People Magazine (Dec. 18th 2017)
Home For the Holidays - With Blake!
After a busy year of promoting a hit album, raising three young boys and dating the reigning Sexiest Man Alive, all Gwen Stefani wants for Christmas is some downtime. Or rather, some down-home time.
The “Used to Love You” singer and proud city girl grew up with “strict” holiday traditions and formal family gatherings, but Stefani, 48, says these days she and her sons Kingsto 11, Zuma, 9, and Apollo, 3 (with ex Gavin Rossdale), like to mix it up and escape to boyfriend Blake Shelton’s home in rural Tishomingo, for a real country Christmas.
“Oklahoma has been really fun for the boys and for my family,” she tells People of spending time hanging out and even fishing on the country star’s ranch.
“For me, it’s weird when traditions change,” says the Los Angeles native who fondly recalls her grandma’s holiday cinnamon rolls and custom-made pj’s. “But it’s also fun to be flexible. Last year [the boys] had their dad’s Christmas and then my Christmas, and then we went to Oklahoma, so they got to do three Christmases!” The pop star says turning a little bit country for her beau is easy.
The pair, who first met on the judging panel for NBC’s The Voice, began dating in 2015 after connecting over heartbreak from their respective divorces. “This bond that we formed when we found out what each other was going through, it’s still there,” Shelton, 41, told People in November. Add that to a shared love of music and family, and that connection has only grown.
This holiday the pair took their love into the studio for the duet “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” from Stefani’s debut holiday LP of the same name. “It’s always been a fantasy to write with him,” she says. After their first duet in 2016, “we had to be in a Christmas song together.” Still, the singer, set to star in the NBC special Gwen Stefani’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas, says her holiday to-do list is far from done.
“My oldest wants Gucci and Goyard for Christmas. I’m like, ‘Dude, how do you even know these things?’ They’re so spoiled I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“[My boys and I] have incorporated Oklahoma into our Christmas,” says Stefani (inset, with Shelton on June 7).
OUR FAMILY TRADITION
“We have a tradition in my family [where] we wake up in the morning and the entry hall where Santa leaves presents would be closed off with wrapping paper so you can’t see in, Stefani says. “[The boysl say, ‘One, two, three,’ and then crash through.”