As the Cubs' hitting coach, Anthony Iapoce has been busy this offseason working with new manager David Ross and communicating with the team's hitters in preparation for the 2020 season. He has also been busy getting ready for the holidays with his wife, three young children and relatives in New York. Iapoce took some time recently to chat about the holiday season with MLB.com.

MLB.com: Do you have any family traditions?

Iapoce: I would say we're a long way away from the traditions we used to have as kids. Christmas Eve, it was an Italian fish feast, you know? But we've started creating some traditions on our own. Obviously, we have the Elf on the Shelf, and just normal Christmas stuff. Nothing crazy yet. We're still figuring it out as a family and as the kids get older.

We do the advent calendar with the kids. They can't wait. My daughter, she's seven, she's like, "It's my turn!" (laughs) In our living room -- I guess it could be considered a tradition -- is our Christmas art wall. It's all the things that the kids have done in school over the years, like handprints and things like that. It's a pretty neat wall. I love it.

MLB.com: What about when you were growing up?

Iapoce: Christmas Eve growing up, we used to go to my aunt's in Bayside, Queens. And that was like a joke fest. Every present you opened up was something you got made fun of about or was a joke throughout the year. So you had your real presents, but then your aunts and your uncles, it was basically gag gifts. It was pretty funny.

We still carry that over a little with my sisters. My wife doesn't understand it. She's like, "Why are you getting that for your sister?" I'm like, "Don't worry about it, she'll understand." She's like, "You're giving her open candy." I'm like, "Yeah. I'm going to take a bite of it and wrap it back up. She'll get it."

MLB.com: Do you decorate your house?

Iapoce: Oh yeah. My mom -- she passed away in 2002 -- she used to collect Santas and Precious Moments. She was huge into Precious Moments. So that's one of the things we set out: a Previous Moments nativity set. Our lawn is pretty clean. We just kind of go cool white -- just white on the front of the house. Not too many lights. But [with] some presents lit up, and around the door, and a little Santa Claus. It's very small. It's just white. Nothing crazy. No blow-up stuff. I kind of like it clean. It's easier for me, because I'm on the roof doing it. But in the house, you've got the stockings, you've got the tree, and there's a bunch of stuff that we collect from over the years. We started decorating that [the] weekend after Thanksgiving.

MLB.com: So you wait to decorate until Thanksgiving is over?

Iapoce: Yeah, we love Thanksgiving. There's no presents. You just celebrate with your family. Nobody stresses about what to get anybody, or how we overthink everything about presents. In reality, all we want is to be around each other.

MLB.com: Fake tree or real tree?

Iapoce: Fake, lit tree. Second year. We got it last year. Obviously, you go real tree to start out. Growing up, my mom had to have the biggest tree in Queens. So, my dad would go upstate hunting right after Thanksgiving. Then he'd come back down from upstate New York and cut down a tree and we'd put the tree up in our apartment, and it'd be bent over. It took up half the living room. But it was always a real tree. Now with us, with our family, it's a pre-lit tree. Easy to put together. And we spend the whole day decorating the tree with the kids. I think we only broke two ornaments this year, and it was my wife, out of all people. (laughs) I thought my son would've broken about 15.

MLB.com: Do you have a favorite present from when you were a kid?

Iapoce: I was into Star Wars, obviously. That was coming out. I think my Rocky pajamas. I can remember those. Rocky Balboa pajamas. I wore them like all the time. I remember that. I didn't really get that much baseball equipment for Christmas or anything, but I would get a lot of Yankee things. A lot of Yankee books, a lot of Yankee videos about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It just seemed like whoever's house I went to, somebody would get me something Yankees. I kept a lot of that stuff in case I ever have an office and I could put some old-school stuff out that I've kept over the years.

MLB.com: You were a Yankees fan in Queens?

Iapoce: Yeah, the Mets weren't around, so my family was Yankees fans. The Mets didn't come around until '62, so it was either Yankees or the Dodgers. My mother was from Brooklyn, but everybody else was a Yankee fan. So I think it was just you were born into it, you know?

MLB.com: Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

Iapoce: "Dominick the Donkey." It's the best Christmas song in history. It's the Italian Christmas donkey. Lou Monte. That's a no-brainer. We listen to that all the time. My son, I had to show it to him in July, "Put on the donkey!" There's not even a second place for me. "Dominick the Donkey" blows everyone else away.

MLB.com: How many of Santa's reindeer can you name?

Iapoce: I don't even know how many there are, but I'll name some. You've got Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Comet, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Vixen? Is that seven or eight? I think I said somebody twice. That was almost all of them. I don't know. I did pretty good.

MLB.com: How good are you at wrapping presents?

Iapoce: When I wrap a present, you know it's from me.

MLB.com: Enough said.

Iapoce: (laughs) Yeah. That doesn't mean my wife's like a Macy's gift-wrapper. But when I give a present to somebody, they know I did it. I'd say it's probably like a C. The edges are ruffled. One side's a little bit bigger than the other. The top looks good and the sides. But then you turn it over and it's just [crumpled], taped-together. But they know that I did it.

MLB.com: What's on your wish list this year?

Iapoce: I didn't really ask for anything. The older you get, you're so concerned about the kids and what they want. I know my son, he's into tools right now. My one daughter's into unicorns and rainbows. And our older daughter, right now, is huge into science, rocks, astronomy, stars, everything like that.