Luke Bryan: What Gets Him in the Holiday Spirit

Luke Bryan stays busy all year; even during this month, he works on American Idol. Luke recently told us what gets him in the holiday spirit each year. He said, "Coming home and the house is decorated, and the tree is up, and all the lights are on. The last couple of years doing American Idol, I spend about ten days of December in L.A. taping, so when I leave L.A., get home, it's like my time to really settle into Christmas and enjoy the holidays with family."

Bryan added, "So, yeah, nothing like seeing the tree in the house that gets you going and starting to hear Christmas carols on the radio and starting to see some of our favorite Christmas movies on TV."

Luke says that now that the kids are a bit older, they stay in Nashville for Christmas. He offered, "We used to load 'em up on the tour bus, and we used to take them to Georgia, and it was a lot to travel with kids. So, now that we're in Nashville, we've had a lot of Christmases here. The kids are getting a little older, but they still get excited about running down the stairs Christmas morning."

Bryan and his wife, Caroline, make Christmas as exciting as possible. He said of what he and Caroline do for the kids on Christmas morning, "We tape up a bunch of wrapping paper, and they kind of run through the wrapping paper like a football team to see all the presents and stuff, so it's fun. We still have a lot of the family come up; try to plan a few hunting trips the day before Christmas and have a big Christmas Eve and let some kids open the presents, but it's still great to be with my family during the holidays. We cherish every holiday season together."

Luke also told us what his favorite Christmas gift as a kid was. He said, "My favorite Christmas gift is my first Honda 50 motorcycle that I got back in 1984. It was just an amazing gift to have under the tree, and I never will forget seeing that as I walked out."

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.