Video Premiere: Paul McDonald Unwraps Bittersweet 'Maybe This Christmas'

2016 is going to be a big year for former American Idol Season 10 contestant Paul McDonald, who tells Yahoo Music’s Reality Rocks that he has written literally hundreds of new songs. “It’s time to come out of hibernation,” he jokes. But his fans are getting an early present in 2015 – with an impromptu holiday song and video, “Maybe This Christmas,” premiering right here today.

“Maybe This Christmas” isn’t exactly a merry carol brimming with tidings of comfort and joy; like his recent single, “First Loves,” it’s a cry-in-your-beer breakup ballad. But if you’re spending the season alone this year, it’ll hit the spot like a glass of very strong eggnog.

“I didn’t plan on writing a Christmas song,” McDonald says. “I’ve never had a reason to – until now. And this one just kind of tumbled out after an auspicious phone call. I was about to jump on a plane to fly back from Tulsa where I had been writing a song with some of my best buds. I got a call from another one of my super-talented musician friends, inviting me to sing at his hometown Christmas show in Nashville – the next day. He asked me what song I wanted to sing, and my response was something like, ‘Dude, you know how bad I suck at covers and I don’t have the range to hit any of those epic notes on Mariah Carey’s holiday album, and those are really the only Christmas songs I would want to sing, so… I’ll probably just write one.’ He laughed and told me to go for it.”

Look for more music from McDonald in the New Year.

Follow Lyndsey on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, Vine, Spotify