Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir

(instrumental music) I never in my life, imagined myself performing with The Tabernacle Choir, and I have imagined a lot of things. (Richard laughing) (instrumental music) I have this horrible fantasy, that my mic is live and that somebody is gonna hear me actually singing. And the people are gonna leave. I'm terrified, I don't even say in the shower. (Richard laughing) (crowd applauding) Wow. I'm a Christmas kid. I always have been. I drive my family nuts with it every year. And I can still remember Christmas as a small child. So when this came through, I thought, yeah, this is really special. Whoa, there's people out there. And anytime you have a chance, to act in front of 21,000 people, don't pass it up. (Richard laughing) It satisfies every greedy urge that an actor could possibly have. (orchestral music) (girl laughing) (child mumbling) I've put seven kids through nativity scenes. (Richard laughing) So I might be used to watching them. My triplets, obviously, they kept casting them as the three wise men all the time, my triplet daughters. 'Till they finally had to say, "Can we be something besides the three wise men this year?" (Richard laughing) Children enacting the Christmas story, bring it down to the human scale. Well I just love watching them, you know, I could watch children all day long. (gentle music) And when the little girl does the Mary, it's just precious. And it fills me up. It's to remind her, you watch the children and you going keep it simple. Because people will listen to that story and actually not hear it. The innate sense of love that is part of Christmas is just brought forth, when you watch children do this. (gentle music) When it comes to something like this event, how are you one thing one day and one thing the next well, the truth is you're not. You're just yourself. And the story that I've been given to read, is perfect for that. Which is why, tonight's Christmas reading, based on story by Nobel laureate Pearl S. Buck, has a special place in my heart. (instrumental music) At the heart of it, you're sitting there yourself. Because that's really all you can offer people. So it's finding where you are, in each of those roles. I loved my father very much and we have a very close relationship. So it was very easy for me, to plug emotionally my own experience into that. There was a gift for him to give. I'm able to do this story as an offering to him. And that means a lot to me. If I was to swallow those arms around him in the dark, son I thank you. (gentle music)