Mat & Savanna Shaw Talk New Christmas Album, Tease Upcoming Holiday Concerts (Exclusive)

It’s that magical time of year again, the wonderful holiday season, with kids jingle belling, and everyone telling you to be of good cheer. It’s also the time when we get to dust off our Christmas music albums, as well as enjoy some brand new ones, such as A Christmas We’ll Remember, by father-daughter duo Mat and Savanna Shaw. Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with the pair to talk about their new album, as well as their upcoming holiday concerts happening this month. To make their holiday just a little brighter, it was also just announced that the album debuted at No.1 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Albums Chart, as well as No. 2 on iTunes Holiday Albums Chart and No. 4 on the iTunes All-Genre Album Sales Chart.

Notably, A Christmas We’ll Remember is far from Mat and Savanna’s first album of holiday music, as they have three more from the past few years. This time, however, they include much more original music, such as “Hometown Christmas,” a gleeful tune all about the unique spirit of spending the holidays in a small town. “It really is something special, especially through the eyes of a kid,” Mat said. “Christmas is just magical, so when you pull up those Christmas memories, it’s really wrapped around the traditions of your family, your community. Coming back home for Christmas is such a magical experience whether you’re a kid or an adult, coming back to relive some of those traditions and magic of the memories you have from times past. It really is special.”

Fans will get a chance to hear “Hometown Christmas,” and many more songs, when Mat and Savanna head out for a series of concerts over the next couple of weeks. Offering a comment on what fans can expect from the shows, Mat said, “Christmas can be a pretty stressful time of year for a lot of people, and what we really hope is that they can come and sit down and relax and just feel like they’re at home for Christmas with us. That’s kind of the feeling we want, is tapping into what makes Christmas special. For us, it really revolves around family and home and tradition, and that’s what we’re going to experience, and I think we’re going to make a lot of special Christmas memories together with our audiences this year. It’s a special show.”

When it comes to which songs they most love singing live, Savanna did not hesitate to say, “I know right off the bat what my favorite song is. I love Michael Buble’s Christmas album, that’s been my favorite for probably forever. ‘It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas’ by him is just probably the most iconic song. I would say that’s probably my favorite Christmas song overall.”

She then went on to share, “My favorite of ours to sing right now, I love ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,’ because I get to sing that with my little sister, and I think that’s so much fun. My favorite that I sing with my dad is probably ‘Christmas We’ll Remember.’ I feel like that one’s so catchy and upbeat, that one’s a fun one to perform.”

“Yeah, that’s fun,” Mat added, then going on to share that they nearly didn’t choose the song for their new album. “When we were first picking the songs that we were going to put on the album ‘Christmas We’ll Remember’ was one that we were thinking about, but it wasn’t a for sure song yet. We were like, ‘Yeah, we love this song, but it’s not for sure.’ We were practicing it and singing it, but then we started hearing the other kids singing it and humming it and my wife singing it, and you just can’t get the tune out of your head.

After deciding to “definitely” include “A Christmas We’ll Remember,” it even became the title of Mat and Savanna’s new album. “I think it’s become one of our favorites to sing and perform that it’s just so fun and catchy,” Mat added. “I love it, that would probably be my favorite too, actually, I really love singing that song.”

As for his all-time favorite traditional Christmas song, Mat shared, “Mine is maybe a little less exciting, but ‘Silent Night’ for me. It’s always been a favorite all growing up. There’s always a time where you’re sitting around, it’s Christmas Eve, the excitement is starting to wear off, you’re packing up or whatever, and then everyone just sits down and we would always sing ‘Silent Night.’ It’s just kind of like a closing to the evening. 

“That song is really special,” he continued, “and I love singing our arrangement of ‘Silent Night’ too, which we’ve done in every Christmas concert towards the end of the show. It just brings this different spirit about Christmas and it just kind of centers you.” Fans can click here to buy or stream A Christmas We’ll Remember, and click here to pick up tickets to one of their upcoming concerts.