Christmas 2015: Country Stars Reflect on Favorite Christmas Presents

Though the holidays are meant for family a friends, there’s no denying that presents can make a huge impact on someone’s life. As we near Christmas, a number of country stars, including Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum, are reflecting on the presents that made their holidays a little brighter.

Bikes are always a favorite gift for kids, especially for Charles Kelley and Ronnie Dunn.

“My favorite Christmas memory – the one I remember the most is when I wrecked my bike,” said Kelley. “I had just gotten a bike for Christmas, and it had rained and I slid out and the bike handle hit me in the eye, and I got a big ole black eye. But, what I remember most more than anything, is just growing up with all of my family and waking up in the morning. Josh, my brother Josh and I were about a year and a half apart, so we were like twins growing up. We could never stay still on Christmas Eve.”

Dunn’s gift left him with a hard decision to make. “My parents, or Santa Claus went to shop and came back and was opening the box probably out in the garage and putting stuff together and pulled out the bicycle I wanted, and it was a girls bike. So, I ended up having the choice, of ya know, Santa Claus going back to the North Pole and bringing a boys bike back in a week or riding a girls bike around. The only neighbor and friend that we had out there in the country was a girl, so I chose the girls bike.”

For McGraw and Justin Moore, Christmas was all about their brand new shotguns.

“Gosh, the best gift. As a child, I remember gettin’ a 12-guage shotgun, as a kid, a used shotgun, but that was probably the thing that I remember the most,” McGraw reflected.

Moore grew up in the country so a gun was only fitting. “I’m lucky. I always had a great Christmas and my Mom and Dad always really bought me way too much, way more than I deserved. But, probably my favorite present ever was my first gun. I got a single shot 20-guage when I was about seven or eight and obviously growin’ up in the woods I was around guns with my grandparents, or my Dad, or whatever. But, havin’ my first one that was actually my gun was pretty special.”

For stars like Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus and Lady A’s Dave Haywood, their gifts had a major impact on their future careers.

“One of my favorite gifts was an old set of Gretsch drums that my Grandpa bought me one year for Christmas,” DeMarcus said. They were used, but they were vintage Gretsch drums and I loved those things, man. They were ruined in a flood when our basement flooded.”

Haywood was gifted with several guitars, some of which he still uses. “My favorite Christmas gift was probably my very first guitar from my Grandpa about 15 years ago. And more recently, I got a red Gibson about 5 or 6 years ago. That red one we use on stage was given to me by my Dad for Christmas years ago.”

For Chris Young, his favorite presents are the ones he gives to his niece. “You know what? She pretty much gets anything she wants out of me. She knows it, too. So it’s…it’ll get bad the older she gets because the gifts will get more expensive.”

What was your favorite Christmas present growing up?