JoAnna Garcia Swisher is no stranger to the screen, having starred in major television shows including Reba (2001-2007), Once Upon a Time (2011-2018) and Sweet Magnolias (2020-2023). She’s also starred in films like Revenge of the Bridesmaids (2010) and Hallmark’s As Luck Would Have It (2021).

But Garcia Swisher also has experience as a hostess for the holidays, which, as we all know, can get a little hectic. That’s why the star’s partnership with HoneyBaked Hams is perfect for the upcoming holidays so that she can stay focused on what really matters: friends, family and a delicious dinner.

Woman’s World had a chance to chat with the actress regarding her best tips on how to host the holidays and her favorite family traditions.

WOMAN’S WORLD (WW): What are your best tips for people hosting their own Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner for the first time?

JoAnna Garcia Swisher: I think keeping it simple, concentrating more on the moment rather than everything having to be perfect. And doing anything that you can to take things off of your plate and your to-do list, which is why HoneyBaked Hams are so essential on my table because it’s such a crowd pleaser. It’s the star of the show and HoneyBaked does all the hard work for you.

So, I think really just trying to simplify and making sure that you are concentrating more on the feeling and spending time together than you are on everything being perfect.

I host a lot. It’s one of my favorite things to do. And I find that the more you do it, the more experience you get with timing and all of those kinds of things, knowing exactly how much to buy and what you need. The checklist gets a little bit easier, but I never regret keeping it simple. I never regret taking a few things off of my plate, relying on things that I know are going to be crowd-pleasers.

WW: Do you have any favorite holiday traditions that you experienced growing up and that you’ve continued with your own family or any new ones that you’ve started?

JoAnna Garcia Swisher: Most of our family traditions were centered around the table. My father was Cuban and my mom was an amazing cook from the south, so we had this melding of two different cultures that both have the best food in the world. So, our family recipes and the way that we entertain and the things that we enjoy are really all centered around being together and a great meal, which is why I was so excited when HoneyBaked asked me to partner with them because having their ham on our holiday table is truly very much a tradition that I’ve had my whole life. I actually don’t remember a holiday without a HoneyBaked Ham.

WW: Have you started any of your own traditions that maybe you didn’t do when you were younger?

Garcia Swisher: We like to play a lot of games as a family and we used to have a kickball game, but now we do Minutes to Win It. Christmas Eve is a Noche Buena. It’s like it’s a very big thing for our family. So, we have a ton of people, and we split into big groups and it’s great, because the games can be enjoyed by the littlest members of the family as much as the oldest members of our family.

WW: Do you prefer more of a sit-down, family-style dinner or are you more of a buffet, casual kind of family?

Garcia Swisher: Family style tends to be what we go with, just because long buffet lines are never fun for anybody. We’re by no means stuffy and super formal in the way that we entertain, but sitting down for a meal, all of us being able to gather around a table is super important to me. I’m not into eating with the plate in your hand as you’re standing up, kind of running around. I really like the togetherness of sharing a meal.

WW: What is your first step as you begin to plan your holiday dinner?

Garcia Swisher: I order my food and decide what I’m cooking—I really think about the meal. And then I try to personalize it. Every year, for Christmas specifically, my girls and I, we will make personalized place settings. It could be simple. It could be something like a salt dough, you know, very, very simple things. But something that makes everybody know that they were thought of prior to the meal is really important to me.

I usually start thinking about things about a week in advance and I create a checklist. I will make sure I have my HoneyBaked Ham order and see if there’s anything that I could do the night before so that the day of isn’t stressful at all. It’s a matter of putting things out, making things look pretty and popping a few things in the oven, if necessary, to heat things up. I just kind of start a little bit in advance.

WW: Do you often like to get creative for the holidays?

Garcia Swisher: Yeah, we have Secret Santas and White Elephants, because I really do think that you could get bogged down with the gift-giving and the holiday season. It’s really just about being together and thankfully my family feels similarly and so do my friends.

We’re starting as early as Monday with our holiday traditions. I have a girls’ lunch that we do, we have different dinners that we planned, little parties and things to just make it fun and make memories together.

Source: Woman’s World