Country stars like Carly Pearce, Brett Eldredge share their favorite Christmas memories

Christmas is a time for family, great food and building memories. A few of your favorite country singers like Carly Pearce, Brett Eldredge and others shared their favorite holiday memories with us.

Carly Pearce

My favorite Christmas memory is spending every Christmas Eve with my grandparents. They have both passed away, but we're truly my best friends who shaped me into the woman I am. We always cooked dinner together, opened presents and went to midnight church service. Even now as an adult, my family honors them by keeping the tradition alive.

Brett Eldredge

My favorite Christmas memory is a tradition my family has done since I was born. Every year, my family and I go to Christmas Eve service at a little church in Paris, Illinois. I love where I come from, and those memories are some of the most dear to my heart.

Jenny Tolman

When I was a little girl, my whole extended family would go to Florida for Christmas, where my grandparents lived. Every year, we would go to Downtown Disney on Christmas Eve, and it stays in my memory as one of my favorite traditions. All of the lights, decorations, and people were always so magical to me, and it was just really special to spend that time with my whole family. Then, one year I got my favorite gift as a young teenager - a pen that you could talk into and would record what you were saying. I would talk my stories into it and play it later, so I could write it down on paper. This really inspired the writing bug that I had, which eventually led me to songwriting.

Smithfield

Our favorite Christmas memories include our family traditions we both share of going to candlelight service, eating Tex-Mex food on Christmas Eve, and watching "Christmas Vacation."

Ryan Hurd

When I was in 5th grade, I started playing the drums but didn’t have a drum kit yet. So my parents wrapped up a set of drumsticks and gave them to me and there was a drum kit in the basement waiting on me. It wasn’t a super nice drum kit, but it was one that I hit as hard as I could all the time. I wish I would’ve kept up with that stuff, because now I can’t play the drums. You never lose that rhythm though; I feel like that influenced my songwriting more than anything else I’ve done. You learn rhythm and phrasing and what feels good when you’re physically playing an instrument.

My poor mother loves music so much and wanted us kids to be great at it and to have every opportunity to be in and play in bands. She got so excited when we would buy a new guitar, I think about it all the time. She listened to so many years of bad music.

Rachel Reinert

When my brothers and I were kids, our parents used to pile us into the car every Christmas Eve and drive us to this close by neighborhood that always had the most amazing light displays. We would drive through the streets super slow with all the windows down, drinking eggnog, blasting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” (usually on repeat), and just admire the incredible work that all these people would put into decorating their homes for the holiday. On the drive back home, my parents would talk about Santa being on his way and my brothers and I would try to see if we could spot his sleigh somewhere up in the sky. It became a tradition for many years of my childhood that I still hold [close] to my heart.

Russell Dickerson

Every year since I was born my parents get me a nutcracker for Christmas. My favorite one is a custom-made nutcracker my Mom ordered. So during my college graduation ceremony, I thought it would be hilarious to wear some short red swim trunks and cowboy boots underneath my robe. My family lost it and it was such a funny and memorable moment that my mom ordered a custom nutcracker dressed exactly like me on graduation with a velcro opening robe included.

JJ Lawhorn

When I was 12 years old, I worked all summer bailing hay to buy myself a hunting bow, but I was still short. My dad told me that Christmas all I was getting was a stocking—13 years of bowhunting later and I’m sure glad he was kidding