Miranda Lambert has a 700-acre farm full of animals, including chickens, goats and a miniature horse. She recently rescued two puppies from the side of a local road to add to the menagerie. Yep, you might call her an animal lover.

But when she adopted her dog Delilah from the Humane Society of East Texas a couple of years ago, Lambert got serious about helping animals. Now she’s organized her first benefit for the humane society, a silent auction and concert called Cause for the Paws, scheduled for April 20 in North Tyler, Texas. Joining her in concert are Blake Shelton, Kacey Musgraves and Adam Hood.

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More than any other time of the year, the holidays are about tradition. Many country stars also have at least one thing they revisit every season that makes the holidays special — a food, a song, a visit to a special friend, you name it.
 
Jack Ingram has a classic gift-giving tradition: “On Christmas Eve, I listen to ‘Pretty Paper’ by Willie Nelson and wrap all the presents that should have been wrapped before Christmas Eve but aren’t,” he says. “Then I wait up all night to see if Santa Claus will come down the chimney. Then I wake up all the kids at 5 in the morning and ask, ‘Is it time yet?’”
 
Blake Shelton shares his holiday with a longtime country favorite. “About 15 years ago, I moved to Nashville and worked for Anne Murray’s publishing company,” he remembers. “While I was there I ‘borrowed’ one of her Christmas albums. It has become a Christmas tradition that I play the album every year. I don’t listen to a lot of Christmas albums, but Anne Murray tops my list every year.”

Sunny Sweeney remembers learning about giving during the Christmas seasons of her childhood. “When I was little, Momma and I would go deliver meals on wheels to people who couldn’t leave their houses,” she says. “We did that for years when it was just the two of us.”
 
Friends are a big part of the holidays for some artists. “It’s a tradition back home in North Carolina that, on every Christmas Eve, my family and I go to a close friend’s house, have dinner, and gather up all the kids — even the young ones — and play a game of hide-and-go-seek,” says Jimmy Wayne. “Sometimes it last for a few hours.”
 
Says singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, “My husband and the kids and I walk to my neighbors house every year for New Year’s. We like staying home on New Years Eve — and this is perfect because it’s a party where the kids are welcome and it is within walking distance, even in the snow.”
 
“When I get home to Georgia for Christmas and Thanksgiving, I go see a lot of buddies,” says Luke Bryan. “My dad has some land, and we’ll get a jeep and ride around and quail-hunt and talk and visit and hang out. It’s more of a social thing than hunting.”
 
That’s nice — just don’t shoot any reindeer!