Duck Dynasty star Si Robertson has a novel approach for reading The Night Before Christmas. He just imagines his nephew Willie as jolly old St. Nick.
This year, the Robertson clan released a Christmas album that has been wildly popular since hitting stores at the end of October. Billboard has released another holiday nugget for Duck Dynasty fans — a behind the scenes look at uncle Si Robertson reading The Night Before Christmas , including a bit about his inspiration for the reading.
“I don’t always see or hear things as well as I used to, and it is easy to mistake Willie for Santa. That is the basis for my new rendition of this holiday classic,” Si said. “I mean, come on Jack! Willie needs to lose a few pounds and get the white out of his beard.”
The holidays have been a very productive time for the Duck Dynasty clan. Their album , Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas , which was released October 29, has been a mainstay in the Billboard 200’s top 10. It slipped this week to No. 5, but still managed to sell 105,000 copies.
The album features appearances from George Strait, Alison Krauss, and Luke Bryan.
Sadie Robertson — daughter of Willie and Korie — said the family was surprised to see the album do so well.
“We didn’t see any of that coming. We sing in Church and stuff, but there’s a lot of people there, so you don’t really hear just the family members,” she said. “We would never sing in front of each other because you’ve got to have thick skin in our family because they will make fun of you until the day they die. We were very surprised with each other.”
That’s not the only Christmas magic for the Robertson family. A special Christmas episode of Duck Dynasty that aired this week drew 8.9 million viewers, an improvement of close to 40 percent from last year’s special.
Willie Robertson said that the holidays have always been a special time for his family.
“Faith, family and ducks — in that order — have always been our priorities,” said Willie, the CEO of Duck Commander. He added: “Christmas is an important holiday for us not only because of our strong faith but also our holiday family traditions. We’re having a great time making this album. We hope you enjoy it.”
Fans certainly seem to enjoy the Duck Dynasty family Christmas album — it’s been outselling Britney Spears’ Britney Jean consistently since its release.