Over the years, celebrities have spoken out about how they celebrate Christmas with their friends and family. While many stars revealed their favorite traditions, others expressed their annoyance over the December holiday.
In 2020, Kelly Ripa joked about baking cookies with her kids—Michael, Lola and Joaquin, who are now all adults—whom she shares with husband Mark Consuelos.
"I used to labor under this belief that my children would join me and this would be such a family event and everybody would love doing it... and I think the kids maybe twice made cookies with me and the rest of the time they could not be bothered," she told website SheKnows at the time, referring to her grandmother's Spritz cookies. "So it's really just something I do."
Gwyneth Paltrow's children, on the other hand, have apparently enjoyed spending time in the kitchen with their famous mom.
"I do a lot of the cooking before Christmas but then I usually spend a lot of Christmas cooking too. All the smells, all of the mulled wine, all of the trimmings for the turkey. We like to have all the family around. A very traditional Christmas," she told the Daily Mail's "Femail vertical" in 2013.
"My kids are very involved in the kitchen with me, especially my son," the actress said about Apple, now 18, and Moses, now 16. "He loves to cook and he's very engaged when we do it—he has a lot of patience for it, it's very cute. He helps me measure and he cracks eggs perfectly, he's very good."
As for former President Donald Trump, he didn't exactly divulge his family's favorite holiday traditions in 2015 but rather expressed his annoyance over the phrase, "Happy Holidays."
"I love Christmas. You go to stores now, and it doesn't say Christmas. It says 'Happy Holidays.' All over! I say, 'Where's Christmas?' I tell my wife, 'Don't go to those stores.' I want to see Christmas!" he said at the annual Values Voter Summit. "Other people can have their holidays, but Christmas is Christmas. I want to see 'Merry Christmas.' Remember the expression 'Merry Christmas?' You don't see it. You're going to see it if I'm elected."
In 2016, Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States. By 2021, Trump said people had started saying "Merry Christmas" again thanks to him.
"It was embarrassing for stores to say 'Merry Christmas,'" he told former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on Newsmax's special "Christmas in America" in 2021. "You'd see these big chains, they want your money but they don't want to say 'Merry Christmas.' And they'd use reds and they'd use whites and snow but they wouldn't say 'Merry Christmas.'"
"When I started campaigning, I said, 'You're going to say 'Merry Christmas' again.' And now people are saying it. That was a big part of what I was doing, I would say it all the time during that period... I tell you, we brought it back very quickly."
Miley Cyrus
On Good Morning Football in December 2020, Miley Cyrus revealed her "favorite thing to do" during the holidays.
"My favorite thing to do when I go home is we go and we throw the ball around outside on my dad's farm," she shared. "Some of my greatest memories are playing football with my dad."
Carrie Underwood
As for Carrie Underwood, there's nothing better than putting up the Christmas tree with her family.
"I enjoy decorating with my oldest son, Isaiah. He loves helping and he loves doing the tree," the singer said to Parade in 2020. "I put out some things while he was away at school and he came home and he was like, 'You decorated without me,' and I was like, 'I just got the stuff that was, like, bigger and you wouldn't have any fun doing this anyway because I wasn't decorating a tree.' But we enjoy doing that."
The "Blown Away" singer added: "He loves helping me in the kitchen and making cookies. His great-grandmother passed away not too, too long ago and we have her ginger cookies that she would always make. We have that recipe and we do that and talk about her, and just things like that are really, really sweet."
Frankie Grande
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande's brother, Frankie Grande, told Seventeen in 2018: "Opening presents at midnight on Christmas Eve—midnight! As soon as it turns to Christmas Day, we're opening those gifts." He explained to the outlet of the famous family's annual tradition. "We sleep until like 5 p.m. We're up until like 4 or 5 a.m. though."
Reese Witherspoon
In 2020, The Morning Show star revealed she loves making gingerbread houses.
"One of my favorite things about this time of year is decorating gingerbread houses with my kids," she wrote via Instagram at the time. "Well... ok... we mostly just eat the candy."
Chrissy Teigen
Despite having several cookbooks, model Chrissy Teigen said she would rather stay out of the kitchen on Christmas.
"Christmas Day is more of like order McDonald's and go to the movies," the model told Today in 2018. "It's a very lazy day."
Blake Lively
Blake Lively also said she prefers a more relaxed day when December 25 rolls around.
"Somehow we just spend seven hours a day all together just chatting and it's really nice to have that time, because it's rare that we get together for such a nice chunk of time," she told The Kit in 2014.
"It's really about being with family, so we never leave the house, whether we're making gingerbread houses or baking cookies or sitting around watching movies."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Megan Cartwright is Newsweek's Deputy Entertainment Editor, based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. pop culture and entertainment ... Read more
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