Over the last eight years, Pentatonix has released a slew of Christmas albums and EPs, including their latest release, Evergreen. Today, Christmas music is definitely what the a cappella group is best known for, but how did they get the idea to focus on holiday tunes in the first place? Member Scott Hoying says it was obvious from the reaction to their very first Christmas song, back in 2013.

“There was definitely an immediate response, I think [with] ‘Little Drummer Boy,'” Scott tells ABC Audio.  That was the group’s first Christmas single, from the deluxe edition of their EP PTXmas.

“We all love Christmas music and a cappella and Christmas go well together,” he adds. “And so we put out that EP, PTXmas, years ago and ‘Little Drummer Boy,'” it just got an amazing response — and an emotional response — from people.”

Not only that, but the EP was a holiday best-seller, so Scott says they decided to try some more Christmas music.

“We were like, ‘Wait a second. People really like when we do Christmas music — let’s do a full length…and see how it goes,” he recalls. That album, 2014’s That’s Christmas to Me, was a massive success.

“It was selling 100,000 copies a week and went platinum in a couple of months,” Scott laughs. “And we were like, ‘Oh. Got it. So, Christmas is a good lane for us!'”

He notes, “[It’s] a nice holiday to be a good lane for us, because we’re all so obsessed with it!”

Pentatonix has since followed up that album with 2016’s A Pentatonix Christmas, 2018′s Christmas Is Here! and last year’s We Need a Little Christmas.

The group’s 2021 Christmas album Evergreen, features their current holiday hit, “The Prayer.”