Holiday music with a country twist on 'CMA Country Christmas'

HOLLYWOOD -- Singer Carly Pearce was back to host this year's "CMA Country Christmas." She also performed.

"I had a very big hand in all of the songs I sing in the special. I'm in the special quite a few times and they're all really very unique to my story and my music," said Pearce. "And I feel like for fans who maybe don't know about me, the show kind of takes you on a journey of getting to know me better."

Among the stars who joined Pearce for some Christmas cheer this year: Old Dominion, Maren Morris and Scotty McCreery.

"I sing Christmas music all year long. Ask my band. Ask my family. So to get to do this with all the artists on the big stage is pretty cool," said McCreery.

"This year, we get to do two songs, which is amazing, two original songs. We're doing 'Officially Christmas' and 'Holiday Party.' It's a brand new song. We've never performed it anywhere so hopefully we remember the words."

The War and Treaty performed, "O Holy Night."

"I can't even talk about, like, how excited we are. We watched it last year sitting at home at our house and it was just a dream. We were, like, wow, could we do this?" said Tanya Trotter.

"I'm most excited about my velvet jacket," laughed Michael Trotter Jr.

"CMA Country Christmas" aired Thursday, Dec. 8, on ABC and next day on Hulu.