Family traditions important to singer
By NATALIE MIKLES

Ever since Trisha Yearwood married Garth Brooks and moved to Owasso, Oklahomans have claimed her as one of their own.

She may have been born and raised in Georgia, but in the minds of many, she’s now an Oklahoma girl.

Those Okies will be glad to know that Christmas at the Brooks-Yearwood home is a lot like theirs. There are no champagne toasts or passed hors d’oeuvres.

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Trisha’s Christmas traditions are the same as they were when she was a little girl. For Garth and Trisha, that means ham, potato salad, green beans, ambrosia, divinity and fudge.

“We don’t have fancy parties or anything like that,” she said. “That’s the way I was raised. My mom and dad never entertained. It was just friends and family dropping by.”

We talked to Trisha by phone from her home in Owasso just days before Thanksgiving. She already had her Thanksgiving menu planned and ready to go and was thinking about Christmas.

Traditions old and new

Homemade fudge is one tradition Garth has passed down to his girls. His mother Colleen’s recipe is a Christmas favorite and has become the welcome job of his daughter and his mother’s namesake, Colleen.

“It’s amazing,” Trisha said. “Garth says it tastes just like his mom’s.”

Last year Trish and Garth started a new tradition. They invited their friends and their friends’ kids over for a night of baking Christmas cookies.

“Everyone brought a recipe and their big mixers. It was really fun.”

A Georgia Christmas

When Trisha was growing up, her mom put the big red tablecloth on the table twice a year — Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“I have good memories of laughing and sitting around that table,” Trisha said. “You would sit there until the food got cold and you got hungry again. Then we would warm it up and do it all over.”

Trisha will be in Georgia for at least part of the holiday. Every year, she, her mom and her sister make Christmas cookies and candies. Caramel candy is their favorite.

“We sit around and wrap the candy. Talk and eat. Eat and talk.”

Trisha isn’t always able to see her family on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But after 18 years of touring, she’s decided that the holidays are about getting together, no matter the day.

Home in Owasso

Trisha’s Christmas tree is likely up by now. That’s something she usually does the week after Thanksgiving.

“I’m definitely old school. I love Christmas, but I just can’t do it until after Thanksgiving.”

Garth and Trisha also like looking at Christmas lights, just not their own. They skip putting lights on their home, but love driving around looking at Christmas displays.

If you have an idyllic image of Garth and Trisha singing Christmas carols in harmony at home, think again.

“We don’t sit around the piano singing Christmas carols,” she said. “We sing every day.”

Perhaps it’s even better than you imagined.

On Owasso

When her book “Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen” was released, Trisha Yearwood expected a lot of friends and fans for her Georgia book signing. But she didn’t know what to expect in Oklahoma.

“The response was overwhelming. Our two-hour book signing lasted six hours,” she said. “I love living here. I’m an import from Georgia, but the size of the town where I grew up reminds me of Owasso. It’s a real community atmosphere.”