Carrie Underwood Strived For Familiarity On Christmas Album, ‘My Gift’

In September, Carrie Underwood treated fans to her new Christmas album, My Gift, which is full of warm Christmas favorites as well as original songs. Many of the songs included are faith-based Christmas classics, such as “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night,” and when it came time to record these timeless tunes, Underwood didn’t want to stray too far from the original versions.

“I think the great thing about traditional Christmas carols is that it’s the familiarity that’s so special,” she shared with a group of reporters, including Sounds Like Nashville. “When I think about the Christmas songs that I grew up listening to, they were very straightforward, they were very simple, and that’s what sticks with me.”

The album also features three original Christmas tunes: “Let There Be Peace,” “Sweet Baby Jesus” and “Hallelujah,” featuring John Legend. “Let There Be Peace” and “Sweet Baby Jesus” were co-written by Underwood along with Brett James and David Garcia, and while writing the new tunes, the singer still wanted to keep that warm holiday feeling.

“When we wrote ‘Sweet Baby Jesus,’ that was just a magical day,” said Underwood. “I knew I was really onto something special when I let my mom hear it and she was like, ‘Well, that’s just a Christmas song, right?’ She had no idea that we wrote it. She didn’t know that it hadn’t been sung before, and that made me feel really happy because I’m like, ‘Wow, it feels familiar to you, which is good when you think about Christmas songs.’”

A highlight of the album is when Underwood includes a special guest, her 5-year-old son Isaiah, on “Little Drummer Boy.” For Underwood, the track will serve as a precious memory she can always look back on especially since Isaiah has already grown up more since the recording of the song.

“To hear his voice, I laugh and I’m like, ‘When he’s a dude, a man, and he’s got this deep voice, I’m always going to have that moment in time captured on this album,’” she shared. “I’ll make you real sad just for a second; he now pronounces his R’s. He says, ‘pa-rum-pum-pum-pum’ when he sings it now, which is very sad to me. Ultimately, you want them to pronounce R’s like ‘err’ and not ‘wuh,’ but it’s like that moment is already gone.”

My Gift features 11 tracks, with other classics such as “Away In A Manger” and “Silent Night” also making an appearance.