Holiday caroling was a tradition in Carrie Underwood‘s family, and it’s a time she remembers fondly, singing for residents of a local nursing home. “It’s really easy to forget about people during that time of year,” Carrie says, “’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.” And Carrie has always loved traditional holiday songs like the ones they sang there, including her favorite, “O Holy Night.” Carrie feels there’s a certain majesty to that classic: “It just talks about the grandness of that night, and it’s…very powerful.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Be sure to tune-in to see Carrie perform her holiday single, “Do You Hear What I Hear,” on NBC’s Greatest Holiday Moments: Songs of the Season Countdown, airing this Friday, December 12th (8pm, ET).
• “Do You Hear What I Hear” and “O Holy Night” are two of the five classic Christmas songs featured on the special, two-disc holiday edition of Carrie’s Carnival Ride album, available now, exclusively at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.

  Carrie Underwood remembers a childhood family tradition of singing carols like “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” at a local nursing home. (:34)
“We would walk up and down the halls and sing Christmas carols. I mean, we sang, ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,’ we sang ‘Silent Night,’ we sang, just all those songs that everybody knows, and it was just a really cool thing that we did. I really wish we still did it. We quit when my grandma got sick, but it was just one of those things that, you know, a lot of people that…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.”

  Carrie Underwood says “O Holy Night” is her favorite Christmas carol. (:22)
“‘O Holy Night’ — it’s my favorite Christmas song. I mean, it just talks about the grandness of that night, and it’s just, it’s very powerful. And it’s powerful singing it, and to me, it’s always been very powerful listening to it. So, it’s just, it’s one of those things that, you know, I love the song so much, and that’s why I just, I had to include it.”