Why Carrie Underwood Loves ‘Little Drummer Boy’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Carrie Underwood always loved to sing “as far back” as she can remember. Though struck early on with stage fright at times, her belief that talent was not meant to be hidden helped her persevere.
One of her personal Christmas favorites, “Little Drummer Boy,” reminds her that one’s God-given talent is a gift we can give back to Him.
“You know the story. He wants to bring a gift to baby Jesus, but he’s poor. He doesn’t have shiny, pretty, special things as the wise men do, with their gold, frankincense and myrrh,” Underwood wrote for Guideposts.
“What can he give the newborn king? He turns to the one thing he knows he can do, the thing he does best. Play his drum. That’s the gift he gives to Jesus. The gift of music,” she continued.
The Oklahoma native recalls in her earliest memories “bursting into song at the drop of a hat” and singing solo for the first time at church around six or seven years old.
“It was so scary, all those grown-ups listening to me,” she remembered. “But the minute I opened my mouth, it wasn’t just me doing it. Something welled up inside me, something I couldn’t keep for myself. Sometimes you don’t realize how powerful a gift is till you share it.”
The AMERICAN IDOL winner recounts one tradition of singing in nursing homes during the holidays.
“We’d also go to the nursing home in Checotah and sing for the residents in their beds and wheelchairs, going up and down the halls, making music like the drummer boy,” she wrote. “In a small town like Checotah, the Christmas spirit was contagious.”
Growing up, Underwood dreamed of being a professional singer, but wanting to be “practical,” she attended Northeastern State University to study mass communications. At that time, her career took off “out of the blue” after winning season four of AMERICAN IDOL, but not before overcoming her stage fright again.
“I was terrified. Every time I had to sing in front of the judges, I’d get nervous the way I did in church that first time. Then I’d say a prayer and leave it in God’s hands,” she confessed.
The multiple-Grammy winner says that her Checotah upbringing keeps her grounded despite her success.
“Growing up on a farm with loving parents and our church family defined my values. A small town with good people helped form me. I was rooted in something solid before I got to spread my wings,” she wrote.
She and her husband, NHL player Mike Fisher, strive to pass down the “down-to-earth, church on Sundays” small-town values that she grew up with to their kids.
“At night, when we put the boys to bed, we pray out loud with them. Just talking to God, letting them know he hears their every word,” the mom of two wrote.
Underwood also passed on the musical genes to her oldest, Isaiah, who collaborated on “Little Drummer Boy” for her Christmas album “My Gift.”
“The morning we were supposed to go to the recording studio, he got himself dressed. He came down the stairs in his jeans that he wears to church, a button-down shirt and a little black fedora,” she said.
“‘I’m gonna go sing for Jesus. So I wanted to look nice,’” she recalled her son telling her.
Just like her son, she wants to keep focus on whom she’s singing to.
“I love music, I love singing. That is my personal gift that I have, that I get to do, that I’m so blessed to do, and I want to use that gift and give it back to Jesus,” she told PEOPLE.
Underwood just finished her “Reflection” Las Vegas residency for 2023 and recently announced additional dates for when she returns in 2024.
“The party continues! We’re thrilled to share that we’ve added even more shows for #REFLECTION @resortsworldtheatre in 2024, and we now have select dates in October! This show is very special to us, and we’re so excited to see more of you next year!” she wrote.
Movieguide® previously reported on Underwood:
While Carrie Underwood will spend much of December in Las Vegas for her residency, she explained how she got into the Christmas spirit before leaving her Nashville home and the traditions she looks forward to once she returns.
“My Christmas decorating schedule honestly depends on my schedule, so this year, I decorated before Thanksgiving, which is not really something that I would like to do,” she explained. “I think the ideal time to decorate for Christmas is the weekend right after Thanksgiving.”
“For me, growing up, Christmas was always just comforting. We always had the same stockings and the same tree and the same decorations, and we would always decorate the weekend right after Thanksgiving,” Underwood told WKML radio.
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +3