For many of Us, Christmas is a time to film silly social media videos with family — and the Duggars are no exception.
“Nothing brings the fam together like making reels 🤣,” Joy-Anna Duggar wrote via Instagram on Thursday, December 25, sharing footage as she and her sisters attempted to replicate viral trends with their mother, Michelle Duggar.
Michelle, 59, and husband Jim Bob Duggar are parents of 19 children, including Joy-Anna, 28, and her sisters: Jana, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn and Josie.
Thursday’s Christmas festivities was one of the rare holidays where all of the Duggar daughters were back under one roof.
Why Jinger Duggar Hasn’t Spent Christmas With Her Family in 9 Years
“We have not been back to the Duggar house since we’ve been married in nine years for Christmas,” Jinger’s husband, Jeremy Vuolo, said on the Monday, December 22, episode of the couple’s eponymous podcast. “We’re going this year.”
Jinger, 32, and Vuolo, 38, have been married since 2016, during which they’ve welcomed three children together. The pair are currently raising their family in Los Angeles, across the country from the Duggar’s native Arkansas.
“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,” Jinger explained on Monday. “Throughout the years, we’ve decided, ‘Like, OK, that’s going to be the time that we spend with the Vuolo family over Christmas. 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 so many years away, Jinger started feeling “nostalgic” about her family’s festivities.
“I want our girls to experience a Duggar family Christmas, and I miss it,” Jinger said. “We’ve done different kinds of things [with giving gifts]. 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.’”
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. If you think about it, you have nieces and nephews also, so it can take forever.”
This year, the Duggars each picked out one present for another relative.
Jill Duggar Reunites With Mom Michelle, Sisters to ‘Cheer’ on Jinger Duggar
“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,” Jinger teased, revealing she selected Jana’s name. “All of the little nieces and nephews … have a drawing thing. [Everyone] is buying one gift, or a certain amount, for each other.”
Jinger had stepped back from her parents’ controversial IBLP religion after relocating to California. Her sister Jill, 34, has also distanced herself from their family’s beliefs.
“I feel like we are in a rebuilding phase now with healthy boundaries still in place,” Jill wrote via her Instagram Story in November 2024, revealing where she stood with her parents. “We try to hang out whenever it works well and we have the bandwidth to navigate things.”
Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, were previously estranged from Jim Bob, 60, and Michelle after walking away from TLC’s Counting On in 2017.
