CMA Country Conversations: Dan + Shay Admit the Christmas Traditions They’d Rather Skip

If you’ve ever looked at Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay, you know these guys have Christmas traditions straight out of a Hallmark movie. After all, they just released a double Christmas album, It’s Officially Christmas: The Double Album, and if that doesn’t prove how much they love the holidays, we don’t know what will.  

However, the country-pop duo recently chatted with Coyote Country's Jeff Kurkjian at the CMA's about how they celebrate the season and the Christmas traditions they could definitely do without. 

Every family has Christmas traditions, some heartfelt, some we hope we can skip this year.  Mooney shared, “I will have to say, and this might be a super niche thing that no one's ever even heard about, but my family, every year growing up, my grandma, both sides of the family would do this, and I don't know what it's called. They call it orange stuff, and it basically has marshmallows, and it's orange, and it's some kind of gelatin-type thing, and it has marshmallows in it.” 

He chuckled, “It's a bad texture. I've never seen anybody eat it. I bet it keeps showing up every year. I've never seen it on someone's plate before, and they call it orange stuff. And I feel like, I've talked to other people about this, I don't know if it's a South thing, but other people know what it is, like orange stuff, it's disgusting.” 

Mooney added, “I feel like it could be just a prank that's been handed down generation to generation. At this point. I've never seen anybody eat it before. I think it's a myth.” 

As for Smyers, the tradition that he thinks needs to go is “opening presents one present at a time. It'll just take too long. You know what I'm saying? You go around and it's like, okay, it's Sarah's turn. She's here undoing the bow, trying not to rip the paper. Come on, Sarah. We've got to get through this,” he chuckled.  

Radio personality Jeff Kurkjian added that opening bad presents in front of everyone forces you to put on a good reaction, even when you don’t like the gift. Myers agreed, “It's too much pressure! You open it up. It's something you don't want. You have to put on a show like you're so grateful for it.” 

Mooney shared how bummed he was when he used to receive socks and clothes when he was a kid: “If I get new socks or boxers, I'm like, ‘Oh, my God.’” 

Now that they’re adults, they miss receiving these kinds of gifts. Smyers said, “That's the one thing I need. I haven't got new socks in quite some time.” 

Watch their full conversation below.