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New York — Christmas at Miranda Cosgrove's house will be all about Penelope, her dog. Armie Hammer's holiday wish list is directly from the heart: Some quality family time with his two kids. And when it comes to the real tree-fake tree debate? Well, celebrities are just like us.
The Associated Press asked a range of stars from film, TV and music to share their favorite holiday traditions and they were happy to oblige.
Cosgrove, the iCarly and Despicable Me 3 actress, said Penelope was a Christmas gift five years ago and now she's the beneficiary of some wrapped-up toy largesse under the tree.
"We're going to watch her open them, so it's just funny," Cosgrove said. "I'm sure she's going to be happy."
So will Hammer once he settles in with his family for the holidays. The plan for the Call Me by Your Name co-star is simple.
"Family time. Just family time. As long as I get family time, I can deal with anything else," he said.
Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black is from Canada. She's trying to wrap her head around a California Christmas this year. Then there's the thing with the stockings involving her Welsh hubby Tom Cullen of the History channel's new Knightfall.
"I'm not going to see snow this Christmas, which is like a new tradition," she said. "It's weird to think December is coming up and I'm in a T-shirt. Yeah, I think we're going to have to make some new traditions."
Cullen added: "Tat's family don't really do stockings. That's a big family tradition of mine, so."
Maslany: "We do do stockings. Not like you guys. They do stockings that are like this big and full of more presents than I have ever given in my whole life."
Cullen: "And oranges. Lots of oranges."
Maslany: "Yeah. Lots of oranges, yeah."
Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks and Portlandia fame has some Christmas stocking issues of his own. They're the focus of his memories of Christmas Past.
"Mostly just to do with Christmas stockings and old Christmas stockings, and strange things that you can find in a Christmas stocking. I have two brothers, so you never know what's going to happen," he said. "Coal is a very popular item in my family. And we all seem to have earned that, my brothers and I. And I'm not going to explain why or how that's happened, but suffice to say, it's happened."
And the tree debate?
Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney of the country duo Dan + Shay are on the same page there.
"I am a fake tree kind of guy," Smyers said. "My wife this year wants to get a real Christmas tree and I am like ..."
Mooney: "They are so messy."
Smyers: "I know. And we have three dogs, too, and they are going to be shoving the pine needles all over the place. We have a good fake tree. I am pushing to make that our mainstay still. We moved into a new house."
Mooney: "A fake tree is the best, dude. I got one of those trees that has the white, fake snow all over it, and so I was pulling it out of the basement and it was just stuff everywhere. Just leaving remnants. It was awful. I was like, this is probably worse than a real tree. But that's OK. It's easier to keep up with than a real tree."
Smyers: "Dark times."
Mooney: "It doesn't die."
Hillary Scott of the country trio Lady Antebellum may be tree jumping this year.
"My whole life, growing up in the South, we did a fake tree," she said. "And my husband is from upstate New York, Albany. So they would go out, pick their tree, cut it down, do the whole thing. So that was a tradition that we started when we got married. He said, 'I will not have a fake tree.' I said, 'OK, then you get to take care of it, because I have never done it before.'"
Fellow band member Charles Kelley may just be ready to try a real tree. He's allergic, but the group is taking some time off so, "If I break out in hives, it will be a memory.'"
Salma Hayek misses one explosive New Year's Eve tradition in her hometown of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico.
"They make a fake man with clothes and everything, and they stuff it with fireworks," she explained. "And at midnight, the whole town has like a competition — outside of the house, everybody is burning the old man, representing the old year. And I remember this tradition very clearly because it was so loud and so scary. But I always remember it with a smile in my heart."
Actress Keala Settle, who appears in The Greatest Showman, recalled a far less noisy holiday tradition: Making fudge.
"Everyone had their own specific job, even down to getting the baking sheets prepared and melting whatever ingredients you use," she said. "It was the one time that we were able to gather together as a family and putting things together and having a great time."
Adam Scott of Ghosted and Big Little Lies has two children, 9 and 11. He said they "still believe in Santa Claus, though perhaps not for much longer."
Dad added: "They are getting to that like cresting over into not believing anymore, but they're still hanging on. So I feel like this is our last real Christmas with the stockings and the whole illusion."
