Actress Drew Barrymore said in a recent interview that she doesn’t buy Christmas presents for her two daughters with ex-husband Will Kopelman, Frankie (8) and Olive (10) — and she doesn’t intend to change that.
Barrymore told Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner, during an interview that was published Thursday, that she preferred to give her children new experiences and memories that they can keep for a lifetime rather than a toy they might lose interest in within a few days or weeks.
“I always take them on a trip every Christmas. I don’t get them presents, which I think at their ages they don’t love, but I say, ‘I think we’ll remember the place and the photos and the experience and that’s what I want to give you,'” the 47-year-old actress explained.
The “50 First Dates” alum went on to say that it wasn’t really about not ever buying things for the kids — but rather about making the Christmas holiday about the memories that they could share as a family.
“They get plenty of things throughout the year, so I’m not like some weird, strict, cold mom who’s like, ‘You don’t get any gifts!'” she said. “I just feel like a better gift would be a life memory. I’d rather invest [in that than in] a doll house or something. It all evens out and it’s fine.”
Barrymore admitted that she did break down and just buy presents one year — when pretty much everything was locked down and travel was impossible because of the COVID pandemic — and she said the results were less than stellar.
“I’m fine to skip this. This sucks,” she observed of the gift-centric experience, adding that another perk to giving experiences rather than physical presents was that it eliminated virtually all of the complaining about kids “not liking what they get.”
Another benefit, the “E.T.” actress said, was having a Christmas experience that brought the family together but still changed a bit every year — and not feeling as though she had to do the same things every year simply because they were “tradition.”
“[I try] to remember that one holiday won’t be probably the same as one 10 years from now, that your life can dramatically change, and new people and new traditions can come into it. I like looking at the holidays through a comedic, realistic lens of, we’re gonna have a lot of different holiday stories,” she added. “What one do you want to keep going and build as a tradition? Rather than, ‘This is my tradition and I’m stuck in it.'”
