Thomas Rhett Makes Sure This Is Real Each Christmas

Thomas Rhett and his family each year head to a Christmas tree lot to pick out a real tree for his house. According to him, he will NOT have a fake tree in his home at Christmastime.

Thomas told us, "It's kinda been a rule in our house since I got married to Lauren, but we do not do the fake tree scenario as much as I have wanted to in the past. It would be so easy to have one that's already lit, you just throw up and then put some lights on, but my wife loves the process of going to the lot, picking the perfect one." He added, "We also get a real Christmas tree for each of the girls' bedrooms. It's like 4 feet tall or whatever, and we usually take about two nights and build a fire, put on 'Home Alone,' and get out all the ornaments and let the girls go crazy on the tree. It's probably my two favorite nights of the year, which is getting to decorate the house for Christmas. I love gettin' to do that with my girls."

Rhett released his first Christmas collection, Merry Christmas, Y'all, in October this year. The album features four holiday classics: "Winter Wonderland," "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas."

He said in a press release when he released the project, "I love everything about Christmas -- there's nothing like the holiday season. I wanted to record some of the Christmas songs that my family and I enjoy every year. I hope this music gets everyone in the holiday spirit!"

Last week, Thomas released a video for the title cut "Merry Christmas, Y'all." He shared a behind-the-scenes video clip on his Instagram, joking with fans, "Quit complaining… it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Go behind the scenes of the #MerryChristmasYall shoot!!

Many fans responded to his post, including one who loved what he was driving in the clip; they commented, "I want Santa to bring me that Bronco!! Love it!"

Last night's 56th Annual CMA Awards was low on drama but it was a big night for great performances. The music did the talking and led to a lot of standing ovations.

We look at some amazing and sometimes riveting performances from country music's elite on country music's biggest night.

This is such a good song. It's the very first live performance that Thomas and Katy have done together, and they pulled it off perfectly. Katy was ready for country, sporting a black cowboy hat. You could see how much the two performers clicked together, and at the end, shouting out each other's name was the icing on the cake.

With these three ladies performing together, you knew this would be great even before it started. The performance was sassy, fun, and just a delight to watch as Kelsea, Kelly, and Carly put this guy in his place. This performance makes you wonder why Kelsea wasn't in the Female Vocalist category this year. That will likely change next year.

What a way to start the CMA Awards with these three queens of country music paying tribute to country music's first queen, Loretta Lynn. As expected, the three sang their own Loretta songs flawlessly, and Lynn would have been proud. When the camera flashed to the crowd to show Keith Urban singing along, you knew it would be a highlight of the show. They started it off with a video clip of Loretta accepting her Entertainer of the Year honor in 1972, an amazing moment.

This performance was on fire and showed just how good Brothers Osborne is, and the new duo War and Treaty were wonderful with the duo's Tanya Trotter seemed to channel Tina Turner for the performance. It was so impressive that when War and Treaty came backstage to say hi to the press, they were met with cheers and applause and that rarely happens for any act, let alone a new one.

This is a haunting and epic song, to begin with, and last night's (11/9) performance from Hardy and new CMA darling Lainey Wilson was spot-on and gave you the chills. Lainey's performance was so dramatic; it showed us how good her acting chops are and why she will be great on Paramount's "Yellowstone" Season Five when it premieres later this month.

Hearing Patty Loveless' stirring and emotional performance with Chris Stapleton of "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," a song she recorded in 2008, reminded me how much I loved Patty's music and why she was the CMA's Female Vocalist in 1996. The performance, which also featured Chris' wife Morgane, gave me goosebumps until the very last note Loveless sang as the country stars in the crowd swayed, sang along, and stood in admiration for another exceptional Stapleton collaborative CMA performance.

The CMA's Alan Jackson tribute to honor him with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award from Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Jon Pardi, and then Alan himself was such a joy for the audience who sang along with every word of Jackson's"Chattahoochee." A tearful Underwood introduced the performance by telling the crowd that her very first concert as a kid was an Alan Jackson one.