Tags

Share this story

Conversations with Kristin Chenoweth

In these videos, actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth talks about her new holiday album, “Happiness Is … Christmas,” recalls her first audition and shares why Guideposts magazine holds such a special place in her heart.

Guideposts Video: Inspiring True Stories

On Happiness Is … Christmas

Hi everybody, it’s Kristin Chenoweth. I’m here for my cover for Guideposts magazine. And guess what? It’s Christmas.

♪ I got a bone to pick with you ♪
♪ On Christmas morn, what did I see ♪
♪ I found a toothbrush and a pair of mismatched socks ♪
♪ Under my tree ♪
♪ Sweater’s too big ♪
♪ Jammies too small ♪

I wanted to do another Christmas song because, frankly, it makes me happy. The music makes everybody happy. And when I was looking at the song selection, I knew that I wanted to do something that had to do with my deep DNA, which is Charlie Brown.

The name of the record is “Happiness is … Christmas.” So what we did is we melded two songs together from “Charlie Brown,” the movie, and another song from the musical and the musical is…

♪ Happiness is two kinds of ice cream ♪
♪ Building a snowman, climbing a tree ♪

But we also put

♪ Christmas time is here ♪
♪ Joyful everywhere ♪

with the kids, so it’s a very special way to open the record. And it goes from there to the Carpenters to Kay Starr to the blues.

We have an original piece called “Santa, I’ve got a Bone to Pick with You.” And it’s basically about all the times that we thought we were getting something and we didn’t. So anyway, we wrote a song, kind of funny, for that.

This album of mine, it’s eclectic. And I hope people walk away going, wow, “My Dear Acquaintance,” Peggy Lee. I didn’t even know that song. I hope they walk away knowing a lot of the music and then learning some too.

There’s a song that Jay Landers wrote, “Why Can’t it be Christmas Every Day?” that’s really fun. And it begs the question of why can’t it be Christmas every day? Which is my question for you guys. Certainly if we lived like it was Christmas every day, I think we’d be a lot happier.

♪ Got a bone to pick with you ♪
♪ If you could only hear my plea ♪
♪ I want a weekend on a brand new bearskin rug ♪
♪ Under my tree ♪

On Her First Audition and Her Love of Guideposts

Hi everybody, I’m Kristin Chenoweth and we are here for the cover story of Guideposts magazine. And guess what? It’s Christmas too.

I grew up singing in church, so obviously Christmastime was a big time in our lives. I remember auditioning for the adult part in a Christmas, one of our Christmas stories, and my mom said, “These are just for the grownups.” And I said, “But I’m want to go”. And she said, “Okay”. So the song was, “Jesus, I Heard You Had A Big House, where there’s plenty of love to go ’round.” And I auditioned with this song and got it.

So here’s this little tiny girl coming up to sing, ♪ Jesus, I heard you had a big house, ♪ ♪ with plenty of love to go ’round. ♪ It’s so silly now that I think about it, but it really whet my appetite for being a musician and being the kind of musician that I want to be, and also, just remembering where I’m from and my faith.

Two of my very favorite Christmas traditions that we have in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, is we read the Christmas story out of the Bible. Right after that, we will open a present. So I don’t know what that says about my family, that we will read the story, the birth of Jesus, and then promptly open a present. But that’s what we do at my house.

It’s very easy to talk about what Guideposts means to me, since both my mother and my grandmother and all of my aunts read Guideposts. No matter where we were at in the house, you could find the latest edition. And one of my favorite sections in Guideposts magazine was bad things happening in real life, and how you can overcome it and how hope always wins. And it always fascinated me that they found these stories where the worst thing could happen and yet people overcame it. And that was the beginning of my love affair with Guideposts.


Share this story

Faith Over Fear Right Rail Ad 300x600

Community Newsletter

Get More Inspiration Delivered to Your Inbox

Scroll to Top