Stars' Favorite Holiday Traditions

Kate Hudson

"Hosting sit-down, dress-up dinner parties with my girlfriends. I always make a special cocktail and even put little wreaths around the table!"

-With reporting by Andrea Simpson and Nakisha Williams

Hayden Panettiere

"Christmas music, a fireplace and a mug of hot chocolate."

Maria Menounos

"I heat my pool and we swim at Christmas. We send pictures [to family and friends] back East and everyone hates us for some weird reason (laughs)."

Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas

"Every year we eat tamales on Christmas morning and it's pretty awesome," says Nick (center). "My mom started it and I think it's special because we've grown up doing it and it's very like us to have tamales on Christmas."

Lindsay Price

"Passing my brother's green glass bottle around the table at Thanksgiving, and putting a kernel of corn in it while saying what you're thankful for this year. We always end up crying and hugging."

Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy

"Felicity started this, but we write a sort-of diary for ourselves on a little piece of parchment paper at Christmas," says Macy. "We tie a ribbon around them, and store them in a swell little wooden box I made for them. We've got about 15 years worth of them now."

Giada De Laurentis

"Gathering at my grandfather's house with my family. We play a Neapolitan card game-once I won the whole jackpot."

Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon

"Over 200 people come to our annual Christmas party and everyone is dancing-and it's not about work and schmoozing. We make it like an old-school basement party with soul food and drinking and dancing."

Josh Groban

"My mom gets two Christmas trees every year. She loves them and has too many ornaments for one, so we get two. If you can walk through the hallway without getting stuck in the eye by a pine needle then it can't be Christmas (laughs)."

Forest and Keisha Whitaker

"We watch movies on the holidays," says Keisha. "It's a time when we all get to catch up and sit and watch movies."

Poppy Montgomery

"We go surfing on Christmas. We go to Australia to see my family and it's summertime there so we go to the beach, we surf, we barbecue and drink beer on Christmas day."

Perry Reeves

"I remember one Thanksgiving we went out and rescued ducks and other animals that had been in an oil spill. Now we do more things like that on Thanksgiving."

Lara Flynn Boyle

"We like everyone to be in their flannels and watch football. My mom started it; she pretty much demands it."