The Grand Ole Opry_® kicked off the third season of Nashville’s favorite holiday tradition, Opry Country Christmas, last night with the first in a series of nine shows.

Hosted by Grammy_®-winning Opry member Larry Gatlin, each Opry Country Christmas show will also feature Opry members The Gatlin Brothers, Riders In The Sky, Mandy Barnett and Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie McCoy.

In his first activity as an Opry member was last night’s Spotlight Artist Jon Pardi. His performance kicked off the celebration of the Multi-Platinum-selling singer/songwriter/producer’s first Christmas album release, Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi, which was produced by the award-winning producing team—Pardi, Bart Butler and Ryan Gore. The 12-track project is available  here. His performance included tracks “400 Horsepower,” “Please Come Home For Christmas,” “Beer for Santa” and “Merry Christmas From The Keys.” Also joining in the kickoff was special guest The War And Treaty who performed “Oh Holy Night,” “Silver Bells,” and “Safe.”

Jon is making his way up the country charts with his latest single, “Cowboys And Plowboys,” with Luke Bryan.

All Opry Country Christmas shows air on WSM Radio as well as WSM and Opry digital platforms. For Opry Country Christmas tickets and more information on the full Opry schedule visit opry.com. Catch Maddie & Tae as special guests on December 10th. The pair just released the Extended Version of their We Need Christmas EP.

George Strait and Jon Pardi will take part in a tribute show celebrating the late singer-songwriter-musician-producer Keith Gattis at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday (November 28th). Sheryl Crow, Wade Bowen, Randy Houser, Dean Dillon, Jack Ingram and Kendell Marvel, among others will also perform.

During a recent television taping, Jon Pardi‘s Aunt Shane got to meet her idol, Wynonna, and she couldn’t have been more excited.

So happy we caught this special moment 🥰 💙 @JonPardi @Wynonna pic.twitter.com/v9D2HzV8Gs

— CMT (@CMT) November 26, 2023

Reba McEntire joined Willie Geist for his TODAY Show Sunday Sitdown on NBC on Sunday (November 26th) to share details on her emotional moment at Madison Square Garden concert and her first big break in music. She also talked about her new book “Not That Fancy,” which is chock-full of stories about family, friends and parties with Solo cups.

Sam Hunt and his wife Hannah Lee Fowler welcomed their second child earlier this month. Sam revealed Baby Hunt No. 2 had arrived with a social post, writing, “Thank you, Lord.”

Thank You Lord pic.twitter.com/tjb1KFjwKo

— Sam Hunt (@SamHuntMusic) November 24, 2023

The War And Treaty (Michael and Tanya Trotter) performed a stunning rendition of the National Anthem on Thanksgiving Day ahead of the Detroit Lions versus Green Bay Packers game.

Mickey Guyton is set to host the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C. on Thursday (November 30th). This year’s special holiday event will feature performances by Darren Criss, Samara Joy, Ledisi, Reneé Rapp, St. Vincent, Joe Walsh and Dionne Warwick, as well as performances by the United States Coast Guard’s Guardians Big Band. CBS will broadcast the event on December 15th and you can stream it live on Paramount+.

There have been many debates about this topic — when is too early to decorate for Christmas? For those in the States, some people like to decorate before Thanksgiving and some feel you need to wait until after Thanksgiving. For Carrie, she likes to decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, however, this year out of necessity, she decked the halls BEFORE the day of giving thanks.

“My Christmas decorating schedule honestly depends on my schedule (laughs), so this year, I decorated before Thanksgiving which is not really something that I would like to do,” says Carrie. “I think the ideal time to decorate for Christmas is the weekend right after Thanksgiving. It’s like Thanksgiving’s over, you just bust out all of the Christmas stuff. That’s when it really kinda starts getting chilly outside, and you get to start making fires in the fireplace and really start putting the Christmas presents under the tree. There’s nothing sadder than a Christmas tree up with no presents underneath it, so I don’t really think that you want to get your Christmas tree up too early, but this year I was a little earlier than normal because we had Thanksgiving and then head out to Vegas for my Reflection shows and I had to get everything up before I left.”

Carrie, who is making her way up the country charts with “Out Of That Truck,” returns to her Reflection residency at Resorts World in Las Vegas on Wednesday.