Christmas is near and Thomas Rhett is wasting no time getting in the Christmas spirit. With his very first holiday collection, Merry Christmas Y’all, available now, Rhett is already spreading Christmas cheer and has no shame about it.

“I love Christmas so much,” he told Audacy’s Katie Neal. “Our lights are already up,” he admitted.

With his lights up and plans to get his tree in the next couple weeks, Rhett says he still has yet to finish his shopping, but it won’t take long as he have a very strong strategy.

“I haven’t bought anything,” he shared before explaining his shopping strategy. “I’m usually the guy that gets the gifts for the guys in our family. I will pick an item and buy 12 of them because there are 12 dudes in our family. Lauren usually takes care of everybody else,” he laughed.

While holiday shopping seems like it’s a breeze for Rhett, the creation of his Christmas project didn’t come easy, despite his love for the holiday. He went on to share the making of  Merry Christmas Y’all challenged him far beyond his previous projects.

“Going in and recording these was a lot of fun. [Frank] Sinatra is my favorite style of Christmas music — big band, horns, strings, the whole nine-yards — so we really tried to go in and re-create the 1940s or whatever with my voice on it.”

He continued, “I will say those are the most challenging songs I’ve ever sang in my life, in the studio,” he said. “The key changes every four seconds. Legit…. I’ve sang it [Christmas music] my whole life, but when you sing it not over Frank Sinatra’s voice, it’s an extra challenge.”

Hear more about Rhett’s adventures making a Christmas album, what he’s looking forward to most on his Home Team 23 tour and his logic surrounding holiday time birthdays in his conversation with Katie Neal above.