Hilary Duff Knows the ‘Holiday Load’ for Moms Is Real—A Morning Routine Helps

Hilary Duff has some serious holiday spirit bona fides. The actress, singer, entrepreneur, and mom has a certified Gold Christmas album Santa Clause Lane, after all! These days, she takes center stage at home, as chief executive of the holiday season for her four children–aged seven months to 12 years–and husband.

“Christmas is a big deal in our house,” Duff tells W+G, while discussing how she is using Meta AI to help her manage holiday prep. The tool saves her time on everything from generating shopping lists to preparing for meetings.

While making Christmas magical is a labor of love, Duff is clear-eyed about the work involved, particularly for moms. A recent Today.com survey of readers found that moms “bear the brunt of holiday prep” 97 percent of the time. That’s a feeling Duff knows all too well.

“One hundred percent, it is all on the mother,” Duff says. “It’s just this very long, drawn-out process that can steal joy from you during that time of year.”

Even in this day and age, the mental load, especially during the holidays, is unfortunately all too real for moms.

“No matter how you slice it, the holidays are going to be hard for a mom,” Duff says. “But isn’t everything hard for us?”

Duff thinks this workload expectation is not isolated to the holidays, though. After the holidays there’s planning for spring break, after-school activities, summer camp… “It’s a snowball effect,” Duff says. And not in the winter wonderland kind of way.

Finding ways to deal is a necessity—for you, for me, and for Hilary Duff.

Hilary Duff’s morning routine to stave off holiday stress

The practical and the personal can play a role in mitigating the stress. To streamline her to-do list, Duff has been asking Meta AI for help with gifting—what does a 12-year-old boy like Duff’s son want for Christmas these days? She also reminds herself that even if she might feel responsible for holiday joy, she is not in charge of other people’s emotions. No easy feat, but she tries to acknowledge “that everyone’s happiness does not depend on you, and try to take some of that burden away from yourself.”

Most of all, in the morning she focuses on time with her family and friends before the busy business of life takes over. It’s chaotic, but it’s full of love. Here’s how Hilary Duff gets her day started.

She takes a moment for herself—and her skin

“[The baby] is usually up at 6: 00 a.m. And I’m like, uh uh, no no no. But then I’m up at 6:15. I do wake up dry, so I spritz a quick thing on my face from Osea, and then I use an intensive moisture cream from SkinCeuticals that I have been using forever and I love it. And I literally just do it super fast and I throw my hair into a knot. I don’t brush my teeth yet because I have to have my coffee. So then I go get my baby and we go downstairs.”

• Osea Sea Minerals Mist ($38)
• SkinCeuticals Emollience ($78)

Then, she gets coffee, stat

“I have two coffees I love. If I’m doing cold, I do this instant coffee from Blue Bottle that’s incredible. Then I also do Nespresso pods if I’m having hot coffee.”

• Blue Bottle Craft Instant Espresso ($30.20)
• Nespresso Vertuo Next Coffee and Espresso Maker by Breville (Originally $180, now $105)
• Nespresso Capsules – Pack of 30 ($37.50)

Once caffeinated, it’s play and prep time with family

“I’ve been having a good 30 to 40 minutes with my baby before the mad rush begins, and it’s been so nice because there’s honestly days that go by where I see her first thing in the morning and then I don’t see her until bedtime at night.

We play with all the usual suspects, like blocks. We also have a Skip Hop activity center that she goes in for about four and a half minutes before she gets bored. She also loves that little kale leaf [baby teether]. I’m obsessed with it, so I’m like, you’re going to be obsessed with it, too.

So we have a hang out and then it’s like packing lunches, getting kids fed, and my husband and I are just doing that dance and that balance throughout the house, getting everybody ready to get out the door.”

• Skip Hop Baby Activity Center (Originally $142, Now $106)
• Kendall the Kale Baby Teether ($22)

She hits the gym (or the courts)

“Around 10 or 11, I try to get exercise when the baby goes down for her first nap. I do have a gym here, and sometimes I try to make it a social hour and work out with my friends! This morning I got to play pickleball, which was so nice. I wore Alo gear.”

• Alosoft Courtside Tennis Dress ($118)

Finally, it’s time to get down to business

“Then I’m fielding emails all day long and handling stuff in my house, prepping for the holidays with help from Meta AI, prepping for dinner before all the activities begin in the evening. And that’s another craze until we just hit the bed.”

• Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses ($299-$379)