The mom of three tells PEOPLE how she navigates around changing schedules amid the holidays and the NFL season

Kylie Kelce knows the Christmas season is all about memories.

Speaking with PEOPLE after sharing the family’s 2023 holiday card with Minted, the mom of three, 31, shared some of her favorite memories from holidays past.

“Wyatt, our oldest, has had a couple of great reactions,” she says. “Last year, she got a kitchen. She walked past it like four times before she realized that it was put together in the living room, so that was a comical moment for us to watch.”

Referencing a viral video of a child getting excited about getting a wrapped avocado for Christmas, Kylie says, “I feel like we’re very much in that phase of life.”

“We could wrap up a banana and our girls would be like, ‘Oh banana!'” she says of daughters Bennett, 8 months, Elliotte, 2, and Wyatt, 4. “So it’s honestly anything that happens on Christmas morning is just fun to watch and see their reactions because they are so grateful for the things that they get to unwrap.”

“They’re excited to play with new toys or get a new pair of pajamas. Simple things like that bring them so much joy that you can’t help but have secondhand joy,” she says proudly.

When it comes to making Christmas plans, the Philadelphia Eagles center’s family contends with not only Jason Kelce’s schedule, but that of brother Travis Kelce as well. This year, Christmas Day will see each brother with their respective team playing in back-to-back home games.
“For the most part, we usually try to get as many people together as possible. My parents will usually be there because they don’t live far away. Jason’s dad will usually be over because he’s just around the corner as long as he’s not in Kansas City,” Kylie says. “But Jason’s parents usually try to split the holidays to make sure that one parent is with one brother and one parent is with the other.”

“Every so often we luck out, and we get everyone at the same time. Football kind of throws a wrench in things sometimes,” she admits, noting they’ve had to celebrate holidays before and after their actual dates.

“If Christmas falls in the middle of the week on a Wednesday or Thursday, Jason might have to go into work later, and so we might not be able to do dinner that day. It’s a lot of planning, but we’re super flexible about it. So we’ve had a couple of Christmases that were not actually on Christmas and the same with Thanksgiving.”

While that has its challenges now, Kylie anticipates it may get trickier as their girls get older.
“Wyatt is 4 now, and she, I think, has a little more understanding of what’s going on. We would ultimately love to have Christmas on Christmas and Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, but if it doesn’t work out that way, I do think there will come a time when the context clues will tip her off that it is not happening on the day that it’s supposed to happen,” she laughs.

“But for the most part, right now, we’re still skating by pretty okay with pulling the wool over their eyes and pretending like the holiday is a different day, if necessary.”