You better not pout – Michael Bublé is coming to town!

For the fifth year in a row, the crooner is spreading cheer as host of his NBC spectacle, Christmas in Hollywood, airing at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.

“I put everything I have into this special,” Bublé, 40, tells PEOPLE. “I put a lot of heart and soul into it, and hard work and money, and I ask a lot of favors. So there’s a great sense of pride once this is done.”

With cameos from a flock of famous faces – including Kylie Jenner and Jay Leno – festive memories are sure to abound.

Says Bublé, “From Celine Dion to Sharon Jones to Blake Shelton to William Shatner to Gigi Hadid, these are people that I’ve spent a lot of time with them and they’re my friends, so it was a great comfort in standing with them and laughing with them and singing with them and laughing at ourselves at the same time.”

True to form, Bublé will crack jokes with his pals between the performances.

“Something that they all have in common is that they’re all humble enough and self-aware enough to have a laugh,” he shares. “They don’t take themselves too seriously – and that’s probably why they’re my friends in real life.”

After the annual gig, Bublé has plans to celebrate the holiday with his family, including wife Luisana Lopilato, 28 – who is pregnant with their second child – and the couple’s son Noah, 2.

“The truth is, no matter where I am or what I’m doing, for me, my joy is being with my family and that’s what the holidays are to me,” he says. “Truly. It’s not about having a certain traditional drink or dinner.”

He continues, “I lost my grandma – the matriarch of our family – a couple years ago and last Christmas was our first Christmas without her. It’s obviously [about] being with the ones that we love, but also celebrating the ones that couldn’t be there with us.”

That’s why he made a paper chain featuring notes family members penned in honor of his late grandmother, Yolanda Santaga.

 

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“Once they were done, I glued them together like a chain – kind of like you do in elementary school,” he says, letting out a chuckle. “We hung it up. It was really emotional and very sweet and we laughed because there were so many people that had really funny things to say and some of them very tender, sweet things to say.”

He will also have plenty of time for song – especially a certain Christmas classic Noah loves.

“My little boy all morning was singing ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.’ Our family is very musical and that’s the soundtrack of our holiday and our life,” explains Bublé, who has been busy recording a new album. “He sort of fills in the words right now, but basically he’s got ‘pout,’ ‘better not cry,’ ‘pout why.” His way of saying Santa Claus sounds like ‘kekaus,’ but he loves it.”