Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon will have an extra magical Christmas this year: it will be the first for their daughter Belle, who joined their family back in February.
Speaking to HELLO!, Joe revealed that while the moment will be special for their youngest, the main focus will be on Belle's siblings, Rex, four, and Rose, two, both of them old enough to truly experience Christmas. "The first Christmas, they don't really know what's going on," the actor explained. "It's all about parents making themselves feel good.
"But with Rose, now she's two, she is so into Christmas. She can't wait, she loves a bit of Santa Claus. My Rex as well, he's only four-years-old, I know Rex and Rose this year, are really going to appreciate Christmas."
The father-of-four added: "Christmas is all about the kids and their reactions to. Me and Stacey are so lucky, we've got the most amazing family and we make the most of Christmas at the minute because they're going to grow up soon and a few of them in the next couple of years are going to fly the nest and they're not going to be as interested. Me and Stacey know we've got make the most of it because these are real magical times for us."
© InstagramWhat's Christmas morning like in the Swash-Solomon household? Joe shared: "Our kids get up really early. They're up at half four or five o'clock anyway. At about 10 o'clock, we've gone through that a few presents and things have calmed down, the kids are a little less excited, so me and Stacey take the time to ring family.
"We don't open all the presents at once. Sometimes the kids can get a bit overwhelmed and it becomes an opening present contest. So we make sure that our kids always open a card first and read out loud who the present's from before they open it. Sometimes they think 'we've got something', but I think it's really important to know who got you something."
Christmas is a hectic time in the pair's household with a blended family of six children, including Stacey's sons Zachary, 15, and Leighton, 11, and Joe's son Harry, 16. The star admits that when the big day is over, he and Stacey just "cuddle up" on the sofa. As for the present that he plans to gift his wife, the star said that although he gets a list from Stacey he usually tries to be "inventive" in a bid to "surprise" her. However, he then joked: "It doesn't usually work and she's like: 'You should have just stuck with the list.'"
But one thing that Joe has complete control over is the Christmas menu, with the star revealing that his beef Wellington went down so well last year, he'll be rustling it up again for this year.
It's not just beef Wellington that Joe is particuarly adept at. The star says that his 2021 appearance on Celebrity Masterchef, where he finished in third place, had "ignited" a passion in him. Following Boxing Day, the family usually have a 'Pie Day'.
"The day after Boxing Day, we'll just we'll make a load of pies like cheese, chicken pies or beef and leek pies," he explained. Everyone will come over and we'll have a little 'Pie Day'. Pie is such a lovely thing to cook especially because straight after Christmas, we've got so much meat and leftovers. Everyone comes over because no one wants to do anything the day after Boxing Day everyone wants to get over Christmas."
And as for 2024, Joe revealed that his main intention is to start getting "fit". "I was really into my fitness a few years ago," he said. "I just want to get my head down and also find as much interesting and fun work as possible." However, he also had a more heartfelt goal, as he added: "And most of all, I just spend as much time as I can with my family while they're young."
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In addition to all that family merriment, Joe recently partnered with Three UK, which performed research into how Britons use their phones over Christmas. Speaking about the results, the star said: "We use our phones for everything these days, they're not just our phones. We have podcasts on there, we communicate via video calls to family and friends that we're not going to see at Christmas. There's so many reasons that we use our phones for, we pay for things, we order things, we can watch telly and more importantly, we do video calls for our grandparents and relatives that might be alone or away."
Joe Swash has teamed up with Three UK to help the nation live their best phone life this Christmas. For better connectivity, delivered in time for Christmas, head to www.three.co.uk/offers/latest-offers.
