Josh Turner just released his first-ever Christmas album, King Size Manger. The collection features some classic Christmas tunes, as well as a few original songs. Growing up in South Carolina, Josh looks back at the holiday and remembers having great times with his family on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

“We lived about a half a mile from my momma’s parents and probably three or four miles from my daddy’s parents, and so it was the same every year. Christmas Eve night we would go to my daddy’s parent’s house and daddy was one of six children. So once that family got big, we couldn’t do everything in the house. So we ended up in my grandparent’s garage. And so, we literally like… we would have a mountain of presents in the middle of the garage and there would be a circle, like folding chairs all the way around the edge of the garage. And so there would be one person designated every year to hand out the presents and so whoever that person was, would hand out one present at a time and everybody was focused on that person opening their presents. And there was this tradition that got started probably by daddy’s older brother, my Uncle Buck. Every time somebody would like actually open up their present everybody could see it, the whole crowd, the whole family of… I don’t know however many there were 40 or 50 of us, you know… they would all in unison go, “WOOOooo!” you know, and so it was like every present, we go around down the line and didn’t leave anybody out. And it was you know, just some fun times and once all the presents were open, actually, we would eat and then we would do the presents and then if the presents were open, everyone would go out and you know everybody would have a fireworks competition. So, you had the biggest fireworks display and, and all that and the more sensitive ones in the family that couldn’t stand the cold or the noise of the fireworks, they would huddle up in the bedroom and look and watch from a bedroom window. So that would always happen Christmas Eve night and then we would come home, open one present and then we would get up next morning, do our Christmas at home. And then we would go to my mom’s parent’s house and eat. And then we would do presents there with that side of the family. And then we usually end up at home the rest of the day playing with what we got for Christmas. So it was that way, every year.”

Having four sons now (Hampton, Colby, Marion, Hawke), Josh  and his wife Jennifer say it’s easier for their extended families to come to them rather than traveling during the holidays. Some of the annual traditions they enjoy are watching all of their favorite Christmas movies.

“We’ve always had to be flexible as a family. You know, early on right after we got married, you know, we would alternate going back and forth to Georgia and South Carolina and all that. And then when we started having children, we felt strongly about spending Christmas Day here at home because we wanted them to have Christmas memories of being at home and so that’s kind of turned into watching our list of Christmas movies,” says Josh. “We have to try to fit them all in before Christmas comes and then we usually try to go out and see lights whether it’s at the Opryland Hotel or, you know, driving through a drive thru light place, Beyond that, it’s just we try to spend as much time with family as we can. We try to spend time at home. We try to have a big, nice fancy Christmas meal and then we’ll always open one present on Christmas Eve night and then we get up on Christmas morning and open all our presents. And then we eat a big breakfast and just kind of you know, spend the rest of the day just chillin’ Nothing too outlandish.”