As the echoes of the 2025 CMA Awards fade into Nashville’s neon night—Lainey Wilson’s triumphant reclaiming of Entertainer of the Year still ringing in the rafters—the country music faithful find themselves at a delicious crossroads: the post-awards glow giving way to the season’s warmest embrace. With Thanksgiving feasts barely digested and Black Friday bargains just beginning to beckon, the next beacon on the horizon is none other than CMA Country Christmas, the 16th annual yuletide extravaganza that has become as essential to holiday playlists as Bing Crosby’s croon or Mariah Carey’s merry mania. Airing Tuesday, December 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC—with streams hitting Hulu and Disney+ the very next day—this festive TV special isn’t just a concert special; it’s a fireside hootenanny, a star-spangled stocking stuffer that wraps country’s heartland soul in ribbons of red and green. And this year, with fresh faces like Riley Green and Megan Moroney strutting the stage, the lineup crackles with the kind of crossover charisma that could turn even the most Scrooge-hearted skeptic into a two-stepping Santa. Taped live at Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville on October 8—before a crowd of wide-eyed locals and holiday-hardened superfans—the special promises unique collaborations, timeless carols reimagined through twang-tinted lenses, and enough eggnog-fueled energy to power a sleigh from Music Row to the North Pole. In a genre that’s weathered bro-country booms and pop infusions, CMA Country Christmas remains the unfiltered antidote: pure, heartfelt, and holly-jolly to its core.

Since its sparkling debut in 2010, CMA Country Christmas has evolved from a one-off holiday hoedown into country’s coziest tradition, a two-hour tonic that kicks off the festive frenzy with the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Executive produced by Robert Deaton—the visionary behind CMA Fest’s summer sizzle and the awards’ polished pomp—each installment gathers the genre’s glitterati for a mix of merry medleys and surprise duets that feel like eavesdropping on a family jam session. Past editions have been pure magic: Carrie Underwood and John Legend’s velvet “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in 2018, a sultry swing that melted snowmen from coast to coast; Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker’s gospel-glazed “Winter Wonderland” in 2020, a beacon of joy amid pandemic shadows; and the 2023 all-star “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Young, and Lindsay Ell, a harmonious hug that racked up 8 million viewers and spawned a Spotify playlist with 50 million streams. Directed by Milton Sneed, whose lens has captured everything from Opry encores to award-show upsets, and penned by Jon Macks’ witty wordsmithery, the special thrives on its intimate scale—filmed in front of a live Nashville audience to capture that electric immediacy—while blending country’s roots with crossover charms. It’s drawn A-listers like Jennifer Nettles, Brad Paisley, and Trisha Yearwood as hosts over the years, each infusing their tenure with personal panache: Paisley’s playful patter in 2014, Yearwood’s soulful storytelling in 2017. This 2025 edition, co-hosted by the luminous Lauren Daigle and the heartfelt Jordan Davis, ups the ante with a duo that bridges contemporary Christian’s glow and country’s everyman ethos, promising a night where faith, family, and fiddle reels entwine like tinsel on a tree.

At the helm are Daigle and Davis, a pairing as unexpected as fruitcake at a chili cook-off yet as harmonious as “Jingle Bells” on a banjo. Lauren Daigle, 33 and radiating the kind of ethereal grace that earned her a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album in 2019 with Look Up Child, steps into hosting duties with the poise of a psalm-singing superstar. Hailing from Lafayette, Louisiana, where she cut her teeth in church choirs and coffeehouse covers, Daigle’s voice—a crystalline cascade that can hush a hurricane or hail a hallelujah—has crossed genre lines with hits like “You Say” (over 1 billion streams) and her 2023 self-titled album’s soul-stirring “Thank God I Do.” Her country forays, including a 2022 duet with Chris Tomlin on “Christmas Song,” hint at the festive flair she’ll bring: expect heartfelt interludes where her faith-fueled fire warms the winter chill. Teaming with Jordan Davis, the 36-year-old Milledgeville, Georgia native whose butter-smooth baritone turned “Buy Dirt” into a 2021 chart-conquering meditation on life’s simple joys, creates a dynamic yin-yang: Daigle’s soaring spirituality complementing Davis’s down-home drawl. Davis, fresh off a 2024 album Bluebird Days that blended beachy ballads with heartfelt hymns, has been country’s quiet storm—three ACM Awards, a Grammy nod for Best Country Song with “Singles You Up,” and a knack for narratives that nestle into the soul like a well-worn flannel. Together, they’ll weave through the special with witty banter and seamless segues, Daigle’s dazzle drawing the devout while Davis’s relatability reels in the road-weary. “Hosting with Jordan feels like family,” Daigle shared in a pre-tape interview, her smile as bright as a Bethlehem star. “We’re bringing that porch-swing spirit to the screen—warm, welcoming, and a little wild.”

But the real reindeer games unfold in the performances, a lineup that’s as star-studded as a Santa sleigh overloaded with swagger. Leading the charge are Riley Green and Megan Moroney, two of country’s freshest firecrackers whose inclusion feels like a festive fastball from the CMA’s curveball cannon. Riley Green, 37 and the Alabama-bred bard whose gravelly growl has turned small-town reveries into stadium sagas, brings his everyman alchemy to the yuletide table. Hailing from Jacksonville, where he traded college football dreams for fretboard flights, Green’s 2018 debut Different ‘Round Here exploded with “There Was This Girl,” a coming-of-age confessional that peaked at No. 1 and launched a career now boasting three platinum albums and 5 billion global streams. His 2024 release Ain’t My Last Rodeo—a roots-rock rumble blending barroom brawls with introspective ballads like “Worst Way”—earned him a CMA nod for Album of the Year, his live wire energy (think sweat-soaked sets at the Ryman where he crowd-surfs mid-solo) priming him for holiday hijinks. Expect Green to unwrap something soulful: perhaps a twang-tinged “Christmas to Me,” his 2023 single that paints yuletide as a pickup-truck pilgrimage, or a surprise collab with Davis on “Merry Me,” infusing the special with that back-porch buoyancy.

Then there’s Megan Moroney, the 27-year-old Georgia peach whose whip-smart wit and world-weary wail have made her country’s cleverest newcomer. Dubbed “The Trucker Hat Girl” after her viral TikTok tales of heartbreak hauls, Moroney burst onto the scene with 2022’s Lucky—a platinum powerhouse led by “Tennessee Orange,” a college-football crush that topped charts and snagged her first ACM award. Her 2024 sophomore Am I Okay? doubled down on the diary-dump dynamism: “Am I Okay?” a post-breakup bender that hit No. 1, “Save Me the Trouble” a sassy salve for sisterhood woes. With six CMA noms tying her for the lead (including New Artist of the Year), Moroney’s presence is a stocking stuffer of sass—her onstage persona a blend of bell-bottom bravado and bedroom confessions, guitar slung low like a trusted confidante. For the special, she’s teased “All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy,” a cheeky original from her holiday playlist that dreams of a Stetson-clad Santa, performed amid a lineup of lasso-twirling backups that had the live crowd hollering. “Christmas with the CMA feels like wrapping up the year with family—and a little fireworks,” Moroney quipped in a behind-the-scenes reel, her grin as golden as a Georgia sunrise.

Rounding out the roster is a constellation of country constellations and crossover comets, each adding their sparkle to the special’s sleigh. Lady A, the Tennessee trio whose harmonies have healed more heartbreaks than a therapist’s couch, returns with their signature silk-smooth sound—expect a lush “Little Saint Nick,” their Beach Boys-borrowed bop that’s become a holiday staple since 2010. Little Big Town, the quartet of vocal virtuosos whose four-part flights have earned four Grammys, brings their bohemian blend: perhaps a “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” laced with Karen Fairchild’s alto ache and Kimberly Schlapman’s soprano shine. Parker McCollum, the Austin outlier whose brooding baritone turned “Handle on You” into a 2021 chart-crusher, infuses indie grit—his “Falling Apart” a festive foil to the cheer, or a surprise “O Holy Night” that channels his church-choir roots. Then the genre-benders: the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, New Orleans’ brass-band bastions since 1963, injecting zydeco zest into “Jingle Bells”; the Tedeschi Trucks Band, that soulful six-piece led by Susan Tedeschi’s fiery fiddle and Derek Trucks’ slide-guitar sorcery, trading blues riffs for “Winter Wonderland” warmth; and BeBe Winans, the gospel great whose velvet voice has harmonized with everyone from Whitney Houston to Stevie Wonder, delivering a “O Come All Ye Faithful” that bridges sacred and secular.

Taped in mid-October at Belmont’s state-of-the-art Fisher Center—a 650-seat jewel box with acoustics that hug every harmony like a hug from home—the special captures Nashville’s holiday heartbeat: the audience, a mix of locals in flannel and tourists in ugly sweaters, erupting in cheers that echo the CMA’s communal spirit. Deaton’s direction dances between dazzle and depth—close-ups catching the twinkle in Daigle’s eye during a Preservation Hall polka, wide shots sweeping the stage as Little Big Town sways under snow-machine flurries. Macks’ script sprinkles witty asides: Davis joking about his “Buy Dirt” dirt-cheap Christmas list, Daigle quipping on turning “rescue” missions into reindeer games. It’s a two-hour tonic for the season’s frenzy—collaborations like Green and Moroney trading verses on a “Cowboy Christmas” mashup, or Lady A and Winans weaving “Silent Night” into a gospel glow-up—that reminds us country’s core is connection: voices linking like Christmas lights on a line.

For fans still buzzing from the CMAs—where Wilson, Langley, and Moroney tied with six noms apiece, Green’s “You Look Like You Love Me” duet with Langley sweeping Song, Single, and Video of the Year—CMA Country Christmas is the perfect palate cleanser: festive without fuss, heartfelt without hallmark. Airing December 2, it’s timed to tide over Thanksgiving holdouts and Black Friday battle-weary, streaming December 3 for bingeable bliss. As Daigle might hymn, it’s “thank God” for gatherings like this—where Riley’s road-worn rumble meets Megan’s merry mischief, and the holidays hum with country’s honest heart. Tune in, toast up, and let the jingle bells ring: in Music City’s merry maze, the next big thing is already wrapped with a bow.