Jessica Biel opened up about her and husband Justin Timberlake’s upcoming holiday festivities, sharing why Christmas is such an “overwhelming” time for her children.
Biel, 40, explained to People that her family’s Christmas plans are different every year. She and Timberlake share two sons: Silas, seven, and Phineas, two.
“We spend Christmas all over the place,” she said. “We never know where we’re going to be. We have no tradition really around it. Sometimes we’re in snow, sometimes we’re by the ocean. We have no rhyme or reason currently as to where we should be or where we’re going to be.”
Still, Biel said there’s always “some kind of tree” there that her family sits around on Christmas morning.
“We will be enjoying that wonderful morning where they tear through a couple of presents and then get bored and don’t want to do it anymore,” the Candy star continued. “Then you spend days and days of presents still under the tree.”
She then explained why Christmas can be a stressful time for her children.
“I find that Christmas is kind of overwhelming for kids,” Biel added. “It’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of eyeballs on them, and they’ve got a lot of stuff to do. So, I like to slow-roll it. Sure, open one thing. We don’t have to open anything else until tonight, and that sometimes happens for us.”
The 7th Heaven star confessed that while her one Christmas tradition has been playing with an Elf on a Shelf, she forgot about it this year.
“We often go to spend time in the Caribbean for the holidays and I have an Elf on the Shelf there, so maybe when we get there,” she said. “Elf on a Shelf only comes up for the last week or so, but that’s just another mom tactic of: ‘Oops, I forgot. How do I fix this?’”
Biel has previously spoken about her own holiday traditions as a child. During an episode ofThe Drew Barrymore Show last month, she revealed that she used to use Barbie doll heads as ornaments for her Christmas trees.
“The thinking behind it, look how cool they look with the lights coming through,” she said. “I just tried it one year and I was like: ‘This is the new thing.’ My mother was like: ‘OK.’”
Elsewhere in her interview with People, Biel spoke about how difficult it is to balance her personal and professional lives.
“Everything is turned upside-down and your priorities change, of course,” she explained. “You’re looking at what really is important and what’s your best creative output in the world that can really make a change or make a difference or make it easier for people.”
