For TODAY weatherman Al Roker, the benchmark of any successful holiday season is simple: No fighting.
"My favorite family tradition is not everybody fighting," Al says. "That’s a great thing. If that happens — you can get your adult children together and their significant others and everything is fine? Win-win."
According to the father of three, having older children makes certain aspects of the holiday season much easier to navigate and, in many ways, even more fun to experience.
"My kids — look, it's different now that they're older," Al explains. "Holiday shopping becomes much simpler. They're not looking for the hot toy or anything like that."
Christmas morning is also easier for the Roker household. While the family still wakes up to open presents together, they're no longer "getting up at 6 a.m. in the morning because the little ones are up," Al says.
"Now it’s, 'Oh, we’ll get up around 9 o’clock.' And that’s just great," he adds.
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Other aspects of the holiday season have remained much the same for the Roker household, and are mirrored after Al's own childhood memories of Christmas.
"Every year, we got what we wanted for Christmas and there was always this warmth," Al says. "My dad decorating the tree and doing these stencils on the windows and my mom baking and, yeah — the house always felt warm."
Al carries on the warmth of the holiday season by making sure his mother's crustless sweet potato pie — called sweet potato poon — with a toasted marshmallow topping is on the table as a "must" every year. Al and his family also cut down their very own Christmas tree, though the method has been altered ever so slightly.
"The one thing in the last couple years that has changed is — there’s no shame in this game — I have a small electric chainsaw, so it cuts through those trees like butter," Al explains. "It takes us longer to pick out than to cut it down and then drag it back to get the netting on it."
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Practicing gratefulness is another Roker family holiday tradition, although it's one that certainly takes place all year long, Al explains.
"We try to always be grateful year-round for what we have, but I think in the last few years we’re even more purposeful about it given that we have learned how quickly things can change on a dime," he says. "Maybe you don’t wait until the holidays to express that gratitude to those you love and care about."
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Al has three children: Courtney, 35, his daughter from his previous marriage to Alice Bell, as well as Leila, 24, and Nick, 20, whom he shares with his wife, Deborah Roberts.
For Al, the best gift of all is having all three of his children together under one roof to celebrate the holiday season.
"I think the best gift is all of my children together — that is very hard during the year — that's like herding cats," Al explains. "And to have your kids together for a concentrated period of time is about as good as it gets, and to realize that they’re everything you wanted them to be."
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