BOSTON -- Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy has lived in Boston for nearly his entire life. He’s a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to the holiday season.

Just before the Christmas rush, Kennedy spent time with MLB.com to talk about his favorite holiday rituals and memories.

MLB.com: As a Boston-bred guy, what are your best childhood memories of Christmas?

Kennedy: It was a huge deal in our house. My dad was an Episcopal priest, so we had work on Christmas Eve. It was always a big deal getting past the midnight service and then the festivities could begin.

It was always focused around baseball and every gift seemed to be Red Sox-themed or related. The things that come to the top of my mind is [Peter] Gammons’ “Beyond the Sixth Game” book. That was a big deal, pre-internet, pre-Amazon. Of course, I would beg, borrow and plead Santa for Opening Day tickets, which rarely arrived. One or two years it actually happened, so those are probably the fondest memories for me.

MLB.com: What is one of your favorite Christmas traditions?

Kennedy: We have this group of families that all grew up in Boston together. We all grew up in the South End and then made the migration to Brookline and the three families are the Kennedys, the Crawfords and the Campbells. Believe it or not, that group has been getting together now for a pre-Christmas holiday party for I think about 45 years probably. We always get together on the 22nd or 23rd.

You’d be shocked to know it’s a bunch of preachers and their kids, so we’re all a little crazy, as you can imagine. There’s no gift exchange except for one gift. Everybody kind of brings a gag gift and you wrap it up and you never know what you’re going to get. Some things get recycled from 30 years, basically a way to clean out your basement. I think it’s an old New England tradition called Yankee Swap.

MLB.com: What is the best gift you ever brought to that party?

Kennedy: Back in 2004, that fall/winter we were all sort of allowed a half a day with the trophy. In Christmas of ’04, I actually wrapped up the World Series trophy and used my half a day on December 23 or 22 to bring that to the party. It was cool. We opened it up and people were obviously stunned and we got to take photos with it. It was a really cool memory.

If you remember, we stole the Stanley Cup tradition of everyone getting a little bit of time with the trophy, and Larry Lucchino came up with the cool idea to take it to 351 cities and towns the whole following year. That thing made it everywhere, including the CCK annual holiday party, so that was really appreciated.

MLB.com: Can you ever remember spending a Christmas out of Boston?

Kennedy: Pretty much always home since the kids have been born. Of course we had the San Diego [Padres] years, but even then, I think we’ve been home. I can’t remember a Christmas I’ve been outside of Boston. It’s definitely a tradition. For my dad, it was always a working holiday, it’s always been incredibly busy. But it’s great.

MLB.com: How old are your kids now, and how has the holiday season dynamic changed for you guys over the years?

Kennedy: Our kids are 16 and 14. The days of being done with Christmas morning by 6:45 a.m. are thankfully over. In our house, we live by the motto, if you don’t believe, you don’t receive, so we’ve tried to keep it going to a point of kind of ridiculousness now, but it’s great. I’m really lucky my parents are still around in the house I grew up in, so we go over there and it’s a lot of fun.

It’s a crazy, stressful time of year for parents. I always remember my parents being stressed out thinking, what are they stressed about? It’s the best time of year. It’s amazing. Vacation, you get to see your friends, get to open presents. But you’re trying to finish out the year with budgets and payroll decisions and year-end job reviews and all that so it’s a little hectic, but it’s great and I still really enjoy it.

MLB.com: Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Kennedy: It’s funny, we’re more of a Christmas morning kind of family, given my parents’ traditions, but my wife grew up in New York City where not only do they open and kind of give presents to each other on Christmas Eve, but there wasn’t a lot of wrapping going on, which I always thought was very strange. We’ve sort of balanced it. There’s a little bit of both going on right now.

MLB.com: Going back to your childhood, what’s the present you were most excited about getting?

Kennedy: That’s a good question. I’d have to say, one year, my dad came up with the idea to write a letter to us, which was a commitment to go to Opening Day. We didn’t have the hard tickets because that’s not the way it worked back in those days. We didn’t have Sox Pax! He would do that because the clergy pass that he had wouldn’t come until right around the week of Opening Day, and that only allowed one or two people to get in. I really did look forward to that -- the anticipation of a new season coming.

MLB.com: Anything stand out gift-wise as an adult?

Kennedy: Each year, when we’ve had the good fortune of a World Series, the best gift we’ve received as a family is Linda Henry has put together an incredible picture book, sort of recap of championship seasons and it’s pretty remarkable and it just sort of brings back all the memories from the year. It’s unbelievable the amount of time and dedication she puts into it, and that’s probably the most meaningful because you just look back over the course of the year and I’ve always looked forward to that because you have Christmas Day to reflect and be with family and tell stories through photos. That’s always been amazing. Unfortunately, we won’t be getting one of those this year! But over in Liverpool, they’ll be receiving Champions League memories I’m sure.

MLB.com: Are you an online shopper, or do you brave the stores?

Kennedy: I’m an old-fashioned, leave it to the last minute, go out and battle either at Prudential Center or the Natick Mall. Those are my two stops. I love going there because you can get stuff and there’s usually a charitable location where you can pay a donation to a charity and get someone to wrap the gifts for you. That is my absolute favorite thing, so I try to knock it out in like a day and a half. It’s tricky. It’s a lot harder to shop for 14- and 16-year-olds than when the kids are little and you can buy a bunch of toys. It gets harder and harder every year.

MLB.com: A lot of people in baseball say that once the holidays are over, they really start getting the itch to get back at it in Spring Training. Do you fall under that category?

Kennedy: I’m such a homer and such a huge Bruins and Celtics and Patriots fan that it’s around the holidays that I really start to get into the Boston teams. For me, Christmas in December is sort of synonymous with the playoff stretch for the Patriots. I’m more focused on being in the moment with the Boston teams, especially the last 15 years, it’s been amazing. That’s sort of the stretch -- December and January. Then definitely in February we get the itch to get down. I know how long and grueling the season is, so I can’t say I get the itch to get going until February.