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Joss Stone’s enjoying her festive US holiday appearances this year: “Americans do Christmas very well”

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Mary Kouw/CBS

Joss Stone is British, but because she has a new holiday album, Merry Christmas, Love — and because she now lives in Nashville — she’s gotten herself booked on a lot of the traditional U.S. holiday TV events.  It’s all left her quite impressed with just how much Americans go all out for the Christmas season.

First, Joss sang in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. On Saturday, she’ll sing at the Grand Ole Opry, one of the most famous venues in her adopted hometown, as part of a show that doubles as a benefit for Toys for Tots. Sunday night on CBS, you’ll see her perform at the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at the White House, along with Shania Twain, Andy Grammer and Gloria Estefan.

Since Joss is obsessed with Christmas, this sort of thing is right up her alley. “I’ll just get involved in anything. Anything that’s, like, super amped-up, any Christmas lighting, anything, I will go to it!” she laughs.

Joss says she’s “so excited” about the Opry performance — and about visiting a local Nashville Christmas landmark.

“There’s a beautiful place here called Cheekwood Estate and they put lights all over that place,” she says. “You know, America does Christmas very well, I would say. Very well. You wouldn’t find anything like that in Devon!”

Devon, England is where Joss is from: She lives in a tiny village where Christmas basically means going to the pub. “Everyone in the pub, you know them. Every single person in there. It’s really like getting together with your family, almost,” she explains.

“And you know, maybe there’s a little bit of mistletoe going around. People get a little bit in love with each other and they start singing together and drinking ale and stuff like that. It’s a really fun time!”

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