Little Big Town‘s Christmas traditions are as diverse as the members of the country music group, but one they’ve all seemed to have adopted is Kimberly Schlapman’s annual holiday tradition.
Little Big Town’s Christmas Celebrations: Kimberly, Jimi, Karen, & Phillip
“My favorite holiday tradition is, it’s happened every year that I can remember that I’ve been alive,” she shares with their label, UMG Nashville. “We would go over to my grandmother’s house and have Christmas over there, and everybody would come home to Mama and Daddy’s house. We’d sit down and Mama hands out everybody a gift, and we act like we don’t what it is, but we do ’cause it’s always Christmas pajamas. So, everybody opens their Christmas pajamas and goes and puts ’em on, and we come back to the living room and we sit around Daddy and he reads ‘The Christmas Story,’ and we tuck ourselves in until Santa comes.”
For Jimi Westbrook, nothing says Christmas like Elvis Presley. “My favorite Christmas song is this song I start with every year Thanksgiving drive, my first Christmas song to play is Elvis Presley, ‘Santa Claus is Back in Town.’ Sexy. Rockin’. Love it.”
One of Karen Fairchild’s traditions include making candy. “Christmases at our house usually included making candy with my mother and my grandmother,” says Karen. “We did everything from potato candy to chocolate dipped peanut butter and fudge. My mom’s fudge recipe is amazing.”
Phillip Sweet and his wife Rebecca start early with their gift-giving for daughter Penelopi. “We do a little Christmas tradition in our house,” he says. “We do, you know the little tree in the countdown to Christmas? We put little treats in each little doorway. [Penelopi] opens the countdown to Christmas. She gets a new little treat every day leading up to Christmas.”
The band, who released “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” a few years ago, has added a new tradition or two to their family and their group. They now end the year with a performance at Blackberry Farm, a 4200-acre resort located in the Great Smokey Mountains.
