I was looking through a Christmas box last night and found a Christmas card. Actually, I found a pretty cool Christmas card (at least to me). Now that I think about it, it's the only Christmas card I've ever kept and not thrown away when the holidays were over. But, then again, it's the only Christmas card that ever came from a global superstar named Taylor Swift! No offense to my friends and distant cousins that send cards.....but sell millions of albums and we'll talk about me keeping your cards too.

It started at a Taylor concert

Taylor Swift isn't really branded as a country artist these days. She blew up the country world with fame and fortune then set her sights on world domination as she transitioned more to pop music years ago. But once upon a time in 2011, as Taylor Swift was killing it in country music, I had the chance to be backstage at a Taylor concert and see just how down-to-earth and awesome she really is.

The scene: it's early November of 2011 and my wife and I had moved to Tampa, Florida just months earlier. We were backstage in a room filled with people from the different local radio stations as Taylor was making her way from guest to guest and holding small conversations with every one of them.

How do I not have the original pic on my phone?

Dang! I thought I had the picture of my wife and me with Taylor on my phone but for some reason, I don't have the original. All I have is this version where I've photoshopped over my wife with another picture of her eating an 18-inch corn dog from the county fair. Don't ask why, things were just crazy in the 2010's!

Photo: Ryan Nelson
Photo: Ryan Nelson
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She was so nice and personable

Usually, a meet & greet at a show will include a quick picture and a "hi, how are you?" from the artist. But Taylor made time to spend a few quality minutes with every person in the room and have as much of a genuine conversation as she could in the short amount of time that she spent with everyone.

Part of the chat we had with Taylor was about how we were new to Florida and getting ready to have our first Christmas away from family. We watched the show that night and I didn't think anything else of the backstage interaction until a piece of mail arrived at the radio station a few weeks later.

How cool is this?

Photo: Ryan Nelson
Photo: Ryan Nelson
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T-Swizzle had sent a Christmas card and incorporated part of our conversation into what she wrote inside. It blew my mind to think about her doing that for everyone she met that night. But taking the time to add a personal touch just shows you the type of person she is. I've never been around an artist that did anything on that level to create a personal interaction like that.

Photo: Ryan Nelson
Photo: Ryan Nelson
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For the last ten years, I've always thought it was such a neat thing for her to make that small gesture to the people involved with playing her music on the radio. Then again, looking back now it may be that she was just trying to plant a subliminal message into my brain to buy her line of greeting cards.

Photo: Ryan Nelson
Photo: Ryan Nelson
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And there you have it kids, the story of the time that Taylor Swift sent me a Christmas card!

Revisiting Taylor Swift's 'Fearless' Era:

Released when she was 18 years old, Fearless was Swift's sophomore album. The best-selling album of 2009, it spent 11 weeks at the top of the all-genre Billboard 200, has been certified Diamond by the RIAA and is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century.

Fearless was a hit at awards shows, too: In 2009, it was named CMA and ACM Album of the Year, as well as Favorite Country Album at the American Music Awards. At the 2010 Grammy Awards, Swift won Best Country Album and the all-genre Album of the Year honor for the record.

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