Ask Andrea Bocelli what makes for a good Christmas song and the Italian tenor has an answer that’s simple — and fiendishly tricky to get right.

“I believe that the best quality Christmas songs are tender (but not sappy),” Bocelli says by email before a holiday tour that brings him Saturday to TD Garden.

With a pair of Christmas albums nestled all snug in his catalog, along with various high-profile holiday singing gigs, including at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Bocelli has sampled a broad variety of holiday-themed music throughout his career. His favorites tend to be simple songs, such as “Joy to the World” or “Adeste Fideles,” the 18th-century carol known in English as “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

Watch video Joy To The World:

Enjoy video Adeste Fideles:

“In general, songs that stir up an authentic intensity of emotions in me are the ones I always feel comfortable with,” Bocelli says.
Though Bocelli is often on tour in December, he makes sure to be home in Tuscany in time to spend Christmas itself with his family. Celebrating on Christmas Eve is typical for many Italian families, but Christmas Day is the centerpiece of the holiday season for the Bocellis.

“In the morning, we all go to Holy Mass,” Bocelli says. “Once back home, we take turns opening our gifts before we eat lunch. In the Bocelli home, there must always be a nativity scene as well as a decorated tree: these traditions are very heartwarming to us.”

Along with reflecting on the “deep spiritual meaning” of Christmas, Bocelli treasures the time he gets to spend with his family during the holidays. In recent years, his working life has included more family time, too. He has been collaborating with Matteo, one of his two sons, since 2018, while his chart-topping 2022 album “Family Christmas” featured Matteo, now 27, and his daughter Virginia, who is now 12.

“It’s hard for me to describe the magnitude of joy I feel when I’m on stage and, at the same time, almost sharing ‘family time’ with my kids singing around the microphone and in front of our ‘extended family’ that is the audience,” Bocelli says.

Though Bocelli has about as high a profile as possible in the music world — Variety reported in 2021 that the pop-opera crossover star’s albums have sold more than 90 million copies and generated 5 billion digital streams — he is conscious of letting his children make their own way. He insisted that all three children study music as “a vital component of one’s education.” What they do with it has been up to each of them.

“If my kids ask me my opinion, I will happily give it to them,” he says. “It is essential, however, that they bring their own talents to fruition, express their own personalities, find their own unique styles, regardless of our ambitions and convictions.”

Matteo Bocelli is part of a vast roster of performers who have sung with his father. Indeed, Andrea Bocelli’s duet partners have spanned genres and cultures, from Luciano Pavarotti to Jennifer Lopez to Ed Sheeran. Earlier this year, Bocelli recorded a new version of his 1994 single “Il mare calmo della sera” with country singer Chris Stapleton. The song appears on Bocelli’s album “Duets,” which marks the 30th anniversary of his career. After all that time, and so many duets, Bocellis says the right combination of voices remains a question of chemistry.

“Every duet is equally delicate and, in some ways, mysterious, and not something you can plan at the drawing table,” Bocelli says. “Finding a vocal partner is a complex process: we singers are always looking for colleagues with talent and an authentic interpretative personality, capable of bringing to life the magic of a duet. And when it works, the expressive qualities of both singers are highlighted and enhanced.”

As his career enters its fourth decade, Bocelli is gratified to have improved his vocal range over the years through much practice, and to have become “mellow and a bit wiser.”

“If I think of my 20- or 25-year-old self, I remember an energetic, curious, but also a bit arrogant and impulsive young man,” Bocelli says. “What I would say to the Andrea who was just starting his career is to be less eager and to practice more gratitude every day, toward God and the rest of humanity. I would tell him to take what life gives to you without asking too many questions, because nothing happens by chance, and we must trust in the divine plan that governs the life of each and every one of us.”