Miranda Lambert photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Christmas time’s a-comin’, to quote a song made famous by the late Bill Monroe. In fact, the big day is almost here. And just as country fans will be celebrating the holidays, so will the genre’s most familiar artists, including Miranda Lambert, Sugarland, Alan Jackson, Montgomery Gentry and Brad Paisley.

Whether it’s decorating trees, hiding presents, singing carols or watching ‘A Christmas Story,’ the stars’ plans for December — and their memories of holidays past — are probably a lot like yours.

Here are some red-and-green observations from some of country’s finest:

• Miranda Lambert: “I love, love, love holidays. I mean, just, it’s my time to really be a girl. And I grew up, you know, with all the decorations and cookin’, and I get really domestic during holidays. And it’s kind of weird ’cause it’s so opposite of who I am on stage. But I love to bake cookies and cook dinner for the whole family, and I have every decoration you can think of. I like to have a tree in every room…That’s my time to just get ultra-girly.”

• Brad Paisley: “[In] third or fourth grade, I was startin’ to get the hint that maybe there wasn’t a Santa Claus — which there is, by the way. But I wanted to prove it once and for all, so I [took] a tape recorder, pressed record, stuck it behind the Christmas tree, and left it on hoping that I would hear whoever was gonna place those presents there…and I forgot to plug it in!”

• Alan Jackson: “Christmas is pretty traditional. We don’t let anybody open any presents until Christmas morning, after Santa Claus comes. We don’t let them get up on their own and take off, you know. Everybody has to wait and kind of get situated, and maybe have a cup of coffee, and then we start all of the regular Christmas morning activities — opening presents, taking pictures and video. We have music going, you know. I try to keep Christmas music going in the background. I like to turn that on before I let them come down to the tree and everything.”

• Eddie Montgomery, of Montgomery Gentry: “‘Course you know you have to try to hide stuff! As the kids get older, it gets a little harder to hide because they’re looking everywhere… And it’s always that deal that if you don’t really tape it up good or if you don’t put some kind of thing on it, they’ll try to figure out a way to maybe cut the tape and make it try to look where they can get a peek and stuff, if they find it. So you gotta find new hiding places all the time.”

• Martina McBride: “I never really get into the Christmas spirit until I hear the Christmas music playing when you go shopping. Or we put it on at the house when I’m wrapping presents or decorating the Christmas tree, so it’s really special.”

• Josh Turner: “Christmas this year in our household is going to be different because instead of having one child, we have two. Two boys. One is three years old, one is… six months old. We’re just trying to implement our own traditions this year before we go and try to spend time with extended family. So we’re looking forward to it. They’re getting more and more excited — and so are we!”

• Kristian Bush, of Sugarland: “In our house, there are two things that have to happen for Christmas to be official. I think one is you have to have a Christmas tree up that has lights on it. It doesn’t officially have to have all of the ornaments on. That can unfold. And I think secondly, you have to have watched ‘Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’ in claymation.”

• Kellie Pickler: “I love the Grinch! It’s, like, the best part about Christmas is being able to turn on the TV and see the cartoon, ‘[How] The Grinch [Stole Christmas].’ It’s, like, one of my favorites…bah, humbug!”

• Jennifer Nettles, of Sugarland: “For me it is usually ‘[A] Christmas Story,’ the one where you’ll put your eye out with the BB gun… I love this movie. I love everything about this movie. It is a perfect Christmas movie.”

• Kix Brooks, of Brooks & Dunn: “There’s so many great stories around Christmas, you know, from ‘Christmas Vacation’ to, you know, ‘A Christmas Story’ with the BB gun and all those things, I think. It sounds corny, but they all conjure up the kid in us, when we didn’t have so many things weighin’ on our shoulders, and everybody just kind of lets that part of their soul come out.”

• Chuck Wicks: “Every time the holidays come near, I know it’s Christmas when ‘[A] Christmas Story’ comes on. ‘Cause they play it 24 hours straight. So if you miss a part, just keep it on the channel. You’ll get it!”

• Josh Thompson: “I can’t stand ‘A Christmas Story.’ I just can’t do it. I don’t know — somethin’ ’bout that kid, and, like, puttin’ his eye out with a BB gun, ’cause when I was a kid, I heard it a million times. And, you know, he ruined it for a lot of little kids. He did. Because what’d he do? You know, he shot his glasses. He put me off of gettin’ a Daisy BB gun for years because of that one moment in the movie. So, not a fan. It ruined two good Christmases for me!”

• Carrie Underwood: “When my grandmother was still alive, we would all go to my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve, and we would go to the local nursing home and sing Christmas carols up and down the halls and pass out little bags with goodies in ‘em… It’s really easy to forget about people during that time of year, ’cause there’s so much going on, and it was a really cool thing that we did. We’d go to the nursing home and bring a little Christmas cheer with us.”

• Chris Young: “The weird thing about Christmas at our house with a cat… you can literally decorate the tree, leave the house for two days, come back, and from about the bottom third of the tree down, it’s just undecorated, completely. [She] just will sit and swat at stuff until it falls off the little metal hangers. And if anybody’s ever put on a whole bunch of ornaments on a Christmas tree, you know how annoying that is to have to put everything back on every couple days, but not so much the garland. She’s not bad about that.”

• Craig Morgan: “There’s no way we would use a fake tree. We might have a fake tree out in the shop, but it’s always a real tree [in the house]. And it used to be a tree that we went and cut ourself forever and ever. I mean, there was a few times when we cut ‘em off the side of the road and probably shouldn’t have! We were helpin’ the interstate keep their side roads clean. We looked at it as a positive, you know? Always a real tree.”

• David Nail: “The biggest thing I am looking forward to this Christmas season is getting to spend it at home in Kennett, Mo., which is where I’m from — and also in Collierville, Tenn., which is where my wife is from. And then a couple days after Christmas, Catherine — my wife — and I are going to be making a trip to Chicago to see a Bears game and spend it up there. Where we grew up, it doesn’t necessarily get too cold, and we often find ourselves wishing for white Christmases and snow and stuff like that, so we figured we’d go a little farther north and enhance our chances of having a white Christmas.”

• Marty Raybon: “My mother loved this time of year and made Christmas warm and special ever since I can remember. Of course, when our boys were small, those Christmas mornings were always wonderful and exciting. A bit of a damper this year — our middle son, Matthew, is in Iraq, and although he’s with a band of brothers I know he will miss being home. That brings a bit of sadness. I’m very proud of him and his battle buddies.”

• “Ocean Front Property” songwriter Hank Cochran: “As a child, I lived with my grandparents and we were very poor. Every year I would hear the other kids talking about Christmas trees and presents, and I really didn’t understand why we didn’t have those things. We talked about Jesus, but His birthday wasn’t a gift-giving occasion at our small home in Mississippi. One year when I was six or seven, I finally got up the nerve to ask my grandmother why we didn’t celebrate Christmas like everyone else. Her answer was, ‘You just have to believe.’ Well, that was pretty heady thinking for a kid, but I wanted presents like all of the other kids, so I began to concentrate and believe. That Christmas Eve, Grandmother reminded me of my promise to believe, and I went to bed that night praying for Christmas with all my might. That year, my uncle and my grandparents scrimped and saved to buy me a present. When I awoke on that magical Christmas morning, there was a stocking hung from the mantel, and inside, a toy gun and holster set. I was amazed! From that day forward, I have understood the power of believing.”

• “She’s Country” songwriter Bridgette Tatum: “Christmas memories always include Elvis, a nativity scene or two, and southern cookin’! My Nana and Papa’s house is always filled up each year with fragrances of good southern food, watching her set up her manger scenes and Elvis Presley singing us christmas songs well into the night. Those are my most fondest memories.”

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