Darius Rucker has released the video for his Christmas single, “What God Wants for Christmas,” and not only is his family included – wife, Beth, daughters Carolyn and Daniella and son Jack – but some of the kids from the Children’s Hospital at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

“I’m on the board of the Children’s Hospital at Medical University of South Carolina down in Charleston, and we wanted to just show – so many kids are sick with different things and it’s just so sad, but you have great places like MUSC and St. Jude’s that are helping these kids,” says Darius. “We just wanted to show that there’s other sides of Christmas other than you just being with your family and opening gifts and stuff like that. There’s other things. There’s other things going on in the world [during] Christmas, and we wanted to show just a little piece of that.”

Darius is granting holiday wishes with his #homegrownholiday contest. Go to his website dariusrucker.com for more information.

Darius’ current single, “Homegrown Honey,” is making its way up the country charts.
 

Darius Rucker (What God Wants for Christmas video) 1 OC: …opening presents. 1:03
“Our video for ‘What God Wants for Christmas,’ the idea came from just I’m on the board of the Children’s Hospital at Medical University of South Carolina down in Charleston, and we wanted to just show – so many kids are sick with different things and it’s just so sad but you have great places like MUSC and St. Jude’s that are helping these kids. And we just wanted to show that there’s other sides of Christmas other than you just being with your family and opening gifts and stuff like that. There’s other things. There’s other things going on in the world [during] Christmas, and we wanted to show just a little piece of that. And when I saw the video, I was so moved seeing all those kids walk in and how much fun we had and hugging them all and talking to them all and having a great time, and all these parents said it was just so great to take these kids away from their troubles for a few minutes, for a half-hour that we took them away. We put them in this room and sang to them and hung out with them and took pictures and gave gifts and all that stuff. It was just really cool to do that. But to see it on video and for other people to see, and see that there’s other things going on in life besides just you and your kids opening presents.”

Darius Rucker (What God Wants for Christmas video) 2 OC: …pretty cool. :27
“It’s always great to have my family around and to have them in a video. Carrie [Carolyn] came down from college to do it and to have Dani [Daniella] and Jack there, it was just wonderful to watch them, how they interacted with all the kids and how great they were. I was proud of my kids and how really wonderful they were with everybody. To have them in the video is super, because they are everything to me. My family is everything to me and that’s something for years every time Christmas comes around, we’ll get to see that video and that’s pretty cool.”