Jinger Duggar will be celebrating Christmas with her family for the first time in nearly a decade.
“We have not been back to the Duggar house since we’ve been married in nine years for Christmas,” Duggar’s husband, Jeremy Vuolo, began the Monday, December 22, episode of their eponymous podcast. “We’re going this year.”
Duggar, 32, and Vuolo, 38, have been married since 2016, welcoming kids Felicity, Evangeline and Finn in 2018, 2020, and 2025, respectively. While Duggar grew up in Arkansas, she moved to California after getting married.
“It’s exciting,” the Counting On alum said on Monday of celebrating the holiday in her home state. “The reason we haven’t been back for Christmas Day is because that’s the only time of year that [Jeremy’s] family is all together.”
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Jinger, one of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children, and her husband have opted to spend the winter holiday with his side of the family.
“Throughout the years, we’ve decided, ‘Like, OK, that’s going to be the time that we spend with the Vuolo family over Christmas,” Jinger explained. “My family [is] always together a lot, and so it’s easy for us to pop back. We [recently] went back three times in one year for weddings.”
After many years spending Christmas away from home, Jinger started feeling “nostalgic” for her childhood Christmas festivities. (As Jinger and Vuolo moved away from Arkansas, they also distanced themselves from her parents’ IBLP form of religion.)
“I want our girls to experience a Duggar family Christmas, and I miss it,” Jinger said, detailing the chaos of the holiday season. “We’ve done different kinds of things. Back when I [lived] at the Big House, there were some years where we’d be, like, ‘Everybody has to wait, we go down together and then it’s a free-for-all and everyone just opens gifts.’”
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She continued, “Some other years, I remember us waiting and each person would open. They either start from the oldest and go down, or start from the youngest and go up.”
According to Jinger, it could take “hours” just to get to her turn.
“If you think about it, you have nieces and nephews also, so it can take forever,” Jinger acknowledged of her family’s large size. “I don’t know what they do know, [and] we’re going to be excited to jump in and see.”
This year, the Duggars will do a gift exchange at Jim Bob and Michelle’s house on Christmas afternoon.
“Everybody’s going to be having gifts for the person they bought a gift for. All the older girls are in a drawing, all the guys are in a drawing — in-laws, everything,” she said. “All of the little nieces and nephews … have a drawing thing. [Everyone] is buying one gift, or a certain amount, for each other.”
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Jinger will be shopping for her pregnant older sister, Jana Duggar, while Vuolo drew father-in-law Jim Bob’s name.
“Get him a nice pair of white T-shirts or socks or a new package of underwear,” Jinger advised her husband, who quipped that the latter idea would be better received from “the missus.”
Ahead of the big family celebration, Jinger and Vuolo will spend the morning with sister Joy-Anna Duggar, her husband, Austin Forsyth, and their three children.
“It’s going to be good,” Jinger teased, noting that she and Vuolo both want to make the occasion “special” for the kids.
Jinger’s brood arrived in Arkansas several days before the big holiday, where she enjoyed a “girls brunch” on Monday with her sisters and mom Michelle.
“Girls brunch with all 9 sisters, a few sisters-in-law & my mama,” Joy-Anna, 28, wrote via Instagram, sharing footage from the outing. “Celebrating all of the December/January birthdays! Wish we could do this more often!”
