It’s a wonderful life

For “American Idol” Kris Allen, the holidays are about family time and reindeer PJs.

By David Hochman

What a difference a year makes — at least when you’re the winner of “American Idol.”

Last Christmas, Kris Allen spent a cozy holiday in Conway, Ark., with his wife, Katy. “We were only married three months and lived in a little bitty apartment,” the boyish 24-year-old singer says with an aw-shucks smile. Back then, Allen was earning roughly $110 a week as a shoe salesman who sidelined as a worship leader at his local church. “We definitely weren’t rolling in money, so Katy and I only bought each other one or two presents.”

This holiday season, that’s all going to change, right? Not so fast, Allen says. “You win ‘Idol’ and everybody thinks you’re a big deal who goes around buying houses and cars, but that’s so not true.”

In fact, Allen still lives in his apartment in Conway, his wife has to drag him to go clothes shopping, and Allen still takes the low-key approach to gift-giving. “The greatest gift of all would be to spend time with Katy and my family,” says Allen, who spent last summer on a cross-country “American Idol” tour before heading immediately into the studio to record his self-titled CD, which debuted this month.

At a studio outside L.A., Allen, who’s dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and some well-worn charms (a friendship bracelet, a peace sign necklace) given to him by “Idol” fans, reflected on why less has always been more when it comes to gift-giving. “My parents would always leave one unwrapped new board game under the tree next to a pair of new pajamas,” he says. “I’d wake my brother up and say, ‘Hey, let’s see what we got!’ Even now, when I think of the holidays, I think of ‘Monopoly’ and cheesy reindeer PJs.”

A few bigger presents stand out, too. At 16, his parents bought him a truck. “Nothing fancy,” he says. “Roll-up windows, standard transmission, a cassette player. But I loved it almost as much as the He-Man sword I got when I was 8.”

He always enjoys getting new guitars, and a Martin acoustic is on his wish list. Allen, who taught himself to play at 13, later added piano and ukulele to his repertoire; in high school, he was ranked all-state in music performance. “I was definitely a band nerd,” he laughs.

What’s cool now is that he can catch his breath at home over the holidays. “I had an awesome year — playing onstage with Queen and Keith Urban, winning ‘Idol,’ doing the tour, making the album,” he says. “But none of it would mean anything without my family and friends.”