Luke Bryan Gets Candid About Christmas Plans and the Holidays

Country megastar Luke Bryan is setting his sights on the glitz and glamour of the holiday season, with hopes to make it a memorable one.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight while at the album release party for his latest record, What Makes You Country, Bryan opened up about plans for Christmas and how the holidays are always an emotional time.

“Our Christmases are … they bring a lot of emotions,” Bryan expressed. “A lot of wonderful memories and a lot of emotions of, ‘God, we wish so many members of our family were here.’ But I tell you what, we as a family, we get together and we do have a fun experience.”

Bryan has endured his fair share of tragedies over the year. In 1996, the then 19-year-old lost his brother Chris in a car accident, followed by the loss of his sister, Kelly, who suddenly passed away in 2007. In 2014, Kelly’s husband Ben Lee Cheshire died, leaving the country star and his wife, Caroline, to take care of the couple’s three children, in addition to their two boys, Thomas, 9, and Tatum, 7.

“I think I even said on [The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy] Fallon the other night, we get all our fights out hopefully on the first night. But you know, it’s the all-American Christmas,” Bryan explained. “We just get the family in and we let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve.”

Bryan went on to share that the holidays are also kind of stressful.

“Caroline and I were on the phone. She was a little stressed about some of the Christmas shopping. I said, ‘I’m gonna get back and I’m gonna go pick out some stuff to help ol’ Santa,’” Bryan continued. “It wouldn’t be Christmas without getting in some traffic, you know, the holiday stress where you gotta have a beer mid-afternoon just to calm down … well, maybe a beer around noon, not mid-afternoon.”

Bryan goes on to share that his family is “excited” for Christmas, and that after releasing his latest and taking the reigns on American Idol with Lionel Richie and Katy Perry, it will be nice to be back home for the holidays.

“This will be our second Christmas in our home and we’re still getting all the kinks worked out to the house. So we were prematurely in our home last Christmas,” he said.

What Makes You Country is out now in stores, and American Idol will debut in January on ABC.

Photo credit: Instagram / @lukebryan