Christmas has come early for Michael Buble
Felipe 
MICHAEL Buble admits it was a little odd to be making a Christmas album in July, thousands of kilometres from family and loved ones, while the sun beat down in the Los Angeles summer.
The Canadian crooner is more accustomed to the proverbial chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire kind of festive season, at home with his nearest and dearest in frigid Vancouver.
Not that the sentimental old softie was too fussed – if he had his way, he’d have Christmas every day of the year.
«You know what, I love Christmas so much that I could sing these songs and talk about it all day, every day,» he says.
«It’s my favourite time of year.»
Christmas was – and is – a big deal in Buble’s household, to the point where he still gets a little choked up talking about the huge family gatherings he remembers from his childhood.
These days, Christmas is a rather different beast, but no less celebrated. The 36-year-old married Argentine actor and model Luisana Lopilato in Buenos Aires in March, surrounded by family and friends including his Australian promoter Paul Dainty.
«My whole band are my best friends, so they all came and we got up and we were all drunk and we had a blast,» Buble says of the wedding bash.
Buble now gathers his new extended family around him to celebrate, kicking off on Christmas Eve, when Argentines traditionally celebrate, and rolling on to the big day itself.
«My wife’s whole family comes to stay with me and we all spend Christmas together at my house in Vancouver,» Buble says.
Indeed, what some call the silly season also helped put Buble on course to becoming the global superstar he is today because Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album is the most influential record of his life.
«I was just a kid, five or six years old, and it was my introduction to jazz and the dulcet tones of his vocals and that style,» he says.
«I love those songs.»
But such is Buble’s enthusiasm that he considers his new album, simply titled Christmas – which features old favourites such as Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, White Christmas and the original song Cold December Night – to be his most important album.
«This was the record I wanted to make more than any other,» he says.
Buble has, in fact, already had a stab with the 2004 Christmas EP Let It Snow that he would still rather forget. He says he was pressured into making it in a hurry at a time when he had no power, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Such is Buble’s clout now that when his record company wanted him to take a similar approach for Christmas, he had his answer ready. «That is not how you make a record,» he says. «To make a record you sweat, you bleed, you laugh, you cry. You come in with concepts, you take time and build each song.»
Australian fans will be disappointed to learn that he can’t see himself coming back to what has always been one of his best markets – and gave him his first No. 1 hit in 2003 – any time soon.
Right now he is focusing on enjoying married life and starting a family of his own.
«I absolutely love that woman, she loves me and we drive each other’s asses crazy,» he says of his bride.
«Me and Lu are really hoping to be pregnant by next Christmas. It would be really great and nice. I have beautiful little nieces and nephews now and it’s really cool to see them and how much they appreciate Christmas.»
Life would be just about perfect for Buble but for one thing – his beloved Vancouver Canucks lost the seven-match Stanley Cup final series after reaching the premier ice hockey event for the first time in 17 years.
The ice hockey-mad Canadian, who is a part-owner of the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants, controversially postponed a show so he could watch the Canucks in game seven of the finals. He is still not over it.
«I am absolutely not,» he says. «In fact, I can’t even watch it. I don’t think I will ever get over that. Not until they win the Cup.»
Christmas is out on Friday
dailytelegraph.com.au
Chiara 
ALEJ 
