Hillary Scott and her daughter Eisele Kaye, who released the holiday single “Hard to Wait for Christmas” on Nov. 15 and debuted it live at Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry in December, commemorated the special occasion with a sweet mother-daughter interview led by 11-year-old Eisele on behalf of Billboard Family, for our new Kids Interviewing Their Famous Parents video series. On the eve of Christmas Eve, enjoy their Q&A, filmed backstage at the Opry and premiering in the video above.

Dad Chris Tyrrell, who co-wrote the charming Christmas tune with his wife and daughter, even joins in for an exclusive mini family performance.

It’s “Hard to Wait for Christmas,” even when it’s just two days away. Just ask the mother-daughter duo, who have a whole song about practicing patience and keeping in mind what Christmas means to their family — underneath the dazzle of holiday season gifts and treats.

Eisele leads the convo with Hillary, delving into her mother’s personal Christmas memories from childhood and those that the two have made together with their family of five. (Hillary Scott and Chris Tyrrell have three children, Eisele, Betsy and Emory.)

One fun highlight from their chat is Hillary recalling the best Christmas present she received as a kid, and how magical it felt to be so surprised.

“I was not expecting Santa to bring that,” she says of a big, bewildering Barbie gift that arrived from the North Pole. “Because how in the world could it fit in the sleigh? Somehow it did.”

Hillary, who used to go Christmas caroling around the neighborhood with her family when she was younger, remembers that the first time she got to sing in a studio was for a Christmas record when she was 15. Eisele upheld her mom’s tradition with her first studio experience being vocals on a Christmas song, “Hard to Wait for Christmas” (now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music and YouTube Music).

“I feel like circling back to doing Christmas music now, with you, just feels right,” Hillary tells her daughter in the interview.

“I got to experience it with you for the first time, so it felt new again, which is really exciting — and I got to just stand by and be a proud mom watching you be so comfortable and sing so beautifully in that environment … I mean, I’m proud of [Lady bandmates] Charles [Kelley] and Dave [Haywood], but like, I’m really proud of you, ’cause you’re my girl,” Hillary shares with Eisele.

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Amazon has unveiled a slate of holiday streaming deals that get you access to some of the most popular streaming services online for their lowest prices of the year.

Right now, Amazon Prime members can get a subscription to Paramount+ with Showtime, Starz, MGM+, Crunchyroll, Hallmark+ and more for just $1.99/month (for your first two months). The deal saves you up to 85% off the regular subscription price, and makes it a prime opportunity (no pun intended) to sign-up for these entertainment streamers. Other streamers on sale include BBC Select, Acorn TV, PBS Masterpiece and Lifetime Movie Club. See the full list of discounted streaming services here.

PRIME CHANNELS DEAL

Two-Month Subscription for $1.99/Month

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Amazon typically only offers streaming discounts during Prime Day and Black Friday, so this is a rare opportunity to save on subscriptions through the site. Your best bet: Paramount+ with Showtime is regularly $12.99/month, but with Prime Video’s holiday deal, you can get your first two months for only $1.99/month. Your subscription gets you instant access to exclusive and original content such as Special Ops: Lioness, Yellowjackets, The Woman in the Wall, Frasier, Tulsa King, The Curse, The Chi and more.

Starz, meantime, is where you can watch shows like Outlander and Power Book II: Ghost. And MGM+ is home to fan favorites like Earth Abides and From.

Prime Video’s streaming deals are only running until January 2, 2025, so you’ll want to act fast to save big on your favorite programming. Keep in mind, you’ll need to be an Prime member to redeem the streaming offer.

Not a Prime member? Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial for new users who sign up. That’ll give you instant access to shop this Prime Channel deal along with exclusive Prime member-only sales including Prime Big Deal Days offers, early access deals and more Prime exclusive perks.

Amazon Prime members can access all their streaming services in one handy location thanks to Prime Video. Once the two-month promo is done, you’ll be charged the regular subscription fee for the channels/services you sign up for. You can continue on with the regular price or cancel at anytime. In addition to the streamers on sale, Prime Video also offers subscriptions to Apple TV+, Max (formerly HBO Max) and more.

This new Prime Channel promotion comes on the heels of Amazon’s other TV deals and streaming device discounts, just in time for last-minute holiday gifting.

For more product recommendations, check out ShopBillboard‘s roundups of the best tablet deals, affordable streaming options and student streaming deals.

Stray Kids score their sixth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as HOP debuts atop the list dated Dec. 28. It’s the sixth leader for the group, making the pop ensemble the first act to debut at No. 1 with its first six chart entries in the nearly 69-year history of the chart. The Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956.

Stray Kids previously opened atop the chart with ODDINARY and MAXIDENT (both in 2022), ROCK-STAR and 5-STAR (both in 2023) and ATE (earlier in 2024).

Further, with a sixth No. 1, Stray Kids tie BTS, Linkin Park and Dave Matthews Band for the most No. 1s among groups on the Billboard 200 in this century (since 2000).

HOP arrives with 187,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 19, according to Luminate, largely driven by traditional album sales.

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas jingles back to the top 10 for a seventh consecutive holiday season, as the 1994 release climbs 14-10. The set, which contains the Billboard Hot 100-topping “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” peaked at No. 3 in 1994.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 28, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Dec. 24. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of HOP’s 187,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 176,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 10,000 (equaling 14.83 million on-demand official streams of the sets songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000.

HOP’s album sales were bolstered by its availability across seven different CD variants, all containing collectible items such as photocards, posters, stickers and trading cards (including some randomized items), with variants exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the act’s official webstore. Of the album’s 176,000 album sales, CD sales comprise 171,000, while digital download albums comprise 5,000.

Previously, Stray Kids were tied with late rapper DMX as the only acts to see their first five chart entries debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. DMX did it in 1998-2003 with It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998), Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood (1999), …And Then There Was X (2000), The Great Depression (2001) and Grand Champ (2003).

As HOP is mostly in the Korean language, it is the 27th mostly non-English-language album to hit No. 1, and the fourth of 2024. Three other mostly-Korean-language sets topped the chart earlier this year, all by also debuting at No. 1: On the Nov. 30-dated list, ATEEZ landed its second leader with Golden Hour: Part.2; on the Aug. 3 chart, Stray Kids’ ATE arrived; and on the March 9 chart, TWICE notched its first leader in With YOU-th. Of the 27 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 18 are mostly Korean, five mostly (or all) Spanish, one mostly Italian, one entirely French and two mostly a blend of Spanish, Italian and French. Of the 27 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 23 have topped the chart since 2018 (the year that K-pop superstars BTS scored their first of six No. 1s, the chart’s first Korean-language leaders).

The rest of the Billboard 200’s top five comprises former No. 1s: Kendrick Lamar’s GNX is a non-mover at No. 2 (100,000 equivalent album units earned; down 20%), Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls 1-3 (85,000; down 65%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet steps 5-4 (69,000; down 9%) and Michael Bublé’s Christmas climbs 7-5 (68,000; up 10%).

The most recently released holiday album in the top 10 is Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas compilation, which ascends two spots to a new peak at No. 6 (65,000 equivalent album units; up 15%). The Wicked film soundtrack falls 6-7 (nearly 65,000; down 13%), Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft rises 9-8 (62,000; up 11%) and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess climbs 11-9 (56,000; up 12%).

Closing out the top 10 is Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, rising 14-10 with 56,000 equivalent album units earned (up 22% with a 10,000 unit gain — the largest unit increase on the chart). The set returns to the top 10 for a seventh consecutive holiday season. It peaked at No. 3 during its initial chart run in 1994, shortly following its release that year.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

A local community theater director, accurately portrayed by Martin Short, comes in to critique a performance of A Charlie Brown Christmas in SNL‘s Peanuts Christmas sketch that aired Saturday night (Dec. 21).

The SNL ensemble is full of spot-on spoofs of Peanuts characters in the sketch (hats off to the wardrobe and props departments), and they’re bopping away to the classic theme song “Linus and Lucy.”

Drake Tuttle (Short, who hosted Saturday’s holiday episode of SNL) is joined by a self-proclaimed “genius” choreographer named Lestat (Bowen Yang). In full transparency, Tuttle discloses that they’ve been romantically involved. (They “used to date,” he says, “and our relationship is very weird.”)

“Your principal hired me to direct your pageant,” he tells the Peanuts crew, to protests that Charlie Brown is their director.

“And I’m sorry to say he’s dead,” Tuttle announces, pausing for dramatic effect before adding, “to me.”

Tuttle tries to give notes. Lestat tries to incorporate modern hip-hip into the production. Nothing quite goes their way, until they discover their star: Snoopy (Kenan Thompson).

The sketch arrives while the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas from the Vince Guaraldi Trio, originally released in 1965, currently sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Kid Albums chart, thanks to the Christmastime popularity of the special.

Watch SNL‘s Peanuts Christmas below. For those watching with kids, be warned there’s some innuendo here, particularly when it comes to the jokes Short and Yang direct toward Schroeder — and unlike the actual animated Peanuts specials, what the grownups say can be heard on SNL‘s special.

For more holiday laughs, check out Saturday night’s Sábado Gigante Christmas Special sketch, and for a musical fix, don’t miss Hozier’s performance.

Barack Obama delivered his annual list of favorite songs, as well as his favorite movies and books of 2024, on his social media accounts Friday night (Dec. 20).

“Here are my favorite songs from this year! Check them out if you’re looking to shake up your playlist – and let me know if there’s a song or artist I should make sure to listen to,” the former U.S. president captioned a post featuring a list of 25 song picks.

Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up” is the first song named on Obama’s list, which has selections including Billie Eilish’s “Lunch,” Asaka & Travis Scott’s “Active,” Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” Leon Bridges’ “Peaceful Place,” Jack White’s “That’s How I’m Feeling” and Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” among many others.

Several tracks got a coveted spot on both Obama’s summer playlist (shared in August) and his favorite music of 2024 list.

Yayo’s “Rema,” Tyla, Gunna & Skillibeng’s “Jump,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Bonny Light Horseman’s “Old Dutch,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Artemas’ “I Like the Way You Kiss Me,” Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” and Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” are all found on Obama’s summer list and his year-end list.

Some of Obama’s favorite songs of 2024 ranked in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (No. 2 on the Hot 100), Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” (No. 8) and Hozier’s “Too Sweet” (No. 10).

Obama narrowed down his favorite movies of 2024 to a concise list of 10, which included All We Imagine as Light, Conclave, The Piano Lesson, The Promised Land, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Dune: Part Two, Anora, Dìdi, Sugarcane and A Complete Unknown.

His book list also has just 10 picks (and a reminder to support independent book shops and libraries). Obama’s favorite books of 2024 were Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, Alexei Navalny’s Patriot, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, Aysegul Savas’ The Anthropologists, Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Stolen Pride, Martin MacInnes’ In Ascension, Daniel Susskind’s Growth, Dinaw Mengetsu’s Someone Like Us and Adam Moss’ The Work of Art.

See all of Obama’s favorite music, movies and books of 2024 below.