Frankie Ballard photo courtesy of Reprise Records.
Frankie Ballard and his dad have a ‘must do’ when it comes to Christmas traditions. There is a movie the father and son have to watch together to make sure it feels like the holidays. “My dad and I always watch Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase,” Frankie said. “It wouldn’t feel like Christmas if we didn’t do that every year.”
Before he was a guitar slinger, Frankie was into sports. He played baseball in college, but also played hockey growing up. One of his favorite Christmas presents is a hockey-related item he coveted as a kid.
“Back when I played hockey there was a hockey jacket you would get, a red corduroy jacket, all the kids would get it and put patches on it when they got a hat trick or won a championship,” he said. “I remember finally getting one and freaking out.”
Frankie’s labelmate, Jana Kramer, counts family time among her favorite Christmas memories. “My favorite Christmas memory is probably always having euchre tournaments with my family and just hanging out laughing!” she said.
It turns out, Frankie isn’t the only one whose favorite gift was a jacket. “My favorite gift was a fringe jacket,” Jana said. “I thought I was Pocahontas when I was a little girl!” As for her favorite food? That’s an easy question for Jana. “My grandpa’s stuffing! It’s the best!”
Christmas is a time for giving and good will, but that didn’t stop Brett Eldredge and his brother from deciding to play a prank on their mother for Christmas. She asked them for a new robe, but they decided to have a little fun with the present instead. “Being the jokesters that we are, we got the idea to get a really old gross robe and smeared brown shoe polish on it to make it look gross because we wanted to see how she would react,” Brett said. “She opened it and tried to act like she liked it but I couldn’t keep from laughing my butt off! I was laughing so hard I was crying! Eventually she figured out it was a prank and we went to the other room and brought her a brand new soft, clean robe!”
Brett didn’t let the gag gift go to waste, however. He found it useful when another holiday rolled around. “I kept the robe for Halloween and dressed up like ‘Cousin Eddy’ from Christmas Vacation!” he said.
One of Dolly Parton’s favorite Christmas memories involves helping her mother pick out a wedding band for Christmas! You can watch Dolly share the memory as well as see artists like Miranda Lambert, David Nail and more in our Holiday Memories channel. Check it out! >>
