JENNIFER HUDSON HOLIDAY SPECIAL AIRS TONIGHT

In this one-hour special, the Academy Award-winning singer and actress travels to Chicago to relive childhood Christmases by performing at her small neighborhood church, the music academy where she studied and other Windy City locations.

“The first thing you do for the holidays is go back home, so I went back home, and the next thing you do is spend it with all of your family and your friends in those familiar places. That’s why I chose to go back home and share it and make it personal,” Jennifer said.

“Jennifer Hudson: I’ll be Home for Christmas,” airing tonight (12/14) at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, features musical performances shot on location in Hudson’s native Chicago. She visits the local church where she got her start singing in the choir and the music academy where she studied, among other places. Hudson will also introduce audiences to her family, former teachers and childhood friends.

This holiday season will mark the first for her 4-month-old son David Daniel Otunga Jr. ”I need to make it great for him,” says the Academy Award winner. “I just want to make it as exciting and fun for him as it was for me. And I want him to have this feeling each time this time of year comes around. Whatever that is, that’s what I want to make my tradition.”