in control of your schedule as when you are touring on your own and you get to kind of dictate what your schedule will be. So, it’s just a commitment we’ve made to each other and our families to try to take that chunk of time during the holidays and set it aside to be off and to be available for them.”
When Big & Rich‘s Big Kenny gathers with family for Christmas, he always thinks about the true meaning of the special holiday:
“The thankfulness meter just goes up even higher and higher than it’s ever been. And, you know, I think about the birth of Jesus Christ and all those stories that I learned as a child from my parents and from my Sunday school teachers. And all those that have just meant so much and have built the foundation of my life. And that’s a lot of what brought John [Rich] and I together, is we realized the similarities in our upbringing and the way we believed like that.”
Carrie Underwood has recorded several Christmas songs over the years although she has yet to do a full Christmas album. Carrie talks about the magic of “Do You Hear What I Hear”:
“It’s very magical?and it also talks about things that, as a child, you would understand, such as ‘dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite.’ Or ‘voice as big as the sea’ – stuff that all kids know. So, it’s a really good story. It has a lot of good visuals with it. It’s just one of those that it’s just fun to sing – it’s really nice, it brings a smile to my face when I sing it.”
Brad Paisley is an Eastern guy, who doesn’t quite understand the how the Westerners in California get into the holiday mood:
“No offense, folks, but California, for an Easterner like myself who is used to wintertime, you know what? I don’t love wintertime for most of it, but there are a couple of weeks in there when it’s kind of nice to have it when either it snows, or it’s cold out and it feels like Christmastime. Getting bundled up is part of the charm, and shorts and 80-degree weather is not conducive to some of the clothing that looks best?scarves and toboggans and whatever.”
Brantley Gilbert loves Christmas and with a new baby boy at home 2017 will be one for the books. Brantley talks about his favorite Christmas gift as a kid:
“The best gift I ever received as a child, I still gotta say, I think I was in third grade and I got a miniature dachshund. My parents got me a dog and that little dude was my best friend for eight years. His name was Max and he was one of the best dogs ever. So that’s probably my best Christmas memory.”
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of your friend’s here at Bloomington-Normal’s #1 Country, B104!
