The "Fixer Upper" star is looking ahead to the holiday season, sharing what she's learned from celebrating with her family over the years.
Joanna Gaines keeps a beautifully decorated home year-round, so it’s no surprise that she pulls out all the stops for the holidays.
The “Fixer Upper” star recently shared her best holiday hosting tips as she prepares to celebrate the season with her family. She also noted the surprising way her approach has changed over time.
“The older I get, the more free I feel to deck the halls,” Gaines, 48, told USA Today. “I do think this is the one time of year where you can really go big if you want to—or keep things timeless and simple.”
While the Magnolia co-founder encouraged aspiring decorators to feel empowered to go big with their festive displays, she left room for those who prefer to take a more subdued route.
“There’s no right or wrong because the holidays really are so personal and sentimental,” she said. “It’s just a matter of what you love and how you want your home to feel for your family.”
Joanna Gaines is getting ready for the holidays, sharing her best decor tips and getting Magnolia Market ready. (Instagram/Joanna Gaines) Gaines also noted that she’s committed to upholding food traditions, using recipes she’s been working on since she and Chip Gaines wed in 2003.
“Food is really at the center of our holidays,” she said. “Thanksgiving especially is this day I feel like I can taste all year long because our family really does make the same dishes year after year.”
Gaines also detailed her approach to Christmas in the editor’s note she published in the Nov. 10 issue of Magnolia Journal.
“Every season holds a blend of the big and small, the milestones and the everyday, the photo-worth celebrations and the not-so-picture-perfect moments,” she wrote. “There’s something about the holidays that bridges the gap between these.”
She noted that as the years go by, she’s “come to realize” that the most important memories are the ones that might not be captured with a camera, and exist only in memory.
“Maybe there’s no physical evidence they happened at all, except for the fact that you were there—and you felt it,” Gaines continued. “It’s these softer moments that give us life and ground us in presence. The days that held no agenda, the mornings I took slow, the smiles you won’t see in my camera roll because I was simply bearing witness.”
“The older I get, the more free I feel to deck the halls,” said the HGTV star, 48. (Courtesy of Magnolia Network) 
Gaines is a big fan of decorating for the holidays and shared a look at her family working together to deck the halls last year. (Instagram/Joanna Gaines) Explaining that she’s choosing to prioritize holding space for both the major moments and the much more relatable ones, Gaines also reflected on being the “gatekeeper” of her family’s yearly traditions as she aims to “do the same things” they always have, “if not bigger and better” this year.
She wrote about the “dressing up” that is encouraged toward the end of the year and romanticized the “fresh delight” of decorating the home, hosting loved ones, and “trying to create standout experiences” that her “kids will remember and tell their kids about someday.”
The Gaineses certainly have their hands full with their five children: Drake, 21, Ella, 20, Duke, 18, Emmie, 16, and Crew, 8. But during a recent conversation on the “Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce” podcast, the proud mom revealed that they’d recently been discussing the idea of expanding the family once again.
“When I had Crew at 40, I said, ‘Chip, I want him to have more siblings,” she said. “I really thought I’d have nine children. I’m that lady. Look at my hair. Don’t I look like a lady that would have nine kids? And he was not open to it. Guess who’s open to it now? At 48?”
“He is telling everyone I’m pregnant. And just for the record, I’m not,” Gaines quipped, adding that her husband had even told their “grown kids” that she was expecting, and their eldest daughter said that she’s “not coming home” if the news is true.
The HGTV personality went on to encourage Kelce, a mom of four, to add another little one to her family.
“Five is a good number,” Gaines said, noting that she would “have more babies” if she “could.”