Celebrities Share Their Favorite Holiday Traditions

Christmas may only be one day a year but the celebrations surrounding the holiday can last all month! Every family has their own unique traditions leading up to the special day and that includes celebrities!

From Christmas caroling to volunteering to opening presents a little bit early, everyone has their own way of making the holiday more meaningful. Check out what some of these stars do during the festive season and perhaps it will inspire some new traditions of your own!

Find out what celebs are doing to celebrate the holiday season…

1. Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen says that Christmas is pretty low key in her household, telling “Today,” “Christmas Day is more of like order McDonald’s and go to the movies. It’s a very lazy day.”

She added that her favorite part of the holiday are the stockings, explaining, “Stockings were always really huge for me. I always loved the little tiny gifts and got excited for a deck of cards or the magic set or whatever was in the stocking. That’s what I loved the most.”

2. Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani has a fun Christmas morning tradition with her three sons, who all get to run through a wall of wrapping paper before opening their presents.

“We have to be very patient, and we have to make sure that the phone’s working and that we videotape the boys crashing through the wrapping paper and then it reveals everything. That’s probably, to me, one of the greatest traditions. I don’t know how Santa thought that up. Such a good idea,” Gwen said on her “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” TV special.

3. Dax Shepard & Kristen Bell

Dax Shepard is all about Christmas and says in addition to decorating, the family also takes an annual road trip.

“I’m full Clark Griswold. I put up lights on every inch of the house… [I’m] probably first in the neighborhood to be fully decorated… Every other year, we go to Oregon to be at my mom’s house. Every year we road trip — we don’t fly. And we stop at different places along the route as part of our tradition,” Dax told Elite Daily.

4. Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling is excited to begin holiday traditions with her children, especially as they get older and understand the concept.

“We always read ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ Last year my daughter was too little and didn’t care. But this year I think she’ll be able to get it more. And I’ve been talking it up a little bit. So we’ll probably do that. And I always watch You’ve Got Mail on Christmas because it’s one of my favorite movies. She’s a little too little to enjoy that. But I would like, when she gets older, to make her watch that with me,” Mindy told Us.

5. Olivia Culpo

Olivia Culpo has a big Italian family and they’re all about food during the holidays!

“I grew up in a huge family, so for Christmas, we do the Seven Fishes,” Olivia told Elite Daily about their tradition which involves eating fish on Christmas Eve. She added, “We have a lot of traditions, one of which is to make holiday cookies, and pesto, and pizza/calzones. We do tons of drinks and food, and it’s really just about getting people together, and there’s really just no rules for making a fun party. It’s just about relaxing and having fun.”

6. Ally Brooke

“Some of my favorite holiday traditions are baking cookies with my dad, making tamales with the family, Christmas Eve movies with my family, and making hot cocoa!” Ally Brooke revealed in a T.J. Maxx press release.

7. Katherine Schwarzenegger

After welcoming her daughter earlier this year, Katherine Schwarzenegger can’t wait to get her involved in her holiday traditions.

“I always traditionally do a sleepover with my sister the night before Christmas Eve. I’m hoping that that’s something that I can continue doing and bring [Lyla] along to do it, which will be fun. She is a very involved auntie… Then also we spend Christmas with my whole family and we’re at my mom [Maria Shriver]’s house and my dad [Arnold Schwarzenegger] comes over and we all meet there and spend the whole day there. And we’re just together, which is my favorite time of the year,” Katherine told People.

8. Lea Michele

Lea Michele says her family Christmas traditions last an entire week! “We do this thing where everyone has to pick one activity. We don’t say what it is,” Lea explained, adding that each day the family goes on a group outing to enjoy an activity together, like renting a boat for the day. “It becomes a little bit of a competition! It’s so great.”

9. Brett Eldredge

Brett Eldrege’s traditions are all about music! “I have tons of holiday memories that involve music. I used to go Christmas caroling at people’s houses when I was a kid. I’d just show up and surprise them and leave happy knowing they were smiling and singing along,” Brett said in T.J. Maxx press release.

10. Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton enjoys passing on her mother’s holiday traditions to the young members of her family, telling People, “My mama always made us feel loved by making us treats in our little mountain cabin around the holidays. Now I get to invite all my nieces and nephews and their kids for what we like to call ‘cookie night.’ It’s the perfect way to spend time with the special people on your Christmas list.”

11. Ciara & Russell Wilson

Ciara and her husband Russell Wilson bring the party to their holiday celebrations – they’re all about family dance parties.

“It’s the classic stuff to do, but it’s the best stuff because we love to eat good food. Then we do karaoke. Our son Future always likes to say, ‘Let’s have a dance party,’ so we have dance parties! We, of course, like to play good music… it’s the best because it’s all about love and enjoying each other and being in the Christmas spirit,” Ciara told People.

12. Tori Kelly

Tori Kelly and her family enjoy putting a twist on the typical Christmas breakfast. “We have a tradition of doing orange rolls, which are like cinnamon rolls, but orange flavored. A lot of people think it sounds crazy, but it’s a tradition of ours that I’ve done since I was a kid,” Tori explained to People.

13. Vanessa & Nick Lachey

Vanessa and Nick Lachey’s usual traditions are going to have to be put on hold this year due to Covid.

“Our home has always had an open door policy and every year we probably host about 20 or so adults and eight to 10 kids. But because Nick’s family is in Ohio and my family has since moved to Florida we don’t get there that often. We’re always working the week before or the week after and it’s just a lot to travel with three littles. So this year not only are we staying home but we are also not having that open door policy. Just because we want to be respectful and do our part in trying to be responsible with not having large social gatherings,” Vanessa Us.

14. Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood says it’s important to her family to remember the true meaning of Christmas and going to church is a big part of their holiday celebrations.

“[The] inspirational aspect is a really important part of the holidays for us,” Carrie told People, adding, “We love decorating the house, and we always get the boys their own tree they can decorate any way they like. And, of course, it’s all about music and food!”

15. Kristin Cavallari

Kristin Cavallari’s traditions are inspired by her dad who “always made homemade meatballs and sauce on Christmas Eve.”

“I’ve kept that up with our family,” Kristin told Us, adding, “When I was little, my parents had the elves come a week before Christmas and if we were good, we got a little something in our stocking. If we were bad, we got coal.”

16. Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade

Each year, Gabrielle Union and her husband Dwyane Wade use the holidays as an opportunity to give back to the community.

“During the holidays, especially this year, we will all be focusing on how can we together, get that quality time with each other and also give our time and resources and platform to the others. Luckily for the last, oh, geez, like five or seven years, whether it’s the dog rescue in Miami or helping to deliver meals to some of our more vulnerable communities, it’s been something that we’ve been able to do in conjunction with the Miami Heat and with local organizations in whatever town we’re living in, whether that be Chicago or Cleveland or Miami, and now Los Angeles,” Gabrielle told InStyle.