
“It’s Christmas time again/ Can’t wait to hear those sleigh bells ringing,” sings Ashanti on her 2003 holiday song “Christmas Time Again.” With the holiday falling on Thursday, her husband, Nelly, says the couple is simply looking forward to spending time together, noting that they don’t really have any “new holiday traditions.”
“I just think for me and her, we work so much,” he tells ABC Audio. “The tradition is really just being together and keeping our family together around the holidays, I think is the mainstay for both of us.”
The couple, who have been married since 2023 and share a son, Kareem “KK” Kenkaide Haynes, were together in St. Louis on Monday, where Nelly partnered with Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers to gift 100 brand-new bikes to kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis. The children were also treated to holiday cookies, drinks, Santa hats and festive fun.
“I think that’s every kid’s dream on Christmas, right?” Nelly said in an interview with Fox 2. “Waking up and going downstairs—I know what it’s like to wake up on Christmas and have nothing under the tree. That’s not hyperbole. That’s facts. To see their faces, that’s what it’s about. Christmas is about the kids.”
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