Nick Carter Says He Feels Like ‘Clark Griswold’ During Christmas with His 3 Kids
Christmas #Christmas
Nick Carter is ready to make it the hap-hap-happiest Christmas for his three kids.
During a sit down with PEOPLE and his Backstreet Boys bandmates Kevin Richardson, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough ahead of hosting JCPenney’s Live Holiday Spectacular on Thursday, the singer, 42, said that he feels like Christmas Vacation’s beloved dad Clark Griswold during the holidays.
“I got three kids, two girls and a boy, and they’re all really young, so I’m pretty much like Clark Griswold putting up all the ornaments and the decorations outside and the trees,” said Carter, who shares kids Odin Reign, 6½, Saoirse Reign, 3, and 19-month-old Pearl with wife Lauren Kitt, 39.
Just like Griswold’s Christmas tree that catches on fire, Carter said he also had an “epic fail” with his own tree last year.
“I had to buy this thing to get the bulbs working so I was outside with a staple gun, ladder,” he said. “But that’s kind of a tradition for me doing the daddy duties and setting up all the decorations.”
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McLean’s holiday with his daughters Elliott (who recently changed her name from Ava), 10, and Lyric, 5, and wife Rochelle, 41, meanwhile, is all about the cookies.
“They’re not just your typical ornament shapes or candy canes,” he said. “We do those, but then we also by hand make whatever cool things we want.”
McLean, 44, said his brother-in-law has even made cookies to look like Kevin McCallister’s famous scream in the mirror from Home Alone. He also shaped some like Nakatomi Tower from Die Hard.
In his home, McLean said he puts up the leg lamp from another holiday favorite, A Christmas Story.
Richardson, 51, similarly does cookies at his house with his sons Mason, 15, and Maxwell, 9, and wife Kristin, 52, every year. They also gather up old and new toys to donate.
“We take them down to the fireplace which usually hands them out,” he said. “We try to teach our kids about giving back and giving to those less fortunate at this time of the year.”
Littrell, 47, said he and his son Baylee, 20, and wife Leighann, 53, are also all about giving back.
“We check out the coat drives, and we dump our coats or we team up with organizations and give gifts to kids that would be less fortunate,” he said. “That’s something that’s very, very important, along with the cookie making and the decorations. My wife is the best decorator in the planet.”
For Dorough, 49, Christmas morning at his house with sons James, 13, and Holden, 9, and wife Leigh Boniello, 48, always includes matching pajamas and music.
“We bring out our old record player, and we’ll play old music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Bing Crosby, all that kind of stuff,” he said. “Now I’m actually really proud that we have our own record, A Very Backstreet Christmas, that I’ll be able to play for my kids while they’re opening up the gifts.”
The band released A Very Backstreet Christmas in October. During the JCPenney Live Holiday Spectacular, they debuted the claymation music video for their song, “Christmas In New York,” off the album.
“We had minimal time on tour, so we were like, ‘How do we shoot a music video?'” Richardson recalled. “We had a couple days off in between our two US and Canada legs [on our DNA tour], and we decided we all loved and grew up with Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the claymation TV special. We were like, ‘It’d be pretty cool to have each of us as little claymation characters.’ So that was part of the inspiration, as well as the city of New York at Christmas time. I mean, it is a magical place.”
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With their cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” off A Very Backstreet Christmas, the band nabbed their first No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart since they released “I Want It That Way” in 1999.
“It’s kind of ironic that it’s a Christmas song,” McLean said. “It’s a cover of one of our favorite bands growing up, Wham! It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do these covers on this album.”
“These are songs that we all grew up with, classics from the Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole,” he continued. “Now our kids get to hear their dads as part of that playlist, which is pretty freaking cool.”
To that, Dorough quipped: “It’s going to be torture for the rest of their lives.”
Considering they have a new Christmas album, the band thought teaming up with JCPenney for their Live Holiday Spectacular — which raised money for Feeding America — would be a perfect fit.
“JCPenney is an all-American brand, and we’re all American,” Dorough said. “It’s been around for, what do they say? Over a hundred years? Yeah, as old as the Backstreet Boys.”
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In 2023, which will see the band celebrate their 30th anniversary, Carter said he and the guys are going to continue being committed to “enjoying” what they do.
“We’re going to be in the moment with the fans,” he said. “I think, every single year, that’s a resolution for the Backstreet Boys.”
Added Richardson: “Try to stay humble, hungry, and kind.”
With their upcoming milestone anniversary, McLean said he and the guys plan to make it a party all year long.
“Who knows what we’re going to do,” McLean said. “We’ve talked about having possibly a party for ourselves, so to speak, and maybe playing some golf, going out and just having a good time together, being together on our actual 30th. Who knows!”
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