Sure, everybody puts up a tree and queues up the holiday music, but plenty of country stars have some seasonal traditions that are pretty unique to their family.
For example, while Brett Young and his wife might keep things classic and traditional when it comes to holiday decor, the singer grew up with some surprising Christmas meals.
“Every Christmas Eve — my dad was a pastor, and a woman from my dad’s church would make him homemade tamales. Not a Christmas dish, but we would have tamales every Christmas Eve,” he remembers.
He’s not the only one who opts for a non-traditional Christmas Eve meal. “For Christmas Eve we host my mom’s side of the family and we do gumbo, which is kind of unique, I guess — for around here at least it is,” Justin Moore — whose wife Kate hails from south Louisiana — tells his record label.
Tim McGraw also leans into his heritage for the big Christmas Eve meal — and in his case, that means cooking Italian.
“Our Christmas Eve dinner is homemade spaghetti and meatballs,” he explains. “It takes me about three days to prepare it and make it, and I let it slow cook for a long time.”
Tim’s spaghetti is a hit for all the members of the family, including wife Faith Hill and the couple’s three young adult daughters. The entire extended family comes over for Christmas Eve, too, Tim goes on to say.
“We have a big ol’ Christmas Eve, sort of a noon meal, so everybody gets time to go home and take care of Christmas,” Tim recounts. “But that’s always special, and that’s probably one of the dishes that everybody always looks forward to.”
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