Reba McEntire has graced us with a couple of Christmas collections, including 1995’s Merry Christmas to You and 2006’s Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection, as well as last year’s compilation, Ultimate Christmas Collection.

She recalls one of her favorite Christmas memories when she was a young girl in Oklahoma. “The funniest thing I can always remember about Christmastime is my older brother Pake, when we were kids at home, he’d always be the first one to jump out of bed and run down the hall, and he’d just run down the hall with his underwear on,” she says. “And he’d say, ‘If y’all don’t hurry up and get up and get in here, I’m opening all the presents by myself.’ But he knew it was a standing rule we all had to be in there before anybody could open up a present, but I can still see Pake running down the hall.”

When her son Shelby was just a little boy, she recalls one Christmas morning when he was so excited about what “Santy Claus” brought him. “I’ll never forget one (Christmas) morning I woke up and I was laying on my left side and I felt something, and I opened up my eyes, and Shelby was three inches away from my face. He said, ‘Mom, you’re not gonna beweive what Santy Claus weft for me.’ And so, he said you’ve got to come here. I got up out of bed and went in there and there was this little tractor trailer set that he had just fallen in love with at the store. He’s seen it, and he said, ‘I can’t beweive he bought this for me.’ He was so cute.”

Even though she grew up with a real tree, these days Reba prefers to put up an artificial tree. “I definitely have an artificial tree, because when we were growing up, we’d all go out on the ranch and cut down a Christmas tree, bring it in and then we had to water it every other day – make sure the coffee can was full of water – and the cedar needles got everywhere, so nowadays I just go with an artificial tree…and two, I can leave it with the lights on half the year.”

The Country Music superstar likes to leave her Christmas tree up long after the presents have been unwrapped and put away. “How long do I leave my Christmas tree and decorations up? Well, after Christmas I am so in tune with the sparkly lights, I leave the lights on and take the Christmas ornaments off. It keeps it really festive.”

In 2013, Kelly Clarkson asked her buddies Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood to join her on “Silent Night” during her NBC Christmas special. Reba said it was her favorite holiday song to sing. “I love ‘Silent Night.’ I love it, mainly because I got to sing it with my two buddies, Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood.”

 

Reba reveals her favorite holiday movie stars Chevy Chase. “It has to be Christmas Vacation. I absolutely love it. We always watched it on Christmas Eve, and the kids would just sit there and watch it over and over and over. Sometimes, we even watch it in July.”

Catch Reba as coach on NBC’s The Voice, which  airs Mondays at 8pm ET/PT and Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT.