Releasing a holiday record has been a long time coming for Dan + Shay.
Their first Christmas song, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," arrived in 2013. And since then, they've dropped several standalone tracks, including "It's Officially Christmas," the spirited title track of their 21-track double album.
"This has been 10 years in the making of actually having a double Christmas album," Shay Mooney tells ABC Audio. "It's amazing, man. The reception [to it] has been incredible already."
"We've had some original Christmas songs out the past few years and there's a few of them that are [RIAA-certified] Platinum, and it's just like, 'man, this is so cool to be able to kind of be in that Christmas world,'" he says.
Shay hopes their record expands beyond this calendar year and truly becomes a multigenerational holiday mainstay.
"I think that, you know, this is going to be a big part of our legacy," he shares. "I feel like for the next 50 years, our hope is that that's going to be a part of this next generation, you know, coming [out] of growing up listening to this Christmas album, including my kids."
"I don't know, it's something really, really special that hopefully will continue to build on for the next 50 years," says Shay.