Sam Hunt has been on a roll with barely a day off, but that’s okay by him. With three No. 1 singles, gold and platinum plaques, awards, being named one of CMT’s Artists of the Year and Grammy nominations, he’s been on cloud nine for the past year. But with a little time off to head home to Georgia for the Christmas holidays, he’s ready to take a moment and just hang out with family.

“We get together with my Dad’s side of the family, and then for dinner, we get together with my Mom’s side and exchange gifts,” says Sam. “Of course, myself and my brothers are well-past Santa Claus age, but Santa Claus still comes [laughs] at our house when we wake up in the morning, so that’s cool. But it’s turned into more of a, and I really appreciate the time with my family, it turns into more of a social thing now and less about the gifts and the food and all that sorta stuff.”

One of his favorite gifts as a child was a horse he received one Christmas. “I remember being really excited when, I got into riding horses, and one Christmas I got a Mustang that I named Comanche – a horse – and that was a really exciting time. I rode all the time after that. Before, I had some friends, a babysitter whose kids had horses, so I’d be able to ride occasionally, but now I was able to ride whenever I wanted to.”

Sam is crashing the country charts with his latest single, “Break Up in a Small Town.”