Maddie & Tae just released the Extended Version of their We Need Christmas EP earlier this year with three new songs, including “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” and “White Christmas.” These three new songs round out the track list for the nine-song project, that features both holiday favorites and festive original songs.

Since Maddie Font has been together with new husband Jonah Font, whom she started dating in high school, the pair have a handful of Christmas traditions already. “We always get a real tree every year, because Jonah’s a stickler for a real tree thing. We always shave off a little part of the bottom of the tree and make an ornament out of the little thing, so we’ll put the year on all of them and collect them,” says Maddie. “We’ve actually just started collecting nutcrackers, which is super weird, but we name them all. Oh, and White Elephant. We play White Elephant on the Font side of things, and I always end up with the best gift somehow, because Jonah and I tag team White Elephant.”

Taylor Kerr (Tae) says her parents – especially her father – would make Christmas so special for her and her two brothers. “My family has always done Christmas to the nines. My dad is a very big Christmas decorator. He would have the entire house decorated. We had this like life-sized, giant nutcracker, and at one point, we had like a talking Santa at our front door that my dad would talk through,” says Tae. “But the decorations were always just like so much fun, really got us all in the Christmas spirit. And every Christmas, one of our traditions was the kids – me and my two brothers – we would all stay in the same room on Christmas Eve and then we’d wake up when it was time to wake up, and we’d go down the stairs my parents would have a sheet at the bottom of the stairs so we couldn’t see all the presents; not that we weren’t going to see them in two seconds, but to them it was just the magic of the big reveal, them showing us all the gifts that Santa had gotten us. I’m just so thankful that my parents really kept that magic alive. And for me, I’m already thinking about Elf on the Shelf. I’m going to do all of the fun stuff.”

Tae is also very excited to see the magic of Christmas through her daughter Leighton’s eyes. “Leighton is such a happy, energetic, like cheerful child, and so just to even think about her at Christmastime, it’s going to be so special to see it through her just wonderment eyes, that new lens of life through her,” she says. “I’m excited to experience that, and you know, just to wake up and have a Christmas with us as a family. This is our second Christmas as a family, but this is the first Christmas that Leighton is really like aware and she’ll be able to help open her presents, she’ll get to play with her toys and really understand what’s going on. It brings a whole new level of excitement for me and my husband.”

Especially with the release of the Extended Version of their We Need Christmas EP, Christmas music has always played a big part in their lives. “Christmas music is so joyful without even trying,” says Tae. “I think, for me, listening to it personally, it reminds me of sitting around the piano at my Nanny and Papa’s house and my Nanny would play on the piano and sing Christmas carols and all of us grandkids would sing along, and my Papa was a fantastic singer, as well. So, it really just brings up a lot of great nostalgic memories and makes me think of my family. And with the very busy, crazy, chaotic life that we lead, Christmas is always a place for home, for rest, for those traditions, and it feels so good.”

Both Maddie and Tae have their favorite Christmas movies, and they are planning a Christmas movie night sometime soon, so Tae can see one of Maddie’s favorites. MADDIE: “Favorite Christmas movie? I know Tae’s.” TAE: “What?” MADDIE: “Polar Express!” TAE: “I do love me some Polar Express. Every time the kids do the duet, my heart breaks.” MADDIE: “I would say my favorite Christmas movie – I love Polar Express. I love Arthur Christmas.” TAE: “Arthur Christmas is great. People sleep on that one.” MADDIE: “And The Holiday! Ahhhhhh.” TAE: “I’ve never seen that one.” MADDIE: “Jude Law-It’s a rom-com, but it’s so heartwarming.” TAE: “Christmas movie night.” MADDIE: “YES!”

If Maddie could play one character in a holiday film, it would be Clark Griswold’s wife Ellen (played by Beverly D’Angelo) from “Christmas Vacation.”  “If we could be any movie character, who would we be? I think I would want to be a part of Clark Griswold’s vibe. Like, he’s so funny. I don’t know. I’d want to be Clark Griswold’s wife ‘cause I feel like Jonah is Clark Griswold, and that would be really funny, and she just allows his Christmas chaos happen and just embraces it.” Tae pipes up and agrees. “And you would totally do the fork thing where ‘Oh, this is so yummy.’ (laughs) It’s so you.” (both laugh)

Check out their favorite Christmas gifts growing up and their must-haves at their holiday meals below.

The duo is climbing the country charts with their smash hit “Heart They Didn’t Break.”

Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer Brenda Lee is our own Queen of Christmas, as she celebrates the 65th Anniversary of her signature holiday classic, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.” She recorded and released the song in 1958 when she was just 13 years old. The song, which received a huge resurgence in the ‘90s film Home Alone, has been at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the holidays since 2019, and it could take over the top spot in the coming weeks.

Songwriter Johnny Marks (Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman) wrote the song and Brenda was his first choice to record it. Brenda asked Marks how he came up with the idea of the song, and it was just by watching pine trees sway in the wind on a beach in New York. “It was written by a gentleman who has written just about every Christmas standard,” she says. “His name is Johnny Marks, and I asked him one time, I said, ‘How in the world did you write ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree?’ And he said, ‘Well, I was laying on the beach (in New York) and I went to sleep,’ and he said, ‘I woke up and the pine trees were kind of swaying in the breeze.’ And he said, ‘All of a sudden, I thought about Christmas, and I watched them begin and they were kind of rockin’ and I thought about rockin’.’ And he said, ‘I just thought about a rockin’ Christmas, and then I changed it to where people might want to rock around the Christmas tree.’ And that’s kind of how it was born, and I’m lucky, so lucky that I was able to get that song.”

We asked her what it feels like to have one of the biggest holiday songs ever recorded, and she said, “I don’t know how to answer the question of what’s it like to have one of the biggest holiday songs ever. I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s a feeling that’s indescribable. It’s a thankful feeling to the writers, to the musicians, to the producers and most of all, to the audience that went out and bought that song and still go out and buy that song, and you all have made it what it is. I sang it, but I had to have you to help me make it what it become, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Brenda has always been drawn to Christmas music, which dates back to when she was a little girl. “I guess what drew me to creating holiday music was when I was a little girl, that was the time that we got candy,” she says. “I was from a very poor background and my daddy would always bring home these little taffy things with four little things in it called kits, and we loved it, and then we decorated our tree with pictures out of the Sears catalog. And boy, did we have fun, and we played the radio and we listened to the music, and I just thought we were in Heaven.”

Besides her own Christmas recordings, her favorite holiday tunes include those by Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. “I love to listen to Christmas music, and I’m so fortunate that I was able to have a Christmas song myself. But I love to listen to the classics, like Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and those people that were first and foremost in having the Christmas hits, so I feel lucky that I’m somewhat in their company.”

Some of her holiday traditions include making new memories and reminiscing about previous Christmases with her husband and daughters…but does NOT include her cooking in the kitchen. “My girls always say, ‘Mom, what are we doing for Christmas? Please don’t cook.’ So… (laughs) And they don’t mean it kindly. They mean, ‘Mom, please don’t,’” she says. “I’m not your greatest cook in the world, but we all get together and we sing, and we talk about our prior Christmases. We talk about people that we’ve lost and loved, and we wished that they were here, and we give thanks to our Lord. It’s a wonderful time. The gifts are secondary. It’s the getting together, and even though you get together the rest of the year, something magic happens at Christmas. And it’s just like, I don’t know what it is because I can’t explain magic, but I can tell you it is magic.”

Her favorite Christmas gifts are her family and friends, but she did say her engagement ring was probably her favorite present, even though she hid the fact she was engaged for several months. “My favorite Christmas gift, I think it was my engagement ring that I carried around in my purse for six months, because I didn’t want my mom (laughs) to know I was thinking about getting married, but it all wound up good. But I’ll tell you what – I think my favorite Christmas gift are my children, my husband, my friends, but most of all my God.”

Check out the official music video for “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” below. She just released the clip, featuring Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker, THIS year.

Mercury Nashville / Range Music recording artist Luke Grimes today released the song “Clay Pigeons,” a cover of famed Texas artist, Blaze Foley’s song “Clay Pigeons,” which originally was released in February of 1989.

LISTEN TO “CLAY PIGEONS” | HERE

“In my opinion, Blaze Foley is one of the more underrated singer songwriters in the history books of country music,” said Grimes. “He truly was outlaw country in every sense, and he practiced what he preached. Clay Pigeons is not only my favorite song from Blaze, but one of my favorite songs of all time. The structure, melody, and lyrics are all so simple, yet they come together to say something so profound. The songwriting is masterful. There has always been something so comforting to me about the melancholy feel of this song.”

Grimes is currently on tour and has more dates throughout the end of the year.

Upcoming Show Dates:

Tickets Available HERE