The announcement of the album came on June 10, 2013, in the Music City Center during the
CMA Music Festival in
Nashville, Tennessee. It was revealed that
Buddy Cannon is producing the album, and that it features the family's "special brand of Southern, down-home sense of humor."[3]CEO of
Duck Commander,
Willie Robertson, was quoted as saying, "Christmas is an important holiday for us not only because of our strong faith but also our holiday family traditions. We're having a great time making this album. We hope you enjoy it."[1]
Recording
The album features a number of traditional seasonal songs as well as originals written and performed by the Robertsons. Special guests include country stars
Luke Bryan,
George Strait,
Josh Turner and
Alison Krauss.[4]
Release
Walmart released an exclusive 'ZinePak deluxe edition of Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas. The limited-edition package features the full-length album, plus one additional bonus track ("
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy"), as well as a 64-page magazine with exclusive family interviews, photos, fun facts, holiday recipes, scented Christmas ornament, and gift-tag stickers.[5] Walmart let voters decide between the choice of three covers which one will be on the special release.[6]
Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas garnered mostly positive reception from
music critics. Tammy Ragusa of Country Weekly gave the album a B+ rating and states: "If you're a big fan of the Robertson family from the hit A&E reality series Duck Dynasty (i.e., you buy every piece of merch bearing Willie's or Uncle Si's photo or the expression "Happy, Happy, Happy"), then get your wallet out. You're not going to want to go through this holiday season without Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas.[7] Writing for Roughstock, Matt Bjorke adds: "It may come off as a bit of a novelty album people who don't follow the program but that doesn't mean it's not a well-made album, which Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas most definitely is."[11] Daryl Addison of Great American Country writes: "Duck the Halls is a friendly celebration of the season that will have fans of Duck Dynasty asking for seconds."[12]
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number four on the
Billboard 200 chart and number one on the Billboard
Top Country Albums chart, selling 69,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was behind another holiday album,
Kelly Clarkson's Wrapped in Red, which debuted at number three with 70,000 copies.[13] In its second week of release, Duck the Halls remained at number one on the Top Country Albums chart, seeing a slight sales increase to 73,000 copies.[14] The album was certified Platinum by the
RIAA on December 11, 2013,[15] and it became the second best-selling Christmas album of 2013 with 745,000 copies sold in the US.[16] As of December 2014, Duck the Halls has sold 807,000 copies in the United States.[17]
