A Reba Christmas: Songs, Trees, and Shelby

Reba McEntire loves Christmas so much in her career that she has released four Christmas albums. Her first, Merry Christmas To You, was released in 1987.

In 2013, Kelly Clarkson asked her and Trisha Yearwood to join her on "Silent Night" during her NBC Christmas special. Reba later told us it was her favorite holiday song to sing, "I love 'Silent Night.' I love it, mainly because I got to sing it with my two buddies, Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood."

Reba has many Christmas memories, but one that stands out in her mind involves her then-young son Shelby, who is now married and in his 30s. She shared. "I'll never forget one Christmas morning. I woke up, and I was laying on my left side, and I felt something, and I opened up my eyes, and Shelby was three inches away from my face. He said, 'Mom, you're not gonna believe what Santy Claus weft for me.' And so, he said, you've got to come here."

She continued, "I got up out of bed and went in there, and there was this little tractor-trailer set that he had just fallen in love with at the store. He's seen it, and he said, 'I can't believe he bought this for me.' He was so cute."

Reba also told us she goes for a fake tree when it comes to picking a tree. She said, "I definitely have an artificial tree because when we were growing up, we'd all go out on the ranch and cut down a Christmas tree, bring it in, and then we had to water it every other day – make sure the coffee can was full of water – and the cedar needles got everywhere. So nowadays, I just go with an artificial tree, and I can leave it with the lights on half the year."

She also told us she leaves her tree up after Christmas. She asked, "How long do I leave my Christmas tree and decorations up? Well, after Christmas, I am so in tune with the sparkly lights that I leave the lights on and take the Christmas ornaments off. It keeps it really festive."

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.