Savannah Guthrie as a child with her dad Charles; then with her husband and children today.Photo: Savannah Guthrie Instagram (2)
Savannah Guthrieis making sure to share her reason for the Christmas season with her two children.
TheTodayshow anchor, 50, says the holiday holds poignant meaning — and memories — for her.
She adds, “So Christmas just absolutely lives in my heart and lives in our family and I will spend every minute I have making sure my kids feel that magic, too.”
For Guthrie, who shares daughter Vale, 9, and son Charley, 7, with husband Mike Feldman, her feelings about the holiday reflect both her close ties with her family and her faith.
“My father would always gather us around and we would read the Christmas story in the Bible and we always really loved that, because I think it connected us to the holiday in a really spiritual and significant way,” she sharesin the TODAY All Day streaming special,Holidays in My House.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Yet, along with the Bible lesson, Guthrie also got a dose of her doting dad’s sense of humor.
Each year on the holiday — which was also his birthday — her dad Charles would at first tell Savannah and her siblings that they couldn’t open a Christmas Eve present, only then to give in and let them each open one.
“We would open up a present and he’d say, ‘Let’s open them all!’ and then we’d say ‘No Dad, no, we have to wait until Christmas!'” she says. “That was just a really sweet tradition we had with my dad.”
In atouching tributelast year when she turned 50, the star acknowledged her father, who did not live to celebrate the milestone.
source: people.com
