Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Reba McEntire is a country music legend who has

had over 35 number one singles and over 56 million albums sold worldwide.

Reba has become a beloved household name who has made her mark in film,

television, theater, and retail. Her latest project, a Gospel Double C. D.

Sing It Now, Songs of Faith and Hope, recently won a Gospel Music Association

Duff Award for Bluegrass Country Roots Album of the Year.

Now Reba has gone on to record a new Christmas

record called My Kind of Christmas. She shares her thoughts on Christmas and why

for many of us Christmas can be a difficult time of the year, but also why she thinks it's important

to find joy and to remember the reason for the season.

You can start back when I was with, you know, at home and in southeastern Oklahoma we go over to Grandma's

house mama's mama I was named after her so her name is Reba Estelle Smith

and I'm Reba L McIntyre But of course we'd always start the morning opening gifts there at home in Chaki, Oklahoma and then go over to Grandma's house where Aunt Jenny and Aunt Virginia and Mama all their kids would be hanging out and playing and having kids is

Boy it makes Christmas a different story because you get to see the delight in their

eyes that you had as a kid and then my ex-husband's mother my mother-inlaw, she would help tell the story about Joseph and Mary coming

to Bethlehem and having baby Jesus in the stable and putting him in the manger and then

she'd bring a cake in and we'd sing happy birthday Jesus because it was his

birthday and she got the kids you know this is why we're here you know these are

gifts that's the symbol of Jesus This is why we're here. You know, these are gifts.

That's the symbol of Jesus's birthday.

And so then we open the gifts and we go on with our day.

But those kind of holiday traditions are really cool to remind the kids, remind everybody the reason for the season.

...