New holiday music from Lauren Alaina, Maddie & Tae, The Oak Ridge Boys

Lauren Alaina released her own version of the holiday classic, “O Holy Night,” last month. She loves Christmas music so much she’d like to release a full album of holiday songs. She has a few favorite songs that she’d have to include on the collection.

“I have a few favorites. It’s like a fast favorite actually. Surprisingly is ‘Oh Santa’ by Mariah Carey. I jam to that, girl. I mean I am crazy about that song,” Alaina said. “And I also like ‘O Holy Night,’ like when I just want to really sing and kind of get in the Christmas spirit. It was my grandmother’s favorite, one of her favorites. My grandmother loved Christmas.”

When it comes to her favorite holiday movies, she can’t pinpoint just one.

“Oh gosh! I have so many favorite Christmas movies, but I usually like the funny ones like The Grinch and Elf,” Alaina said. “I don’t know. I like all of it. It’s so hard to pick. I love Christmas.”

Her favorite Christmas gift would have to be the reason for the season. When she was a little girl, Alaina really wanted a Bible with her name on it, just like her parents had.

“My favorite Christmas gift I’ve ever been given, gosh, that’s so hard to pick, but my Mom and Dad had their names on the front of their Bibles, and I was so jealous of that as a kid. So, I begged my Mom to get me a Bible that had my name on it, and she actually got this Bible that you design the whole thing yourself. And she designed this Bible for me and it had my name on it and I still have it, and it’s one of my favorite gifts I’ve ever been given,” Alaina said.

As for her favorite Christmas gift as a child, Alaina goes back to the time Santa Claus brought her a Barbie bicycle, and she felt like she was in charge. “My favorite Christmas memory is when I got my Barbie bike when I was 6 years old, and I thought I ruled the world because it had a horn and it had Barbie’s picture on it.”

The Georgia native captured America’s hearts when she appeared on season 10 of “American Idol.” Her first album, “Wildflower,” debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes country chart and No. 2 on Billboard’s top country album chart. It was the best-selling digital album by a debut country female. She was also the youngest female to have her album debut that high since LeAnn Rimes 15 years prior. Alaina has been nominated for several Teen Choice and CMT Music Awards, and took home the Artist Of The Year: New Artist trophy at the 2012 American Country Awards. She has toured with superstars Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Sugarland.

Alaina is an ambassador for the Special Olympics and released her version of “Grown Up Christmas List” as a part of their “A Very Special Christmas” album series.

Maddie & Tae just released the video for their holiday offering, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The clip features home videos, studio footage, photos of the duo with their families, significant others and even a few childhood pics.

Since Maddie Marlow has been together with new husband Jonah Font, whom she started dating in high school, and the pair has a handful of Christmas traditions already.

“We always get a real tree every year, because Jonah’s a stickler for a real tree thing. We always shave off a little part of the bottom of the tree and make an ornament out of the little thing, so we’ll put the year on all of them and collect them,” Marlow said. “We’ve actually just started collecting nutcrackers, which is super weird, but we name them all. Oh, and White Elephant. We play White Elephant on the Font side of things, and I always end up with the best gift somehow, because Jonah and I tag team White Elephant.”

Taylor Dye (Tae) just got engaged to her fiancé, songwriter Josh Kerr, and this will be the first Christmas they will share together. She said she hopes to create several Christmas traditions in the future.

“This is Josh and I’s first Christmas together, so I can’t wait to find some traditions that we’ll start to do together,” Dye said. “I bet we’d make some cookies. I bet we’ll watch a lot of movies.”

The duo is climbing the country charts with their smash hit “Die From a Broken Heart.”

Grammy Award-winning and Country Music Hall of Fame members The Oak Ridge Boys released a new video for “Don’t Go Pullin’ On Santa Claus’ Beard,” the second song from their holiday-themed album “Down Home Christmas” from Lightning Rod Records/Thirty Tigers.

SoundsLikeNashville.com exclusively premiered the merry and cheerful video, which features a cameo appearance by the album’s producer, Dave Cobb, marking the third collaboration between the famed Nashville hitmaker and country music’s iconic vocal quartet.

“We told songwriter Aaron Raitiere that we needed a fun Santa song, and almost immediately he and Anderson East wrote ‘Don’t Go Pullin’ On Santa Claus Beard,’ ” said singer Joe Bonsall. “Aaron wrote or co-wrote six songs on ‘Down Home Christmas,’ and it was like old Nashville again. Writers would bring us a song and we would record it while they wrote another one. It was all magic, and our producer, Dave Cobb, led us all the way! Quality songwriters writing great songs. It was all really fun! This song is now one of the highlights in our Christmas tour.”

“Down Home Christmas” also includes standards such as “Amazing Grace” and “Silent Night,” plus new originals “South Alabama Christmas,” written by Jamey Johnson, Bill Anderson and Buddy Cannon.

Billboard Magazine premiered the “Reindeer On The Roof” video (click to watch/view), the album’s first single, another fun and festive original tune that puts Oaks bass singer Richard Sterban at the vocal helm. Shot on location in Nashville's famed Santa’s Pub, the video features cameo appearances by John Rich, Dennis Quaid and Jamey Johnson.