ABC/Image Group LAMartina McBride’s already completed half a dozen dates on her Joy of Christmas Tour, and the four-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year confesses that for her, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.
“Our Christmas tour is one of my favorite tours that we do,” she tells ABC Radio. “Visually, it’s beautiful. It’s very festive. I get to do costume changes, which I don’t do in my normal show. It always puts me in the Christmas spirit when we start doing the Christmas tour.”
Luckily, Martina has several days off before the tour resumes, because back at home in Nashville, it’s time to deck the halls.
“We put up our tree usually the first week of December,” she explains. “We go pick out our tree and we decorate it together. Our decorations are just things we’ve collected over the years — from our travels, decorations that our friends have given us.”
Martina’s also started a tradition to help her girls with their first trees.
“My three daughters always get a Christmas ornament every year,” she says, “so that when they eventually have their own tree in their own home, they’ll have a Christmas ornament collection to get started.”
In addition to looking toward the future, an important part of Martina’s tradition includes remembering the past.
“I have some things that my grandmother made. She used to give all of us grandkids handmade ornaments every year. So we always hang those up, and I always tell the stories that go along with the ornaments. So it’s really a meaningful ritual that we go through every Christmas.”
This week, Martina’s Joy of Christmas trek passes through Wabash, Indiana and Charles Town, West Virginia, with six more shows to go before wrapping December 22 in Roanoke, Virginia.
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