In the six years that Kelsea Ballerini has been a mainstream country recording artist, she’s released four albums and achieved four No. 1 singles on country radio. Alongside that success, she’s also proven to be quite the dependable performer for providing yuletide cheer during the Christmas holiday season with timely cover songs on TV specials and more. This talent for delivering season’s greetings doesn’t stray far from notions that have remained with her since birth.
“I’m from East Tennessee. We keep up our Christmas lights all year,” noted the “Hole in the Bottle” vocalist during the CMA’s 2017 Country Christmas TV special. “Every Christmas Eve, my mom gets us obnoxious, embarrassing pajamas, and then we all have to stay in (them), even if we leave the house,” Ballerini also admitted in 2016. “So we’ll go grocery shopping in them, go to church services in them, in our little onesie Christmas pajamas.”
Continuing about her mother’s love of holiday onesies, Ballerini explained in a 2019 interview that, “[picking out the onesies] is like her bread and butter, and she loves it. But it gets progressively more embarrassing every year. So I’m sure she already has them picked out, and I’m sure they’re brutal.”
@kelseaballerini why am i like this. but anyway, happy holiday szn. #fall #decor #fyp
Her childhood roots as a superfan of the holiday season have extended deep into her adulthood, too. Am October Tik Tok post by Ballerini finds her on a tour of her home and saying, “We’re heading upstairs and, what is that? Couldn’t be the Christmas tree from last year still up…But it is. It’s (still) decorated, it has the lights on, it’s still ready to go. In fact, it’s even still plugged in.”
Regarding her talent for seasonal cover tunes in her 2017 interview, she also adds that “it’s never too early [to listen to Christmas music]. It’s a year-round event.”
Ballerini recently told Cody Alan: “I like to go old school first, like Bing Crosby. I start there, and then I branch out. You are going to laugh, but still, to this day, one of my favorite Christmas albums is Jessica Simpson.
“She killed it,” she offers, highlighting the pop music, reality TV, and entrepreneurial star’s 2004-released Christmas album, ReJoyce.
In a December 2021 interview with the Associated Press, the singer spoke at length about her new book of poetry, “Feel Your Way Through,” as well as her musical goals.
“I certainly have songs that I love, and I’m not rushing myself,” she said.