You Make It Feel Like Christmas is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani. The album, which is Stefani's first full-length Christmas-themed album, was released on October 6, 2017, by Interscope Records. The record was executively produced by Stefani and Busbee, with additional production coming from Eric Valentine. The standard version of You Make It Feel Like Christmas contains twelve songs, featuring six original songs penned by Stefani, Busbee and Justin Tranter, and six cover versions of Christmas standards. While going on a nature walk near the Oklahoma ranch house belonging to boyfriend Blake Shelton, Stefani felt inspired to record a Christmas album and began writing what would later become "Christmas Eve". Recording sessions took place in the summer months of 2017; several of the tracks' titles leaked in August, leaving Stefani to confirm the project in September. The album's original songs make references to Stefani's newfound love and relationship with Shelton.
The album was preceded by the release of lead single "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", a duet with Shelton. It became a modest success on international record charts, becoming Stefani's first entry as a solo artist in years in several territories. A music video for the song was released in 2018. In Italy, Stefani's cover of "Santa Baby" and the original song "Secret Santa" were selected as singles and distributed to mainstream radio stations. Elsewhere, "Santa Baby" was released as a promotional single for the album. To promote You Make It Feel Like Christmas, Stefani performed on numerous television programs, such as Today, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She also filmed an accompanying television special, Gwen Stefani's You Make It Feel Like Christmas, which premiered on NBC on December 12, 2017. A deluxe edition of the album was distributed in October 2018 and features two previously unreleased songs and three new covers, including a duet of "Feliz Navidad" with Chilean singer Mon Laferte. Another reissue occurred in 2020 with two new songs, "Sleigh Ride" and the original single "Here This Christmas".
You Make It Feel Like Christmas garnered a mostly positive reception from music critics. Stefani was praised for creating a classical Christmas record as opposed to a modern one. However, some critics disliked the original songs for not sounding festive. Commercially, the album did not replicate the success of Stefani's three previous albums. It reached number 16 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States and had first week album-equivalent units of 10,000 copies. Elsewhere, the album charted in Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, the Netherlands, Scotland, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. All seventeen songs on the standard and deluxe editions of the record entered Billboards Holiday Digital Song Sales component chart in the United States.
Background
Following the release of her third solo album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like, Gwen Stefani announced in July 2017 that she had plans to release new music by the end of the year. During the summer months of 2017, Stefani vacationed at Blake Shelton's Oklahoma farm estate where she spent time doing exercise, meditation, and praying. Inspired by the exotic animals surrounding her while on a spiritual walk outside Shelton's property, she remarked, "If I wrote a Christmas song, what would it be?" After questioning herself, she began singing random lyrics out loud on the spot which she would later use in "Christmas Eve", one of the album's twelve songs. She cited this nature walk as the main source of inspiration for deciding to record a Christmas album and eventually inquiring with Interscope to begin production.
The titles of several tracks, including "Christmas Eve", "Under the Christmas Lights", and "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", first leaked on August 2, 2017, when they appeared as published works on BMI and GEMA, American and German music databases, respectively. Because of the registered song titles, several music critics suggested that Stefani may be recording her first holiday album. On September 18, 2017, the singer took to her social media accounts and claimed that she "had something big planned for the holidays" and would release more information later that week. As promised, following the announcement, she revealed that she had recorded a Christmas album. She also shared the project's title – You Make It Feel Like Christmas – and its track listing. Describing the album, Stefani referred to it as a split collection of classic Christmas songs and newly recorded tracks.
Inspiration and writing
According to Stefani, her prior albums were inspired by her personal heartbreak, so You Make It Feel Like Christmas allowed for the singer to make a record that was "just so fun and easy". Following the release of This Is What the Truth Feels Like in 2016, the singer did not feel particularly inspired. She admitted to Entertainment Weeklys Madison Vain that she had no future plans to record another solo album; however, she remarked that the idea to create a Christmas album randomly "came into [her] head" and, in reaction, she immediately texted her managers and claimed "I’m going to make a Christmas record, by the way!". Studio sessions for You Make It Feel Like Christmas began occurring one week after this communication with her team and songwriting followed soon after. Shelton suggested to Stefani that she should collaborate with American musician Busbee, who was primarily known for his work with country music artists.
While determining a sound for the album, Busbee told Stefani that "it needs to be raw and punk and sort of classical at the same time" to which she agreed. To gather additional inspiration for You Make It Feel Like Christmas, Stefani listened to her favorite holiday albums from her childhood, such as Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Emmylou Harris's Light of the Stable (1979). She also aimed for You Make It Feel Like Christmas to have a throwback vibe, taking influence from the American girl group the Ronettes and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound music formula. Other artists and musicians she listened to for inspiration included The Osmonds and Cher. Regarding her hopes for how she wanted the album to be received, Stefani said: "I love the idea of being a part of the joy of Christmas and I love the idea of having a record that will be an annual thing. I really hope we hit on something that people want to hear every year. That would be the fantasy: to be Mariah Carey."
Music and lyrics Each of the album's twelve tracks were produced by Busbee and Eric Valentine. The six original compositions on You Make It Feel Like Christmas were co-written by Stefani, Justin Tranter, and Busbee. Rachel McRady from Entertainment Tonight claimed that Stefani's holiday album contains "old classics and new romantic odes, packed with plenty of Blake Shelton references" alluding to her romantic life. Jon Pareles from The New York Times noted that the singer gives a "luxury retro treatment" to the album's twelve songs with the addition of "horns, strings, backup singers".
The album opens with a cover of "Jingle Bells", written and composed by James Lord Pierpont. Stefani sings "with an upbeat tone against a horn section" which Allan Raible, from ABC News, considered reminiscent of her ska punk days with No Doubt. "Let It Snow" is the second track and like "Jingle Bells", features Stefani performing with a "merry demeanor". The third song – "My Gift Is You" – is the first original song on You Make It Feel Like Christmas penned by Stefani, Tranter, and Busbee. Lyrically, it "sends a powerful Christmas message" by rejecting the idea of materialism during the holiday season. Shelton serves as a source of inspiration for the track; Stefani sings: "Don't need no money, don't need a thing, I don't even need a wedding ring / All I need is love and the truth and I got it, my gift is you". Unlike most traditional renditions of "Silent Night", Stefani's cover of the song contains a minor key change. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine described "When I Was a Little Girl" as a "treacly" tune and another one inspired by Stefani's relationship with Shelton. Lyrically, Cinquemani determined it had the opposite meaning of No Doubt's 1995 single, co-written by Stefani, "Just a Girl". Her version of Wham!'s 1984 song "Last Christmas" is the sixth song, and according to Stefani, was "the most fun to record". Stefani stated: "[it] is a masterpiece as far as the music goes and how [producer Eric Valentine] created it. To me, that’s the most, of all the covers, that was really flipped. But yet, it still has the spirit of the original. Lyrically, that song speaks to me and things I’ve been through."
"You Make It Feel Like Christmas", the album's title track, features guest vocals and a songwriting credit from Shelton. Musically, it is a blend of "Stefani's pop style" and "Shelton's country roots", but leans toward the former quality. "Under the Christmas Lights" is another original penned by Stefani, Tranter, and Busbee. The lyrics are light-hearted and relatable, with Stefani singing about wrapping presents and eventually "running out of tape". The album's first promotional single and ninth track is a cover of Eartha Kitt's 1953 single "Santa Baby". On Stefani's rendition of the holiday standard "White Christmas", she stays "affectionately loyal". On "Never Kissed Anyone with Blue Eyes Before You", Stefani sings about the most romantic moments regarding her relationship with Shelton. Cinquemani described the track as "less a Christmas song than an ode to the country crooner’s recessive genes". "Christmas Eve", the closing and standard edition's twelfth track, was also the first song recorded and completed for You Make It Feel Like Christmas. Shelton recorded his own version of "Christmas Eve" which appears as a bonus track on the 2017 reissued edition of his Christmas album Cheers, It's Christmas (2012).
Release
You Make It Feel Like Christmas was first released internationally on October 6, 2017, through Interscope Records. A version of the CD exclusive to Target Corporation stores was released the same day and houses the disc inside a hardcover book containing 24 pages of artwork and song lyrics pertaining to the album. On Stefani's official website, holiday-themed merchandise was added to coincide with the release of You Make It Feel Like Christmas; the line of items featured apparel, Christmas stockings, greeting cards, and mugs. On October 20 of the same year, Interscope distributed the LP version of the album on white opaque vinyl.