Still making music: Barry Manilow celebrates the holidays on NBC

While we may already be in the season for celebration, any occasion showcasing Barry Manilow is a holiday for his generations of fans.

A winner of a Grammy, two Primetime Emmys and a special Tony Award, the enduringly popular singer-songwriter has released seasonal albums over the course of his nearly 50 years as a star, and some of those tunes will factor in - along with many of his pop standards, from "Mandy" to "Copacabana" - when "Barry Manilow's A Very Barry Christmas," airs at 9 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, on NBC. (The special also will stream on Peacock starting the next day.)

Taped at the International Showroom of the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (which was formerly the Las Vegas Hilton), where Manilow has broken Elvis Presley's record for doing the most shows at the venue during his 14-year association there, the hour will also include such seasonal favorites as "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas." A 24-piece band backs Manilow during his Vegas performances, one of which was attended by network executives - setting the stage, both figuratively and literally, for the new special.

"A whole bunch of NBC people came to see the regular show I do at the Westgate, and they were interested in filming that," the genial Manilow explains. "During the conversation after the show, they said they were looking for Christmas stuff because they couldn't create anything until after the writers' strike, which was going on then. I said, 'I've got a Christmas show.' They said, 'You do?' And I said, 'Yeah. And it's all ready to go, if you want it.'

"We do it in various places every year," notes Manilow, "and I sent them a video of it, and they loved what they saw. They came to the Westgate with their cameras, we had a big audience, and off we went. The only problem was me, because I kept forgetting to do certain things, but they made the show even more beautiful than it was before. There were many more lights and more Christmas trees, and it was just gorgeous."

Manilow has a long-standing affinity for the holiday season. "I love my Christmas albums," he maintains of "Because It's Christmas," "A Christmas Gift of Love" and "In the Swing of Christmas." "I loved doing them. I don't listen to my albums, but now and again, if I'm going to listen to any of them, it's those. I love the arrangements and the orchestrations and the songs that I chose. I'm very proud of those Christmas albums."

Still, Manilow realizes that his fans also want his time-tested hits. That catalog encompasses such standards as "I Write the Songs," "Could It Be Magic," "Looks Like We Made It," "Tryin' to Get the Feeling," "Can't Smile Without You," "Weekend in New England," "This One's for You," "Even Now," "Daybreak" and "New York City Rhythm."

"I've figured out a way of putting together some of the hits and a lot of Christmas songs," Manilow says, "but it always still feels like a Christmas show even if I'm doing 'I Write the Songs' or 'Mandy.' I think the audiences would probably be disappointed if I didn't do the hits, and that's what we've done for NBC, too. We had to edit it down, because the live Christmas show goes about 90 minutes, and you can't do all of that on a one-hour TV show with commercials. We recorded everything, though, in the order that I always do it."

Las Vegas has been a factor in Manilow's career virtually from the beginning. "I started in Vegas when I was a kid," he recalls. "I opened for Helen Reddy, and the Vegas audiences were really great, very kind to me. And I thought, 'I think I'm going to wind up here eventually.' We went back periodically to do [shows at] the Desert Inn and then the Sahara, so when I was offered a Vegas residency, I jumped at it. That meant I could stop touring, but I didn't want to stop performing or lose my band and my crew, so it was a perfect thing to do."

2023 has been a bountiful year for Manilow, encompassing a sold-out concert run at New York's legendary Radio City Music Hall (where he'll return in April) and the opening of the second Broadway show he has composed the music for, "Harmony," with lyrics by his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman. It's the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, six young German men whose success before World War II was impacted by global events.

"This has been the wildest year ever," Manilow reflects. "You couldn't get away from me! It started at Carnegie Hall, where the New York Pops honored me with a whole evening, accompanying singers doing my stuff. From there, I went to Radio City Music Hall and on tour, and it just kept going from there. Month after month, there was another event. And I like that. If these things hadn't happened, I would have invented something.

"I just like creating," Manilow concludes. "I'm not one of those guys to just sit around and watch television. Either I have an album to promote or a concert, and I like doing what I do. I really do."