Roy Wood may have wished it could be Christmas every day – but Gwen Stefani is actually putting it into practice.
The No Doubt singer has spent the last 12 months surrounded by sleigh bells as she worked on her first festive album, recording classics like Let It Snow and Santa Baby in the blazing heat of summer.
“Did I put up a Christmas tree in the studio?” laughs the singer. “Not really. I just did it and had fun.
“I’ve gone through heartbreak and all that stuff to write my other records. This one was just so fun and easy.”
Inspiration arrived while Stefani was out for a run at her boyfriend Blake Shelton’s ranch – a 200-acre property full of wildebeest and deer in the plains of Oklahoma.
“It was a nice, magical run and I started thinking, ‘If I wrote a Christmas song, what would it be?’ And it just came out of me, this song called Christmas Eve.
“It sounded like a hymn, and I started panicking like, ‘Oh my God! I’ve got to get back to my phone so I don’t forget it!'”
Back at the ranch, Stefani anxiously asked her parents: “Is this from church? Did I steal it?”