Both Chris Young and his dog, a German Shepherd named Porter, love celebrating Christmas. The singer says that Santa Claus typically brings presents for Porter during the holiday -- but that might change in light of recent events.

"He got in trouble. If Santa was watching him the other day, he was not on the 'nice' list, because he ate part of my stairs at my new house while I was asleep. So that was fun to wake up to," Young admits with a laugh. "When you hear your dog gnawing something, and you go, 'Hey, buddy, where you at,' and then he runs to the kennel, you know -- it's like, 'Oh, you messed up.' So that was fun."

Though Porter's naughty vs. nice standing might still be up in the air, there is one gift recipient who Young knows is on his "nice" list: his niece. As a self-described "guy who goes all out at Christmastime," Young tries each year to raise the bar on spoiling his young niece -- but he admits it will be hard to top last year's gift.

"That was a trip to the zoo, because she loves animals," he explains. "I don't know what I'm doing this year yet. I'm kinda wracking my brain a little bit. I know that she's already told my sister that she wants to go back to Disney World. So that might be in the cards, as long as I can convince her and my brother-in-law to give up enough time away from home to go do it."

Young also finds ways to celebrate the season in his professional life, too. The singer points out that his background studying jazz and classical music, in addition to country, allows him to experiment with different styles of holiday songs.

"There's a lot of songs you end up cutting during the Christmas season that are not just one, four, five, so to speak," Young notes. "There's a lot of passing chords and interesting melodies, and, to me, "The Christmas Song" was always one of my favorites because of that. And it's fun for me to sing."

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