When Dierks Bentley thinks of Christmases past, he fondly remembers family, turkey and four-wheeling in the hot sand.

There were no white Christmases for the Bentley family when Dierks was growing up in Arizona, which is hot and dry even on Dec. 25. So they adapted to their surroundings.

"Me and my family and a couple other families would go out to the desert and bring a big turkey and just kinda have a cookout in the middle of the desert . . . and drink beers and ride four-wheelers and . . . well, I wouldn't drink beers, but they would. I'd drink some Coca-Cola, I guess," he told reporters recently.

"We'd ride four-wheelers and horses and just kind of spend it out in the middle of the desert, which was kind of a cool way to spend Christmas," he added. "So whenever I think of Christmas, I always think of the desert, which is a little weird, but that's just the way we did it out in Arizona."

However Dierks chooses to spend this upcoming holiday, he will have something to look forward to in 2013. On Jan. 17, he will join up with Miranda Lambert for the Locked & Reloaded Tour.