‘Christmas Feels Magical Again!’ Mickey Guyton on Joy, Family and Her New Album (Exclusive)

When most country artists record a Christmas album, they decorate a Nashville studio, slip into a cozy holiday sweater and get into the festive spirit. But for Mickey Guyton, the four-time Grammy nominee behind the new album Feels Like Christmas, the process looked very different.

“I recorded it in China,” says Mickey, who was overseas filming The Singer, the international competition watched by more than 115 million viewers each week, where she made history as the first American artist to finish as runner-up. 

“We found a studio and recorded remotely. There were no Christmas decorations. My producer, Karen Kosowski, would say, ‘Just imagine it’s cold,’ because it was really hot in China. It was 90 or 100-plus degrees and I was singing about snow. It was an exhausting experience, but an awesome experience,” she told Woman’s World as our cover girl (get your copy here!).

Mickey Guyton’s favorite Christmas tracks

Creating Feels Like Christmas was a labor of love for the country star. “There’s so much going on in the world, and we all need joy now—that’s what I channeled on this record,” Mickey says. “Christmas is the time of year you can step away from the seriousness and embrace family time, love, sugar cookies and lights!”

The album blends classic Christmas covers like “O Holy Night” with new originals, including “Sugar Cookie” and a duet with Michael Bolton on “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.”

“We recorded that song last year,” she says of the duet. “Michael Bolton asked me to be a part of this song and it was one of the best surprises of my life. He’s an iconic person, a great father and all these things, and to be able to sing with someone like that, it was pretty awesome.”

Her personal favorite? “Sugar Cookie.” “It just feels good. It’s a fun, sexy Christmas song. It’s cute and something that I really enjoyed. I think it will be really good to play when people are decorating their trees.”

Mickey Guyton on the importance of holiday joy

For Mickey, embracing the holiday spirit is about finding joy in the small things. “It’s the one time of year you are allowed to take yourself out of all the seriousness of life that life throws at us every single day,” she says. “You get to think about the best things in your life, which are family and love. It’s the decorations. It’s sugar cookies. It’s Christmas trees. It’s lights. It’s all the goodness that you love.”

Her childhood Christmas memories

Mickey—who appears in the Hallmark movie A Grand Ole Opry Christmas that premiered December 11—recalls how magical the holidays felt growing up in Texas. Now, watching the season through the eyes of her four-year-old son, Grayson, has made Christmas even more meaningful. “Christmas feels magical again for me,” she smiles. “I’ve always enjoyed Christmas, but there’s nothing like looking through the lens of a little kid.”

She also laughs about one unforgettable childhood holiday. “Christmas was on a Sunday, and my parents knew all we wanted to do was open Christmas presents, but they said we had to go to church first. Somehow, we didn’t open presents until 6 p.m. that year. I’ll never forget that memory of them doing that. It was torture.”

Her family’s favorite holiday tradition

Today, Mickey cherishes her family’s annual tradition. “It’s an international cookout where the whole family comes together—in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins—and we pick an international dish that we’ve never tried before, and we cook it. My parents have a really big kitchen, and some people cook at their house and bring it over. We try each person’s dish and whoever has the best dish wins. There are great cash prizes. We don’t really do gifts anymore. This is the thing that we really look forward to and we take it seriously. I’ve won it two years.”

How Mickey Guyton stays grounded and joyful

Mickey admits that holding onto joy year-round can be hard, but she turns to simple pleasures—like a bakery stop—to stay centered. “Today, I went to Five Daughters Bakery and got some croissant donuts. That brought me joy,” she grins.

More importantly, she protects her peace by stepping back from social media. “You have to drown out the noise and find what gives you joy,” she says. “The music industry is really hard right now for everyone, and you just have to drown out the noise. Put down your phone. Social media can take a lot of joy out of everything because you make comparisons and people aren’t always nice on social media. So I’ve done a really good job of just focusing on me, focusing on what’s around me that brings me joy and happiness and that’s how I stay sane. I’m on Instagram, but I’ve let go of any account that makes me compare myself. I don’t look at it. I need happiness and lightheartedness.”

Faith is another cornerstone for her. “Everybody has their own beliefs, but for me personally, I feel like in order to keep going, I have to have faith because the world can be ugly. You have to have faith in God and people that are like-minded and want goodness and love in order to cope. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that there is something on the other side that is good, loving and peaceful and happy.”