Kelly Clarkson shared the best gift she’d ever gotten on The Voice Holiday Celebration special that aired Thursday on NBC.
Asked what her favorite present was, the 38-year-old coach said it was a keyboard her mother Jeanne Taylor bought her when she was little and just beginning to sing.
‘I knew that my mama put it on a credit card and couldn’t afford it,’ Kelly said, laughing, but it was obvious that the gift meant even more because they had so little.
Best gift: Kelly Clarkson shared the best gift she’d ever gotten on The Voice Holiday Celebration special that aired Thursday on NBC
Kelly’s mom raised her on her own after divorcing Kelly’s father, and the singer has alluded to her fractured relationship with her dad in her hit song Piece By Piece.
She said she wrote her first songs on the keyboard from her mom, and still keeps it with her today.
Kelly’s fellow coach John Legend, 41, confessed that he was lucky because wife Chrissy Teigen, 35, was a great gift giver, and shared that she got him a new robe every year.
Blake Shelton, 44, said his best gift was ‘a box of potpourri that had a turd in it,’ though he didn’t elaborate on who had given it to him.
Childhood gift: Asked what her favorite present was, the 38-year-old coach said it was a keyboard her mother Jeanne Taylor bought her when she was little and just beginning to sing
His fiancé, Gwen Stefani, 51, said her favorite present was a horse saddle that Blake had given her, though she admitted she hadn’t used it much as she frequently fell off her horse.
When the coaches were asked which of them might be the best at buying presents, everyone pointed to Kelly.
‘I think Kelly’s a great gift-giver,’ John said. ‘For our anniversary, she sent us a massive pizza and a bottle of wine that was just right on time.’
Past performance: John Legend was shown performing with Katie Kadan during the special
‘Kelly is good at that,’ Blake agreed. ‘She’s always knitting some kind of quilt.’
Gwen liked the things Blake got her, but Kelly said she was not going to pick the ‘cowboy,’ because his gifts would no doubt come in ‘flannel or some kind of camel print.’
As far as what their best Christmas memories were, the judges had wildly diverse answers.
Cute couple: Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani were shown performing their holiday song
Blake said his was when it snowed one year in Oklahoma on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, when he was ‘seven or eight years old,’ and the world seemed suddenly ‘magical.’
Gwen said she had always loved going to church with her family on Christmas Eve, then coming back home to sing Christmas carols around the piano.
‘I love food, I love family, and I really love presents,’ Blake cracked, as Gwen was shown dressed in costume as a Christmas gift.
Fan favorites: The country star and pop singer beamed after performing
Kelly had grown up singing Christmas carols door-to-door during the holidays, and joked that ‘people probably hated us, but whatever—we were spreading cheer!’
She also noted that like any parent, the first Christmas with her kids River Rose, 6, and Remington, 4, had been the most special to her.
Kelly was awarded primary physical custody of the children earlier this week in her divorce from talent manager Brandon Blackstock, 43.
Teaming up: Kelly was shown in a video during a past performance with Jennifer Hudson
The Voice’s special episode also featured a look back at some of the show’s classic holiday performances, among them Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas in season 7, which united Gwen, John, Blake and former coach Adam Levine, 41, onstage.
In a flashback from season 15, Gwen and Mon Laferte sang Feliz Navidad, and Gwen confessed that she had employed a dialect coach to get her Spanish accent just right.
During season 15, Kelly and former coach Jennifer Hudson performed O Holy Night, and Kelly was thrilled to finally get a chance to sing with her even though she felt desperately sick.
Former coaches: Pharrell Williams, Gwen, Adam Levine and Blake were shown in a throwback clip
She sang her own hit Underneath The Tree on season 5, before she ever became a coach, and said it was the first time she’d performed it anywhere.
Sia’s performance of her song Snowman in Season 3 brought up fond memories for John, who said her Christmas album was a favorite of his and Chrissy’s.
Gwen called Sia’s appearance a ‘really big deal’ as they’d both had Christmas albums out that year using the same collaborator.
Fond memories: Sia’s performance of her song Snowman in Season 3 brought up fond memories for John, who said her Christmas album was a favorite of his and Chrissy’s
The Voice’s season 9 winner Jordan Smith, 27, was also shown singing Mary, Did You Know? for the competition, and John called him one of the best vocalists to have ever starred on the show, noting that Adam was so impressed he’d screened Jordan’s songs for John.
Asked what holiday classics they couldn’t get enough of, Kelly said she adored Bing Crosby’s version of White Christmas, while John liked the perennial classics Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song, and Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas.
Blake enjoyed I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, but also gave a shout-out to ‘every single song’ on Gwen’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas CD, on which Gwen liked their title duet.
Past champion: The Voice’s season 9 winner Jordan Smith, 27, was also shown singing Mary, Did You Know? for the competition, and John called him one of the best vocalists to have ever starred on the show, noting that Adam was so impressed he’d screened Jordan’s songs for John
The pair performed that song onstage during season 13, and viewers could easily see the sparks flying between the now-engaged couple.
‘To have our own song together and to get to be able to perform it, it wasn’t even on a bucket list,’ Gwen recalled. ‘It was just like, ‘What?’ I can’t believe it.’
The Voice returns next week on NBC.
Beyond bucket: ‘To have our own song together and to get to be able to perform it, it wasn’t even on a bucket list,’ Gwen recalled. ‘It was just like, ‘What?’ I can’t believe it’