Once you’ve seen the smooth dance moves and tuneful grooves of Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, and A.J. McLean, it’s hard to deny that the Backstreet Boys are all grown up. Just a glance at their droolworthy videos for "Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)" and "As Long As You Love Me" is plenty of proof that these handsome guys can be totally sophisticated and mature.

But if you take a closer look, you’ll see that deep down inside these stylin’ grownups are still the sweet and cuddly little boys they used to be—and they haven’t forgotten their early, pre-fame days for a minute. In fact, the Orlando, Florida-based Backstreet Boys were more than happy to dish about kid stuff to BOP, and we’re passing along a heaping helping of the snips, snails and puppy dog tails that made these little boys grow into world famous pop stars.

So, would you guess that Nick Carter would be a quiet, shy little kid? Well, you’d be wrong if you did! "I just loved having fun more than anything, and I had a big imagination."

That big imagination meant that little Nick could spend hours playing pretend games with his neighborhood buddies. "My best friend was Brent, and basically we were just crazy," the 18-year-old blond babe remembers. "We did everything. We used to buy these fake swords and go out and have fun playing around in the woods."

Brent even got Nick hooked on a habit he keeps to this day. "I remember the first time that I met him we went over to his house with a bunch of friends and we played Nintendo for the first time," Nick admits. "He is the one that got me involved in that. We had a lot of fun."

While Kevin may be a wee bit older than Nick, the Kentucky native remembers his days as a young ‘un just as vividly. "All my childhood memories are great," the 26-year-old gushes. "The holidays were always really special because I have two older brothers and a very close family."

Now that Kevin spends so much time on the road far from home, those warm memories of holiday celebrations are especially important to the green-eyed cutie. "All the family would get together for Christmas and Thanksgiving, all my aunts and uncles and grandparents," Kevin tells BOP. "We’d have dinner together and open gifts and stuff. I just have all good memories of that."

Howie can definitely relate to his bandmate’s Yuletide memories. Even though Florida may not seem to have a lot of Christmas spirit (thanks to the warm tropical breezes), to Howie it was the best place in the world to celebrate each December 25. "For me, my best memories were always Christmas times at home with all my family and my mom and dad and the young ones," the 24-year-old recalls.

As the baby of the family, Howie had plenty of siblings to look up to—and even a few nieces and nephews to take care of! "I have one, two, three, four, five nieces and one nephew," the brown-haired fox gushes. "I was an uncle at 4 years old! My niece was always wanting to call me Uncle Howard, but it was kind of hard on her when she was around friends!"

While all the boys’ fave memories are way sweet, Brian’s is a little bit sad, too. "I was in the hospital for a month and a half of my first grade year, so I missed all of school," the 23-year-old recalls of a most memorable time. You see, Brian was born with a serious heart condition, and while he’s fine now, he was a very sick little kid and needed to have surgery.

"I remember that I returned home from the hospital and there was a bicycle there waiting for me in front of the house, a yellow and red bicycle with a big banana seat on it," he shares, "This was 1980, and it’s still my favorite bike of all time." Too sweet!

While all the guys were busy riding bikes, playing games and spending quality time with their families, you can bet that somewhere along the line they had dreams of one day becoming famous performers, and young A.J. was already on the fast track even as a tyke! But the Florida native wasn’t singing his way to success---dancing and modeling were his bread and butter in those early days. "When I was growing up, I didn’t want to be a singer, I wanted to be a dancer, and that is what I had done since I was 5," the hunky 20-year-old says. "I was also modeling for print work in J.C. Penney’s and national magazines. Like, if they showed a picture of a family in an ad, I would be one of the little kids." You can bet that early exposure to the spotlight gave A.J. the drive he needed to try singing---and someday become a Backstreet Boy.

It sounds like their happy and healthy childhood ways may account for their incredible grown-up qualities these days. But before you start thinking that all these warm and fuzzy memories are part of the distant past, check this out: There’s a lot of little boy left in at least one of these hotties! "I remember that playing war and going out and hiding in the woods was one of my favorite things to do," Nick laughs. "You know, I’m still young and I still feel the same way. Hey, I’m going to do that when I get home!" You go, guy!