Despite spending it with his entire family, Sister Wives star Kody Brown was feeling “a little blue” on Christmas Day.
Due to Kody’s pandemic rules for his wives and children, they haven’t been able to spend time together as one family.
Also, living separately in different homes spread across Flagstaff, Kody and his four wives (now three wives since Christine’s split) struggled with planning their holidays.
The Browns spend Christmas together with the entire family on this week’s Sister Wives
In a preview clip from this Sunday’s episode of Sister Wives, the Brown family is able to spend Christmas together under one roof. Janelle, Christine, and their kids agreed to abide by Kody’s rules for two weeks before attending.
The scene opens with Janelle telling cameras during a confessional that she and her kids are headed to Robyn’s house for their “traditional Christmas morning.”
Janelle explained how the Browns usually handle gift-giving among their large family, consisting of one husband, four wives, and 18 children.
“Generally the kids draw names, the adults all give gifts to each other, we all take care of our own children, and then we work on the stockings together,” Janelle explained.
Sadly, Robyn and Kody’s youngest child, Ariella (who is also the youngest of the Brown family’s children), forgot some of her siblings’ names because they had been away from each other for so long.
Due to Kody’s strict protocols, if family members didn’t abide by his list of rules, they weren’t allowed to visit with him in person or see the rest of the family.
This meant that most of the siblings who shared different moms had to socially distance themselves from each other for months.
“It’s interesting and it’s even a little sad that Ariella is forgetting who her brothers and sisters are,” Kody revealed during a confessional.
Meri, the only of Kody’s wives who doesn’t still have any kids living at home, was happy about getting the family together again after spending practically the last year separate from each other.
“It was just really, really, really fun to just actually be together, in each other’s space, and just hanging out with everyone,” Meri shared.
Kody Brown admits he wasn’t feeling ‘that joyful’ on Christmas
For her turn on the confessional couch, Robyn admitted, “Being together for this holiday, it’s kind of melting away some of the hurts and stuff that um, at least for me, that has happened through COVID.”
Kody admitted that his family struggled over the past year, telling cameras, “We’ve had a lot of struggles this year – with COVID, with relationships, the passing of Grandma Sheryl – as a result, I’m a little blue. I’m not really feeling that joyful this Christmas.”
Admitting that they’ve “damaged some relationships,” Janelle was hopeful the family would get back to their standard of normalcy.
Although Christine has since split from Kody, she admitted that her last Christmas spent with the family was a “great” one during her confessional.
“This is definitely the quietest Christmas we’ve EVER had,” Christine admitted. “Overall, I’d say our Christmases are always really good. We just kind of put whatever problems and issues individuals will be having. We just kind of put those aside and just tackle that on another day.
“Let’s just focus on us celebrating together instead,” Christine added. “It was a great Christmas.”
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on TLC and Discovery+.