Clay Aiken on the 'Impactful' Lesson He Learned on Christmas Morning as a Boy — and Never Forgot (Exclusive)
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12/24/2024 10:00 AM
Aiken released 'Christmas Bells Are Ringing' on Nov. 22
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Clay Aiken in December 2024Christmas holds a special place in Clay Aiken's heart.
Speaking to PEOPLE in light of his first album release in over a decade, Christmas Bells Are Ringing, the American Idol alum opened up about an "impactful" lesson his mom taught him as a young boy on Christmas morning.
"When I was about 11 or 12, my mom gave me a model space shuttle. I opened it up and I said, 'Wait a second, mom, you gave me the same thing last year.' And she said, 'No, I gave you that last year, that very one last year,'" Aiken, 46, recalls.
He adds, "I had apparently opened it up the previous year, put it in my closet and never touched it again. So that following Christmas, she went in, took it out and rewrapped it and gave it to me again."
Even as a young boy, this moved Aiken and taught him to be "appreciative of the things that you have."
"I had put it away and not done anything with it, and she gave it back to me. I have remembered it to this day. It's definitely the most memorable gift. I'm sure I put that space shuttle together right away, but I also remembered that lesson, and will remember for the rest of my life," he says.
When asked what his favorite holiday traditions are, Aiken says it's one he never took part in — but always appreciated hearing about.
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Clay Aiken"When my mother was younger, our family had a tradition that all my great aunts and great uncles would get together, and only one person in that generation would get a large gift every year, and they'd all open up tiny little trinkets," he recalls.
Adding, "But every year they would open up a gift, and if you opened up and you saw that you had a hog's tail inside the box... they would cut the tail off of whatever hog they were eating that year, and they'd wrap up the hog's tail in a box. Whoever got the hog's tail knew, 'oh, I've got the great present,' and they would have to go outside and find it."
By the time Aiken was born, that tradition no longer existed — but he always enjoyed hearing about it.
"I'm going to take that as my favorite Christmas tradition, even though we haven't done it. And maybe we'll start. Maybe we'll start cutting hog's tails in my family," he says.
Aiken released Christmas Bells Are Ringing on Nov. 22. After taking a break from music to focus on his son, Parker, and a career in politics — Aiken knew it was time to go back when he had "so much fun" on a reunion tour with his Idol costar Ruben Studdard.
"I've been doing stuff that's not necessarily joyful for the last 10, 15 years. And so if I wanted to come back, I wanted to do something that just made people happy and Christmas makes everybody happy," says Aiken, who ran for Congress twice and became a UNICEF Ambassador on his hiatus.
The 10-track album is an ode to tradition and nostalgia with beloved holiday standards such as Bing Crosby's "Do You Hear What I Hear?," Nat King Cole's "Caroling, Caroling" and Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime."
