Carrie Underwood’s Christmas Traditions Involve Traveling and Food
Carrie Underwood says that her Christmas hadn’t changed much from when she was a young girl. She usually still gets together with her family, which includes her parents, two sisters,…

Carrie Underwood says that her Christmas hadn't changed much from when she was a young girl. She usually still gets together with her family, which includes her parents, two sisters, and their families, as well as her husband, Mike Fisher, and sons Isaiah and Jacob.
Carrie says some of her Christmas traditions include a lot of traveling to visit her family and her husband Mike Fisher's family but also cooking and celebrating the season. She told us, "My perfect Christmas; generally, we do a lot of traveling around Christmas. We'll go see either my family or my husband's family." Underwood added, "I'll spend all day cooking. I'll make a small turkey, even though I don't eat turkey. I'll make some turkey, cranberry sauce, of course. Of course, sweet potato casserole. You have to have that. That's one of my favorites because it's a side dish and dessert, but I'll just make a ridiculous amount of food. Just celebrate, have a fire, wait for Santa, and open our presents, then we're off to see the next group of family. It's all about watching it through my sons' eyes and just getting to spend time with family."
The mother of two loves to cook, especially at Christmas, "I do love to cook, and I love to go all out for Christmas. I don't do anything super fancy – lots of casseroles and stuff like that, like broccoli rice casserole and some sort of macaroni dish, and there's always deviled eggs. I don't know why we eat deviled eggs every holiday. It's like the holiday thing to do is make deviled eggs. What else do I do? There's pecan pie—that's my husband's favorite. I love pumpkin pie, so I'll always make that. My son and I will make Christmas cookies and things like that, green bean casserole. That's another one. I don't know, I might be the only one who eats green bean casserole, but it's the kind of thing that you just have to have it."
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:
RELATED: Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ Makes History
5. Carrie Underwood - "Little Drummer Boy"
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.”
4. Gwen Stefani (Featuring Blake Shelton) - "You Make It Feel Like Christmas"
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.”
3. Brad Paisley - "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy"
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.
2. Dolly Parton - "Hard Candy Christmas"
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.
1. Brenda Lee - "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
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.