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" The holidays that Caroline Kennedy spent in the White House \u2014 complete with sleigh rides on the front lawn \u2014 remain a cherished memory for Americans, and for Kennedy herself. Currently living in New York City with her husband, designer Edwin Schlossberg, and their three children, Rose, 19, Tatiana, 17, and John, 14, Kennedy talks about the little ways she makes holidays magical for her own family. Q: What are your plans for this Christmas? We&amp;#039;ll be at home this year, and we&amp;#039;ll do the things we usually do: ice-skating, a trip to Radio City Music Hall, maybe, if our cousins come to visit. We always go to see the Nutcracker ballet, but now that my kids are getting older, I&amp;#039;m not sure if they&amp;#039;ll want to go. But there will be a lot of shopping \u2014 and a lot of eating. Q: Do you get overwhelmed by holiday stress? It&amp;#039;s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you&amp;#039;ll find you&amp;#039;ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.  Q: How do you prevent kids from thinking that Christmas is all about getting presents? You have to remind kids to stay connected to the meaning of Christmas. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort, but it&amp;#039;s so worth it. We make presents \u2014 batches of cookies, special drawings \u2014 and my kids really like to make gifts for their friends. Sharing the holiday with other people, and feeling that you&amp;#039;re giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism. And we go to church, which I think is important.  Q: In writing A Family Christmas, did you learn anything about Kennedy holiday traditions? My grandmother and uncle always maintained that my great-grandfather, Mayor John Fitzgerald of Boston, known as Honey Fitz, lit the first public Christmas tree, in Boston Common in 1912. But then I read that the first public tree had actually been lit in New York City&amp;#039;s Madison Square. I determined to get to the bottom of this. I just knew that Honey Fitz had gone first. As it turns out, the Boston tree was lit 30 minutes before the New York City tree. Apparently, Honey Fitz also led the carol singing \u2014 and if you&amp;#039;d ever heard anyone in my family attempt to sing, you&amp;#039;d know why that was a particularly memorable event.  Q: Do you feel that Christmas magic faded a little when your kids got too old for Santa Claus? No \u2014 because everyone in our house still believes in Santa Claus. Absolutely. \u2014Kate Coyne Next Page: Read an excerpt from A Family Christmas  &amp;quot;For each of us, there are aspects of Christmas that remain magical throughout our lives. One of my earliest memories comes from living in the White House. Every morning before I went to school, I would go to my father&amp;#039;s room and talk to him as he was getting ready to go into the office. We often used to call my grandparents on the phone together. Of course, my favorite person to call was Santa Claus. The fact that he had the same soft Southern accent common to many White House employees of the day escaped me completely.  Like my grandmother, my mother had a special dress that she always wore on Christmas Eve, because her mother had done the same, and she taught us the carol that she and her sister used to sing, &amp;quot;Carol, Carol, Children.&amp;quot; My brother and I put on a little pageant every year until we outgrew our Mary and Joseph costumes, and my children did the same. Whether we were gluing sequins onto construction paper ornaments, sticking cloves into oranges until our thumbs hurt to make pomander balls, or bringing home an art project from school, Christmas brought us the chance to think about the people who were special to us.  In our family, with the exception of a few Christmas cookies, preparations tended to the literary rather than the culinary. My mother used to write poems for her mother, and my brother and I illustrated Bible verses, wrote poems, and decorated cards for her. My children have continued the tradition, and when I hang our multigenerational efforts around the house at Christmastime, they demonstrate the continuity of family life in a tangible and comforting way.  I grew up in a Catholic family and attended Catholic school, so the emphasis was on the religious aspects of the holiday: the birth of Jesus, the desire to be worthy of Him, and the importance of faith in our lives. There was a tacit disapproval of the commercial aspects of Christmas, and a feeling that although we had been encouraged to ask Santa for presents, if we actually wanted anything, somehow we weren&amp;#039;t being true to the Christmas spirit \u2014 all somewhat contradictory. Our house was a last bastion of the Victorian era, when a fresh orange was considered a special treat, and my mother was certainly alone in her view that walnuts were appropriate stocking stuffers.  The genius of Christmas is that it has meaning on so many levels. It allows each child to connect with the Divine, and with others. There is also room for each family to create its own traditions while, at the same time, participating in a larger cultural and civic festival. Love can be painful. Families fracture and recombine. If we are open to the gifts of understanding, hope, and faith in others and in God, the spirit of Christmas can help make real the way we want to live our lives.&amp;quot;  From the White House, 5-year-old Caroline wrote Santa \u2014 not forgetting her little brother:  Dec. 19, 1962 Dear Santa, I would like a pair of silver skates \u2014 and one of those horse wagons with lucky dips \u2014 and Susie Smart and Candy Fashion dolls and a real pet reindeer and a clock to tell time and a covered wagon &amp;amp;amp; a farm and you decide anything else \u2014  And interesting planes or bumpy thing he can ride in or some noisy thing or something he can push or pull for John. Love, from Caroline  Excerpted with permission from A Family Christmas by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion) \u2014 Buy the book "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a12461/caroline-kennedy-christmas-interview/>