Reba McEntire Shares Christmas Memories

Reba McEntire loves the holidays, but admits shopping for certain loved ones can be a challenge when she runs out of gift ideas. So who is the hardest person on her list to buy for? "Narvel!" she says. "Impossible! Usually we just say, 'Let's not buy each other anything.' That is the easiest thing to do. Last year we donated to a charity and that was our gift to each other was to give to somebody else."

When asked what her 18-year-old son Shelby wants for Christmas, she laughs that signature Reba laugh and responds, "Oh you know what kids that age want -- money! He is so funny. He will come into my room and say, 'Mom do you want that bicycle in the shed? You never ever ride it. Can I sell it?' [I ask] Why? [He says] 'I need the money.' I said, 'Absolutely not!'"

McEntire admits the family previously went a little crazy with the gift giving. "In the past, we have kind of gone overboard and it got a little silly," she says. "The kids got tired of opening presents! So we determined that you only get one gift. It is a nice gift, very substantial and that is it.'

The country icon and her family will celebrate a Tennessee Christmas this year. "We will spend the rest of the day playing games, going walking and enjoying each other," McEntire says. "We take turns saying what we are thankful for ... Another tradition that we started when I got married to Narvel was from his mother, Gloria Blackstock. Before we open gifts, we sit and we sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus. When we used to go back to her house, she would tell the story about Jesus being born in the manger and how hard it was on Mary. She'd tell the whole story and we sing happy birthday and then we'd open gifts."

Taking family photos to preserve the memories is another holiday tradition. "I make everybody dress up and put makeup on and fix their hair," she says. "If you do not care about how you look, you just better know that we are going to be taking a lot of pictures. So there you go!"

Growing up in Oklahoma with sisters Susie and Alice and her brother Pake, McEntire says the family would always go out and chop down a Christmas tree. Then it wasn't uncommon for she and Susie to decorate it several times. "Susie and me would get bored and in the afternoon so we would go ask Mama if we could re-decorate it. Of course, it looked like hammered death! Mama would let us redecorate five or six times before Christmas. She didn't care," says McEntire with a laugh.

These days, the busy wife and mom admits she has someone who helps decorate her home for the holidays, and she also hires a cook for Christmas dinner. "Nobody would get what they want if I cooked," she says in the current Country Weekly Cover story. "We have a lady who cooks on special occasions ... All I ever wanted was a person to cook for me, because I was never a good cook and I love to eat so that is the greatest perk about being in the business. I once told Tom T. Hall that when I got rich and famous -- and I'm still working on it -- all I was going to do is bitch and sing!"

When asked to name a Christmas gift she's received over the years that really stands out in her mind, McEntire recalls a gift her sister Susie gave her back in the 80s. "Susie gave me a pair of old Converse tennis shoes I wore when I was playing basketball," she says. "I slept, lived and breathed basketball when I was growing up. I don't know where she found them. When I opened them up, I just started bawling. Little memories like that I hold near and dear to my heart."