Drew & Ellie Holcomb Light Up the Holidays With “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” A Christmas Classic Reborn

Photo by Ashtin Paige

Drew & Ellie Holcomb aren’t just dropping another cozy holiday cover; they’re cracking open the season with the kind of warmth only two people who live, write, tour, and breathe music together can pull off. Their new single “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” feels like stepping into a December night where everything slows down just long enough to remember why these songs matter.

It’s tender without being soft, classic without drifting into Christmas-card cheese, and a perfect first look at their upcoming EP I’ll Be Home For Christmas landing November 21. With their beloved Neighborly Christmas shows returning to Memphis and Nashville next month, the Holcombs are once again proving they know exactly how to turn tradition into something that still feels alive, intimate, and genuinely human.

This song evokes nostalgia without becoming a Hallmark card remix. When you rework a well-known Christmas hymn, what is the line between honoring tradition and refusing to play it safe?

I think for any recording of a classic song, we have to have a particular musical idea that matches both who we are as artists, but honors that tradition. Nathan and Rich came up with this trio arrangement and it floats through that ether wonderfully. 

Both of you have solo careers, family responsibilities, and a shared musical legacy. When you record something as intimate as a Christmas project together, does it deepen the marriage or simply force you to work through creative disagreements faster?

At this point in our career and marriage, the driving force of the process is gratitude, which certainly deepens the relationship. We are grateful to get to make music with people we love and respect. 

Fans often describe your holiday shows as spiritual rather than seasonal. Why do you think people need community centered music more now than ever, and what responsibility do you feel in that space?

We hope any of our shows, whether these holiday shows or any of our shows, together or separately, are spaces where community happens, where strangers come together in a room to listen, sing, dance, laugh, cry, and feel human. 

This arrangement leans warm and cinematic, with a sense of fireside stillness. Were there any production textures, vocal takes, or emotional imperfections you insisted on keeping because they felt human and honest?

This song was recorded live, so Ellie, Rich, and Nathan did several takes and picked the one they liked best. (Oddly enough it was the first one). There was a humanity and a magic to that first take that transcended the others. 

You have turned Christmas traditions into a touring legacy. What is one moment with fans, whether funny or unexpectedly moving, that made you realize these songs are bigger than nostalgia or ticket sales?

For a lot of people, the holidays can be intense, both from a family perspective and from a chaos perspective, and we have heard from hundreds of people over the years that our show was a moment of peace and joy in an otherwise chaotic and tense season.