Bryan Adams speaks at the Departure Festival in Toronto on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

For Bryan Adams, there’s something about Christmas time.

The season takes him back to his childhood in Ottawa, when money was tight and his mother was raising two boys on her own.

"She was working three jobs and she couldn't pay for Christmas. She told somebody at her work that she didn't know what she was going to do,” recalls Adams.

The Canadian rocker says his mother's co-workers contacted the Lions Club, a volunteer-run service organization, who showed up at his doorstep on Christmas Eve.

"I remember answering the door and someone gave us a parcel of food and some presents. It was for my brother and I and my mom. That's my most memorable Christmas, and I'll be forever indebted to them."

He says the memory "indelibly stamped" the holiday deep into his heart, reflected in his 1984 festive hit "Christmas Time."

"We were able to get out of the hard times, but it wasn't without help."

Adams says he's now bringing that sentiment to his new one-hour holiday special, which airs on Citytv this winter and will be accompanied by an album.

Dubbed "Bryan Adams and Friends: A Great Big Holiday Jam," the special will feature Adams playing yuletide staples along with Canadian musicians including Alessia Cara, Alan Doyle, Barenaked Ladies, Lights and The Sheepdogs.

"It's about people getting together and having a good time and sharing musical moments, all in the spirit of making other people happy, hopefully," he says on a call from Vancouver.

The "Summer of '69" singer-songwriter says the special was filmed this week over two days at his Warehouse Studio in Vancouver and captures the live energy of the musicians collaborating in a room.

He notes the special is essentially "the Christmas Last Waltz," referencing The Band's famed 1978 musical documentary.

"The idea was that everybody was in the room and we would just work it out as we went. And it's kind of an insight to what it's like to actually make records. So if you haven't ever made a record before, you might get a strong idea just seeing how everybody interacts," says Adams.

"We improvised a ridiculous version of '12 Days of Christmas' and we improvised an incredible version of 'Three Ships.'"

Adams says he will a release a new song via the special and plans to put out the tracks -- which include new renditions of some of his own hits -- in album form on his new independent label Bad Records.

He's currently gearing up to tour his 16th studio album "Roll with the Punches," which dropped last month.

Adam says audiences can expect his take on the holiday special to be less polished than others they may have seen, including Michael Bublé's.

"I've never seen Michael's but I'm sure that Michael's would be a lot more slick than this one. This one's pretty rough," he says.

"The show is quite unchoreographed."

Could Adams be coming for the Christmas crown of Bublé, Canada's unofficial king of holiday music?

"No way, man. He's always going to be Mr. Christmas to me. I love Michael," he says.

Adams says he stumbled into the holiday lane by accident. Though "Christmas Time" is now a festive radio staple, it wasn't written as a grand bid for seasonal glory.

"We used to have a fan club and a newsletter, and every year we would record something silly to send out to the fans. And so that song was never officially released, it just managed to creep into the internet later," he explains.

"I think we pressed a thousand copies of a vinyl version of it and that was it. I never expected it to ever see the light of day. Suddenly, it's collecting millions of views on the internet."

Decades later, Adams has leaned fully into his place in the seasonal songbook. He dropped "Christmas EP" in 2019, a handful of holiday recordings, and followed it up in 2022 with "Let’s Get Christmas Going," a family affair featuring his daughter.

He says the holidays make him look back on the ups and downs that got him here.

"It wasn't always good times. So now that I look back, I find myself reflecting, especially with kids and knowing how much joy it brings to the family and to youngsters particularly."

As for what Adams wants for Christmas?

"I want peace in Palestine," he says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025