No one knows how to cherish the holiday season quite like actress and supermom Jennifer Garner. The mom of three shared a cozy Thanksgiving with her ex-husband Ben Affleck and their children. Now she’s spilling all the details of what the rest of the holiday season has in store for the family of five.
During their Thanksgiving festivities, Garner told People that each of her children — Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12 — has a specialty they make for dinner now that they’re old enough to contribute. She said one kid is the master of mashed potatoes, another handles the apple pie, and the third remains a mystery to even Jennifer herself.
As for the 13 Going on 30 actress, the 10 Grain Bread recipe from The Bread Bible is her dish of choice. According to Garner, the bread has become a big tradition in her family’s Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone has come to expect her to make it.
After spending last year with now ex-wife Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck also got in on the family holiday fun. The actor took a break from filming his latest project to spend time volunteering with his family in the spirit of giving. It’s unclear whether he contributed a specialty dish of his own.
The 10 Grain Bread recipe is not the only dish Garner made this holiday season. She took to Instagram to share her recipe for Leftover Cranberry Sauce, perfect for the days after Thanksgiving.
Garner occasionally posts her own “Pretend Cooking Show” on her Instagram and to celebrate that, and the holiday season, she has released her Pretend Cooking Show Gift Guide with KitchenAid, featuring all of her favorite cooking show tools.
The guide consists of KitchenAid items Garner loves to gift all year around, including the Semi-Automatic Espresso Machine with Burr Grinder, the 6 Speed Hand Mixer with Flex Edge Beaters, and a 7 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer with Redesigned Premium Touchpoints.
Her 2024 gift guide comes at the perfect time since, according to Garner, it’s already Christmas at her house. She says that her youngest, Samuel, has already cranked up the holiday music and started baking ginger snaps. She says she welcomes this kind of festive energy, saying “That is the energy that I want to see brought to our house right now.”
As for the rest of the holiday season, Garner said that the one thing her family will be sure to do is watch The Nutcracker ballet. It’s a huge part of the holiday for her and her kids and she has tried (successfully) to drill it deeply into their holiday traditions.
Of course, spending time with family and friends (possibly with ex-Afleck included) is a big part of her Christmas season, and of course, cooking lots of holiday goodies using the items in her KitchenAid Gift Guide.
And if her kids or ex-husband are looking for the perfect gift for Garner, she says they look no further than the gift guide she made herself. She says she’d be “thrilled to bits” to open any one of these items on Christmas morning.