Kris Jenner Explains Why Christmas Eve Is the One Tradition She’ll Never Let Go Of

For the Kardashian-Jenner family, Christmas isn’t just a date on the calendar—it’s a feeling, a ritual, and a language of love that’s been passed down for generations. On Khloé in Wonder Land, Khloé Kardashian sits down with her mom, Kris Jenner, for a rare, reflective conversation about what the holidays have meant inside their family long before the cameras, the themes, and the spectacle.

Kris opens up about how small gestures became lifelong memories, why Christmas Eve remains the family’s emotional anchor, and how traditions evolve as kids grow up and start families of their own. From faith and food to gift-giving and gathering, the conversation reveals how Kris views Christmas not as a performance—but as a process. One she still treasures, decades later.

Below are highlights from the conversation, adapted from Khloé in Wonder Land.

How did your own childhood Christmases shape the way you parented the holidays?

“So once when I was a little girl and I was going home on a Saturday, I had a play date with my friend, and then the next day was Easter…We were living in San Diego driving up a really steep hill next to a school like it was yesterday. The dad was driving us home and…the little girl said, ‘Can Kris come over and spend the night?’ He goes, ‘Sure.’ And so we went home to her house, we found her mom, she made us dinner and we took baths together. We put on our pajamas and we watched a movie or something. And this dad, because the next day was Easter, he went out and duplicated whatever he was giving, they were giving to their family, and they had these eggs with everyone’s name on them and chocolate like I then copied 30 years later and did for my family. But something like that made such an impression on me. I will never forget it…It didn’t even matter because it was the gesture, the moment, the memory, what it meant to me to be at somebody else’s house on a holiday…So that kind of thing always made me want to do things.

…I was going to have 6 kids and we were gonna have Christmas and Santa was going to come. We were all going to sit around by the fireplace and drink hot chocolate and have mugs and stockings with our names on them. It was just going to be magic. And so the very first Christmas. I got to do by myself because my mom and my grandmother always did that for all of us. And then the very first Christmas I was married in 1978, I did it for your dad and I. It was just the two of us. And then the next Christmas, three of us and it just kept growing because basically for a whole decade, you know, I was pregnant.”

Has anyone ever hooked up at a Kardashian Christmas party?

“I don’t know. I haven’t.”

Do you have a special holiday tradition with each of your kids?

“Oh, everybody gets so busy…we like to cook…I remember the good old days when we used to go shopping or go to Toys R Us.”

When do you start shopping for the holidays and are you done?

“June or July, and yes.”

What does Christmas mean to you now, as a grandmother with an ever-growing family?

“I love it. I would miss it so much if it was quiet and it was just me sitting there with a cup of coffee. I would be very sad. I love having you guys all there.”

How do you feel about having the Christmas Eve party at other houses? 

“The party was always at my house…the first one was 1978 and there [were] very few people, very small family, and then it just grew and grew and grew…When you guys got older and you grew up and you all had your own friends…all of a sudden there was 100 more people, now there’s a couple hundred—two, three hundred people at a Christmas party. I thought, ok, this has got to start rotating. It was so much more fun when each one of you took the reins and did it yourself.”

How does faith factor into the way you experience Christmas today?

“I was brought up going to church on Sundays and then I was christened when I was a baby. And then I went to church. I went to a Presbyterian church and I still have my, I went to a class at my church after school a couple days a week and then we had like a…you know how the Catholic religion has a catechism and they go through a whole thing and they graduate and I had something like that, but I have my Bible that was given to me when I was like 8 years old that I still have in my drawer from the teacher. And I just remember going to that ceremony and getting dressed up for that and feeling so proud of myself that I completed the little course. And I think that’s when it was really instilled. And then at Christmas time, it was so beautiful because it was being in the choir and singing Christmas carols and the choir…I think that’s probably what I miss the most about those times in Christmas…all the things that the school and the church used to do to celebrate the holidays and having the kids perform.”

If one of your kids didn’t show up for Christmas morning, how would you react?

“I would be really sad. Yeah, that would make me…it would change my energy for sure. It would change my day. I mean, obviously it depends on the reason why, but they would still be sorely missed. That would be so sad for me because I’m so used to having you guys all there and then I get you and all the kids and I get your significant others or my mom, Cici, you know, everybody, it just, it’s always been such a huge big deal for all of us and we just hang out all day.”

To hear the full conversation, tune into Khloé in Wonder Land, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

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