Savannah Guthrie Shares Why Christmas Holds Special Meaning After Losing Dad at 16

Savannah Guthrie is making sure to share her reason for the Christmas season with her two children.

The Today show anchor, 50, says the holiday holds poignant meaning — and memories — for her.

"The fact that I lost my dad when I was 16 makes Christmas even more special to us, because it was his holiday and that's how we felt and that's how he felt," the TV personality says. "I think we hold on to Christmas even harder now, because it's a tie to him and a tie to the past and to our memories."

She adds, "So Christmas just absolutely lives in my heart and lives in our family and I will spend every minute I have making sure my kids feel that magic, too."

For Guthrie, who shares daughter Vale, 9, and son Charley, 7, with husband Mike Feldman, her feelings about the holiday reflect both her close ties with her family and her faith.

"My father would always gather us around and we would read the Christmas story in the Bible and we always really loved that, because I think it connected us to the holiday in a really spiritual and significant way," she shares in the TODAY All Day streaming special, Holidays in My House.

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Yet, along with the Bible lesson, Guthrie also got a dose of her doting dad's sense of humor.

Each year on the holiday — which was also his birthday — her dad Charles would at first tell Savannah and her siblings that they couldn't open a Christmas Eve present, only then to give in and let them each open one.

"We would open up a present and he'd say, 'Let's open them all!' and then we'd say 'No Dad, no, we have to wait until Christmas!'" she says. "That was just a really sweet tradition we had with my dad."

In a touching tribute last year when she turned 50, the star acknowledged her father, who did not live to celebrate the milestone.

"And not far from mind or heart ever, ever: my dear daddy, Christmas baby like me," she said. "He never turned 50 from 49. But tonight I have! So I treasure this gift of life and remember you always. And thank God for a half-century of his kindness and grace and blessing."