Margaret is a staff writer for the Deseret News where she covers trending topics.

At the tail end of his Tony-winning "Hamilton" era, Leslie Odom, Jr. began getting nudged by fans to put out a Christmas album.

"You're perfect for holiday music," Odom recalls hearing repeatedly from his newfound fanbase. It wasn't a project he had considered before.

"I didn't really know what that meant. I didn't know if I should take offense to that," Odom told the Deseret News with a laugh.

In search of understanding, Odom began playing around with Christmas music in the studio, and he "found a real, real love" for making holiday music.

He put out his first Christmas album, "Simply Christmas," in 2016, followed by his second, "The Christmas Album," in 2020. But a swarm of challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic, hindered Odom's hopes of touring his Christmas albums.

"We've always dreamed of a tour. We just have never been able to make it happen," Odom said. "We've done, of course, Christmas shows here and there, absolutely, but (not) a proper tour."

Until now.

Odom kicked off "The Christmas Tour" in San Francisco on Nov. 29. On Sunday, that tour comes to Salt Lake City's Eccles Theater.

For Odom, these shows are "a dream come true."

Concertgoers can expect to hear mostly festive tunes such as "The First Noel" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which Odom covers on his first Christmas album.

"The big bulk of it is a celebration of that 2016 'Simply Christmas' record. We're playing that record almost in its entirety," Odom said. "And then there's some some originals and a couple of Broadway tunes, you know, thrown in for good measure."

During a typical tour, Odom aims to create an atmosphere that makes audience members feel they are welcomed guests in his own living room. He is slightly shaking things up this tour.

"There's something about holidays and home," Odom said.

"Our idea is that it's a show we're bringing into your living room ... for you to enjoy with your family," he continued. "Our goal is to make sure everybody leaves with a smile on their face."

The show Sunday night won't be Odom's first time in Salt Lake City. He's had a few brief stints in Utah, including when he was a featured guest with the Utah Symphony this past summer.

"Every time my plane touches down in Utah, I get it," he said.

"There's something about the mountain range and the spirit in that place that, it's like a deep breath, you know, the landscape in town," Odom added. "It's just something that I look forward to."

Reflecting on the nearly 10 busy years since "Hamilton" hit a Broadway stage, Odom said, "It feels like a short decade, but it feels like 10 years."

Although a decade separates Odom from the experience, he has stayed connected to it by nurturing bonds with his former cast.

"The thing that stays with me these 10 years later, is really the relationships, we all stay in such close contact, and those people just mean the world to me," Odom said. "We lived an experience that, you know, there's about 25 of us that know what that was like, so that bonds us forever."

What started as a "little off Broadway show" eventually took Odom and his fellow "Hamilton" castmates to The White House, where they performed tracks from the show for an audience which included former President Barack Obama and his family.

"The fact that ('Hamilton') took us all the way to the halls of power ... the fact that the show was having that kind of reach and that kind of influence in the culture was like, we knew we'd made it. Not individually, but just but as a company and as a piece -- this piece was obviously making the kind of noise we'd all hoped that it would."

Nearly a decade since "Hamilton" made its explosive Broadway debut in August 2015, Odom is still making noise.

In addition to putting out two Christmas albums, during the last decade Odom released three albums with original music, co-wrote a children's book and starred in several TV shows and movies, including "The Glass Onion" and "Abbot Elementary." And in September 2023, Odom made his long-awaited return to Broadway with a leading role in a revived version of "Purlie Victorious." His performance in the play earned him two Tony nominations.

It doesn't end there. Odom was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world this year. He called the recognition "deeply meaningful," but added that it won't slow him down.

"The best thing for me to do always is just to put my head down and do my work," Odom said. "But the fact that the way that me and my little team are moving in these areas of theater and music and television and film, the fact that it allowed us to pop out and be recognized in that way, was just, it was pretty staggering. It meant a lot."