“Never Had Regular Christmas”: Savannah James Reveals Xmas Tradition Despite LeBron James’ Demanding NBA Schedule

One of the few cons of being an NBA superstar is having to spend Christmas Day away from their families. Outside of opening night, no other gameday in the season features as many heavyweight clashes as December 25th. The league has made the holiday its marquee event and schedules rivalry games, Finals rematches, and pits the league’s finest against each other on Christmas. LeBron James is in the slightly unfortunate position of never having an off day on Christmas, but his wife Savannah ensures the family doesn’t miss out on celebrating it.

On the Everybody’s Crazy podcast, co-host April McDaniel asked her whether the James clan follows any Christmas tradition. She reminisced about her childhood in Akron and said,

“But when I was younger growing up, we used to do a Christmas morning brunch. Everyone would kind of potluck a brunch, and bring a dish. And then at night, we would eat Chinese food for dinner. So we keep the tradition now in my house.”

Talking about how she has kept the tradition alive in her household, Savannah shared,

“I just kept that tradition going. So every Christmas, we have Chinese food. Every Christmas Day dinner is Chinese.”

At this point, her co-host asked Savannah what happens when LeBron has a road game on Christmas Day. Savannah revealed she does prep work to ensure they can celebrate it together, even if he’s playing in an away game. She said,

“[LeBron having a game at Christmas] has been our whole lives. He’s never not played on Christmas. It’s here, or there, or somewhere… So I would ship all the gifts to the hotel, have them put up a Christmas tree. I had to create Christmas where we were because we weren’t home.”

Over time, she has learned to make the best of a tricky situation and has established customs they can follow regardless of where they are.

She has presumably started prepping for her and the family’s trip to San Francisco, where LeBron and her son Bronny, will suit up for the Lakers on Christmas Day.

LeBron and Curry will go head-to-head on Christmas

For the 18th consecutive season and the 19th time in his career, LeBron James will be in action on Christmas. This year, he’ll face a familiar foe in Stephen Curry and the Warriors. It’s the fifth time James will face Curry on December 25th.

They battled four straight times on Christmas between 2015 and 2018. James won only one of those games. While he may have a poor record against Curry and the Warriors on Christmas, his overall record is pretty decent.

He’s 10-8 and averages 26.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 1.4 steals. The forward has lost his last three Christmas Day games and will be keen to get a win. A win on Christmas will make James the winningest player on Christmas in NBA history, breaking the tie he currently shares with Dwyane Wade.

Celebrating a win with his son on the court would be great before he’s off celebrating the holiday in a hotel room in San Francisco with his family and having Chinese food for dinner.