Carrie Underwood: Christmas Traditions and Pjs

Carrie Underwood recently told us that she had already put up her family's Christmas decorations before she headed West for a series of residency shows in Las Vegas.

In the same interview, Carrie told us about several of her Christmas likes, including the fact that she and her family like their Christmas tree to be real. She said, "We were an artificial tree family growing up. It was easier, but now, in our own home, we do the real tree thing, and we try to make that a bit of a tradition. We go, and we pick it out. The boys have some say in which one we get, and they feel some ownership, and we all decorate it together and, of course, have Christmas music playing in the house."

Underwood added, "I make cookies that were my husband's grandmother that my kids call Gigi's recipe. It's her recipe, her ginger snap cookies; we make those, and it's super sweet. Isaiah loves to make Gigi's cookies because he still remembers her a little bit. So, it's something special we get to do."

She and the boys even dress in matching PJs, "For the past few years, we all get matching PJs. Either we get them, or somebody else gifts them to us, and we all match – my husband, myself, my sons, and our dogs. And getting my German shepherd into a Christmas sweater is no easy feat, I will tell you that."

Carrie even shared some of her family traditions around the holiday, "For me, growing up, Christmas was always just comforting. We always had the same stockings and the same tree and the same decorations, and we would always decorate the weekend right after Thanksgiving."

She concluded, "Now that we're adults and have kids, we can go to the Christmas tree farm, and we can walk around, and we can pick out which one and ask Isaiah, 'Which one do you think?' Just things like that, making those memories. It's just a joyful time of year."

There are so many country music Christmas songs, both original and classic, that have been done throughout the years. It seems impossible to pick five of the best country Christmas songs ever. Still, we did just that in our list of Top Five Country Christmas songs over the last several decades.

There are too many honorable mentions to mention, but we just loved Taylor Swift's 2007 "Last Christmas." Also, there are several Christmas albums Martina McBride has released over the years. Reba also has four Christmas albums already under her belt. Johnny Cash had some fantastic Christmas songs in his career. George Strait, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks  also brought the Christmas cheer. Additionally, there's the amazing Christmas work from Brett Eldredge, who has made a career out of his annual Christmas "Glow" tour. Other artists include Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Kenny Rogers, Lady A, Kacey Musgraves, and even Miranda Lambert's Pistol Annies.

In 2023, Jon Pardi released a new Christmas album not long after he was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He told us, "I’ve always wanted to make a Christmas record. It just sounded fun! It’s been many years of hearing Christmas music, and being like, ‘I still haven’t made a [Christmas] record!’ Eventually, I was just like, ‘Alright, we’re doing a Christmas record!'"

Kane Brown also released a new Christmas song this year. He released a cover of Elvis Presley’s classic “Blue Christmas.” Elvis’ voice starts off the familiar song, and Kane’s voice comes in on the second verse. Kane told us, “I chose to cover ‘Blue Christmas’ because it was probably one of my favorite Christmas songs. I don’t have a lot. I used to sing it all the time whenever I was first coming up in the music scene, just while I was warming up and just playing around on stage, so when I got asked to do a Christmas song, of course, I’d have picked that one. And to reimagine it with Elvis is amazing.”

While we know everyone will have their own list of country Christmas favorites, we give you our list of the Top Five Country Christmas Songs to date:

With a cameo by her young son Isaiah singing adorably on this classic remake, it is no wonder this has quickly become a holiday favorite and makes his famous mom proud.

Underwood is playing shows and has added Christmas song to her Las Vegas residency which she wraps up next week (12/16).

Carrie told us recently about decorating early for Christmas this year (2023), "There’s nothing sadder than a Christmas tree up with no presents underneath it, so I don’t really think that you want to get your Christmas tree up too early, but this year, I was a little earlier than normal because we had Thanksgiving and then head out to Vegas for my Reflection shows, and I had to get everything up before I left.”

A wonderful song that puts you right into the holiday spirit. Gwen and Blake do this song beautifully together and seem to have fun with every word they sing.

On the footnote version of the title song’s music video, Stefani said, “The idea of getting to be a part of people’s holidays through music is one of the greatest gifts. Christmas music lives forever.”

She also noted in the video footnotes that the video idea was inspired by the 1960s TV show Bewitched, a show both of them loved as kids. Gwen and Blake co-wrote the song “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.”

This is an excellent take on the 1960s original Christmas song by country music icon Buck Owens. Brad does this to perfection honoring his late friend. Garth Brooks also covered this song on his first Christmas album, Beyond The Season.

Not initially known as or written as a Christmas song, this song comes from the soundtrack of Dolly Parton's 1982 movie Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. The song has become a classic and has been covered by many after Dolly, including her friend Reba.

Possibly one of the best holiday songs in any genre; not a year goes by that we don't spin this record on repeat. In 2023, sixty-five years after its first release to radio, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever.

By hitting the No.1 spot, Brenda Lee breaks several records. Many of those records were held by Mariah Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which Lee beat out for the top spot.