Olympic Figure Skating Champion Tara Lipinski Shares Her Ultimate Holiday Decorating Rules Ahead of HGTV’s ‘Big Bargain Holiday Showdown’

Olympic figure skating champion Tara Lipinski is diving headfirst into some of the most spirited and divisive holiday decorating debates of all time as she steps into her newest role as host of HGTV’s upcoming competition series, "Big Bargain Holiday Showdown."

The 44-year-old athlete, who captured hearts worldwide by earning the gold medal in women’s singles at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, is opening up about her own personal holiday traditions and decorating philosophies. Ahead of the highly anticipated premiere of her new six-episode competition series on November 10, Lipinski shared her strict rules and whimsical preferences with Realtor.com, covering everything from the socially acceptable timeline for putting up festive displays to the eternal debate over multicolor versus monotone Christmas lights.

In her new hosting gig, Lipinski maintains a neutral position as she oversees a high-stakes, holiday-themed design battle. The show pits two teams of everyday family members, friends, and neighbors against each other in a creative showdown. Armed with just 48 hours and a modest budget of $500, the competing teams must completely overhaul a single room in their respective homes, transforming ordinary spaces into festive winter wonderlands.

To help the contestants pull off their ambitious room makeovers, DIY experts Ashley Dixon and Clinton Tharp are on hand to guide them through the heavy lifting before final evaluation. Once the dust settles, professional designers Stephen Brown and Pelar Fullilove step in to judge the completed spaces, ultimately crowning a winner who takes home a coveted $2,000 cash prize. While Lipinski remains strictly impartial on the show itself, she is more than willing to share her unapologetic opinions when it comes to her own domestic holiday preparations.

Chief among her personal holiday rules is a timeline that many traditionalists might find fiercely controversial. While countless households wait until the final turkey leftovers are cleared away, Lipinski proudly marches to the beat of her own festive drum.

"I know it’s very controversial, but I am starting to decorate this week. I am skipping Thanksgiving," Lipinski tells Realtor.com, explaining that her enthusiasm for Yuletide cheer cannot be contained by traditional calendar milestones. "The older I get, the wider the window has become. I really don’t think it can be too early. It’s just so fun to walk into your house when it’s full of Christmas lights and so cozy and idyllic and warm. … I like to stretch it as much as I can. That’s why in November, you have a ton of time, you can just relish in it."

Lipinski is quick to clarify that skipping the pre-holiday decorating window does not mean she abandons Thanksgiving altogether. She still takes the time to carefully set a beautiful table to host family and friends for the autumn holiday. However, the moment Thanksgiving concludes, it is officially jingle all the way through the remainder of the calendar year, right up until the start of the New Year.

When January finally arrives, the Olympic champion is just as decisive about when the magic must come to an end. Unlike some decorators who let their pine needles dry out well into the new year, Lipinski prefers a swift and decisive transition back to normalcy. She notes that she used to take everything down immediately because she genuinely grows a bit tired of the endless array of ornaments and glowing bulbs once the actual holidays have passed. In her view, homeowners are granted a grace period of roughly one week after the festivities wrap up before they need to zip everything back into storage boxes.

Inside the residence she shares with her husband, Todd Kapostasy, and their 3-year-old daughter, Georgie, the holiday magic is never confined to just a single room. Instead, the family spreads the festive spirit across multiple spaces, tailoring the aesthetic of each room to create distinct atmospheres.

"We usually go for a more traditional Christmas, the classic, the red, the green," Lipinski shares, describing the warm and nostalgic vibe of their main living areas. "Other rooms, we change it up. We do our bedroom a whole winter wonderland, white and gold and silver. And then Georgie, my daughter’s room, we do a really fun pink Christmas so we can branch out."

She notes that their overarching approach to interior seasonal design has naturally evolved over the years, characterized by a constant process of adding new statement pieces and occasionally subtracting older items that no longer fit the vision. Yet, amid all the aesthetic experimentation, there remains one sacred tradition that has never once changed: the Christmas tree.

While the family utilizes a collection of convenient artificial trees to fill various corners of the house, Lipinski insists that their main centerpiece must always be the real deal. This commitment to a living evergreen is a cherished ritual spearheaded by her husband.

"We have a lot of artificial trees in the house, but for the one in the living room, our main one, we do a real one," says Lipinski. "My husband loves that, so that’s been his thing since we got married. We’ve always done a real tree. It’s fun. That day we make it a tradition and get dressed up in our Christmas outfit and we go and pick out a tree and make it festive."

While the decision to invest in a real tree for the living room has always been unanimous, the couple has not always agreed on every single detail of holiday ornamentation. In fact, Lipinski admits that she and her husband have previously found themselves locked in intense household debates over the finer points of tree trimming.

"My husband and I have gotten into a full-blown argument about the amount of Christmas lights that need to be on a tree," she recalls with a laugh. She notes that her husband has finally learned his lesson through years of marital negotiation and now fully understands that the tree must be covered down to every single inch.

As for another classic domestic debate—whether Christmas tree lights should feature a string of assorted bright colors or a sophisticated, uniform monotone white—Lipinski takes a flexible approach that depends entirely on the room’s overarching design theme.

"I like it to be the multicolored ones. That’s my go-to. Although the ones in my bedroom, since it’s all the white theme, we do just the white," she explains, balancing her nostalgic love for vibrant color with the elegant restraint required for a winter wonderland retreat.

Lipinski’s deep-seated passion for meticulous holiday home design is not a recent development, nor is it a fleeting hobby. She has been refining her decorating techniques for decades, a pursuit she directly attributes to the lifelong inspiration she received from her mother while growing up.

"My mom was meant to be an interior designer, so I grew up with someone who was constantly making our house a home and making it so special, that loves decorating, and I have that same gene," she shares proudly.

That inherited creative gene extends far beyond simple wintertime celebrations. Lipinski describes her household as being comprised of true holiday enthusiasts who maintain an entire off-site storage unit dedicated exclusively to seasonal decor. Because they enthusiastically decorate their home for every single holiday throughout the year, she feels that hosting HGTV’s festive competition series is an organic fit for her personality and background. Reflecting on her extensive career spanning competitive athletics, broadcasting, and entertainment, she jokes that her mother will likely be most proud of this specific television project because it aligns so perfectly with her genuine passions.

The annual undertaking of unboxing, arranging, and displaying hundreds of festive items has officially transformed into a beloved multi-generational family event. Rather than tackling the massive decorating project alone, Lipinski looks forward to an established routine that brings her entire immediate family together under one roof.

"What’s fun is my mom and dad still come over, and they decorate with me," says Lipinski. "My dad’s the handy one and my mom is so creative. I couldn’t do it without them. We pull out the boxes, we put on Christmas music, we have some hot cocoa, and we decorate together. It’s really become a tradition, and now [with] my daughter, it feels like the three generations all together doing it still."

This deeply ingrained family dedication to the art of holiday crafting is already rubbing off on the youngest member of the household. Lipinski observes with a mixture of amusement and motherly pride that her 3-year-old daughter is rapidly developing the exact same enthusiasm for seasonal pageantry.

"The art of decorating, making it special, and doing it with family is what I’m passing down to my daughter—and that we do it together. She loves it," shares Lipinski. "This year, she’s finally really clocking what Christmas is. When I told her it’s time to decorate, her eyes lit up, and I just thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I’m creating a little monster here.’"

As Lipinski prepares for her own family decorating sessions this season, she plans to incorporate fresh ideas and creative tricks picked up from the talented contestants on her new show. Witnessing how everyday designers maximize spatial layouts and utilize unexpected elements—such as creatively dressing up architectural fixtures like chandeliers—has left her feeling deeply inspired.

"Really opening your mind … the way they utilize the space of the room, like using the chandelier, there were some really beautiful entries," she reflects. "It felt super immersive and even more magical, so I’m going to try to up the ante this year on my own Christmas decorating from learning those things."

"Big Bargain Holiday Showdown" premieres on November 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV, with new episodes becoming available to stream the following day on HBO Max.