The Fun Reason Martha Stewart Won't Be Hosting This Holiday Season

Wait, what? Martha Stewart, the queen of all things festive, is not hosting Christmas this year? Is this some alternate-universe pandemic thing? Has the world turned upside down? By her own admission, the homemaking icon typically goes all out for the holidays. According to Stewart's account of the holiday experience, published on her website, Christmas was her family's "most intensely celebrated holiday" when she was growing up in Nutley, New Jersey. "We baked; we cooked; we decorated," she said, adding, "We always stayed at home, surrounded by our family, lots of relatives, many friends, and modest gifts." 

Those happy family traditions continue to inspire her holiday celebrations, which normally begin with a Christmas Eve dinner consisting of potato pancakes and homemade raspberry jam-filled doughnuts. On Christmas Day, she usually opens up her home in Bedford, New York — decorated to the hilt and boasting dozens of resplendent Christmas trees — to more than 200 friends and family members for a memorable brunch complete with Christmas caroling, many treats, and her famous eggnog. Well, not so this year. According to Food & Wine, Stewart, her daughter Alexis, and her grandchildren, Jude and Truman, will be miles and miles away from the sweet holiday scenes of her New York home. They'll be taking in some breathtaking scenery, to be sure, as they are scheduled to set sail on an unforgettable three-week cruise.

An avid photographer, Stewart has traveled to Antarctica before on a trip with friends in 2018. She recounted the experience on her blog, "Our journey was part of a photography expedition that took us through the most beautiful ice-filled bays, harbors, and straits." This year, she's headed there again, this time on a cruise with family in tow. What the group will be feasting on aboard the ship? Stewart simply told Food & Wine, "Who knows what will happen." 

Whatever the family will be eating, they will surely be enjoying the trip and creating new holiday traditions of their own. When asked by Glamour about her holiday wish list, Martha mused that she was wishing for "a really fabulous trip to Antarctica." She added, "It's a long trip, and we're going to be spending a lot of time together." That's really what this holiday is all about, isn't it? You can take away the trimmings, the treats, and the trees (and replace them with icebergs and penguins?) because spending time with the ones you love is really the greatest Christmas gift. Bon voyage, happy trails (or sails), and Merry Christmas to the ever-trend-setting Martha Stewart and her family.