For nine-time Grammy nominated contemporary Christian artist Natalie Grant, this Christmas is a homecoming – and in more ways than one. For the past 20 years – since the celebrated singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist released her first Christmas album, 2005’s Believe (all while promoting her top-charting breakthrough album Awaken) – her desire to release a second Christmas album has only grown stronger. When Grant completed her multi-album record deal last year, she knew “the very first thing I was going to do was make a new Christmas record.”  

She did just that with Christmas, out October 3. For Grant, doing so was a return to her roots – and some of her warmest childhood memories. Christmas was always particularly special, as her family would gather around the piano to sing carols together. “And all these years later, we still gather around the piano every Christmas Eve,” she says with a nostalgic smile. And it is, even for my own kids, such a core memory of Christmas.”  

That sense of home and togetherness – and the peace it brings – echoes Christmas, bringing a sense of calm comfort and festive familiarity to beloved Christmas classics, plus two new originals. For “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Grant looked to a future memory she can’t wait to create: her two eldest daughters returning home from their first year away at college. “I had just sobbed my eyes out at an assembly,” recalls Grant of the day she recorded her rendition of the classic. “There’s all this emotion and I’m going into the studio, but it ended up being a moment of therapy for me. I could have a respite from the craziness, and go, ‘Yes, they’re going to college, but they’ll come back at Christmas.’”  

Such a full-circle return, as always guided by faith, is exactly what Christmas celebrates so well. And for Grant, it’s the pillar on which she has built her decades-long career. “For me, it was always less about being an artist and more about [bringing] people hope. That is at the core of who I am.”