LOS ANGELES—How do you celebrate the holidays when your brood comes from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Namibia, Vietnam and France?

Brad Pitt reveals how. Miley Cyrus, Beyonce Knowles, Daniel Craig, Reese Witherspoon and Anne Hathaway also share their plans on how they will celebrate Christmas. The stars answered this question during our recent press cons with them.

Brad Pitt

It was an early Christmas in the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie household last Jan. 11 when the dad and mom of six kids got acting nominations in the Golden Globe Awards. In a family with children born in different continents, including Africa, Brad had this to say about the Jolie-Pitts’ multicultural holiday plans:

“We’re trying to work in Kwanzaa. But what worked better for us was traveling to everyone’s respective countries of origin, which the kids embrace very early on and have a great understanding of. We’re still shaping a ceremony. We have some ideas but let me keep them as ideas right now because they’re still forming.”

Beyonce Knowles

The singer, who continues her foray into acting with “Cadillac Records,” will also try to invade another field these holidays—cooking. Beyonce is in the cast of “Cadillac…,” a drama on the rise and fall of Cadillac Records, which launched the careers of such music greats as Etta James (whom she plays), Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.

“One thing I am doing for the first time is cooking,” said the diva who recently came up with an alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to showcase her sassy side. “I’m the worst. I’ve been working since I was 13. I’ve been touring. I haven’t had the time to be at home and learn the simple things. Now, I’m trying to spend more time at home. I’m from Texas and my mother cooks spicy Cajun Turkey. She’s like, ‘You’re 27 years old. This is a shame. You have to learn how to cook.’ So this year it’s going to be my first time. Hopefully, my family will still be well and alive after (they eat what I cooked) (laughter).”

She added, “My family is always together and we have a good meal. We try not to talk about business because my father is my manager and my mother is my partner in my clothing line. Everyone else in the family also works with me. So it’s hard sometimes for us to say, ‘Okay, listen, don’t ask me anything but family right now.’ That’s our rule during the holidays.

Does she sing at these holiday gatherings? “Usually, not,” the glamorous songstress answered. “That’s the last thing I want to do. I just want to relax. Usually, I want to be spoiled. My mother fixes the best food. I can have my socks on and watch TV. But this time, I’m going to try to pitch in and make more than ice water—what I am very good at (laughter).”

Anne Hathaway

It was quite a year for the actress who once memorably played the assistant of a Prada-wearing devil. While she is receiving the best reviews in her career this year, thanks to her Golden Globe-nominated performance as an addict on furlough from rehab in “Rachel Getting Married,” Anne had to deal with the sentencing of her ex-boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, to prison for four and a half years for fraud. She got caught in a media circus over the case involving her Italian lover, with whom she was involved in a serious relationship for four years.

The star of the two hit “The Princess Diaries” films revealed how she intends to cap the bittersweet year: “I am planning to spend the holidays with friends. We might just rent a house in an undisclosed location, listen to music and dance. Maybe drink a little champagne.”

Sounding wiser indeed from the controversy, Anne said, “My New Year’s resolution is to not slow down but to do things in an easier way, to push the easy button more in my life. I feel that so far, I’ve had a really good life but my approach has been to do everything myself. My resolution is to lean on other people more. You need to lean on people and let people lean on you. My New Year’s resolution is to find a better balance between a give and a take.”

Daniel Craig

Fresh from the most successful opening of any James Bond ever, Daniel Craig said however that he’d like to relax and not think about a movie called “Quantum of Solace” this Christmas. Besides, he has a new film, “Defiance,” a true story-based action-drama about three Jewish brothers who fled from the Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarusian forest, where they formed a band of resistance fighters.

“Everybody wants to enjoy the holidays, reconnect with our families and remember what life is about because we’ve been living and breathing this movie (‘Quantum’) for about two years so we need a break. I’m going to have a vacation because in the New Year, we start selling ‘Defiance’ in Europe.”

Daniel declared that “it’s a little premature” to talk about the next 007 movie. The Brit is truly intent on savoring his break.

Reese Witherspoon

Critics slammed Reese Witherspoon’s “Four Christmases” but she solidified her reputation as one of the most bankable actresses in Hollywood when the comedy with Vince Vaughn did surprisingly well nevertheless at the box office.

Since she did not get a box-office turkey, Reese offered this instead as the most embarrassing holiday gift she received: workout pants. The “Legally Blonde” star clarified, “I got workout pants from a boyfriend I was dating once. I thought, ‘Is it a hint, a compliment—what does it all mean?’ Tight workout pants. Those little short ones that you wear on the bike. That gift just did not bode well for a good relationship.”

The Oscar and Golden Globe Award winner for “Walk the Line,” who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana but was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, also shared the most memorable gift.

She recounted, “My father was a doctor in Tennessee when we were young. Sometimes, when his patients couldn’t pay him, they would kill things in their backyard and give them to him like a deer, a dove or something. One year, a man brought him a dead squirrel and a dead raccoon (laughter). My father put them in the freezer. The man thought that was like a really nice thing to give to somebody. He’d skinned them and the whole thing because apparently, it’s what some people eat. My brother and I were so scared of them. We were afraid to go near the freezer because my dad kept them in there for three years. We’d dare each other to touch them and look at them. It was very scary.”

Reese disclosed what she herself prefers to give as gifts: “I like to give plants. I know that sounds really boring. But I like to give lemon trees and other trees that bear fruit. Fruit trees are really nice gifts to give because they keep on giving and they’re not something that’s just taking up space. They’re nice things to have in your garden.”

She added, “For me, a big part of Christmas is being with my family. My wishes for everyone in the world are beyond the things that are happening in our lives. Hopefully, they can hold onto the closeness they have with their families and their communities. I felt very inspired by (US President-elect) Barack Obama’s victory speech calling for service—what can you do for other people, not what can you do for yourself. It’s all about helping other and reconnecting with your communities.”

Reese, who is dating actor Jake Gyllenhaal, shared a holiday anecdote about her two kids with ex-husband Ryan Philippe—Ava Elizabeth, 9, and Deacon Phillippe, 5: “They know I’m going to do something to embarrass them. I always have a caroling party every year. People come over and we sing Christmas carols around a piano. People really have fun with that. So the kids know that I’m going to definitely embarrass them by making them sing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’ ”

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus, another star who was raised in Nashville, also dreams of returning there for Christmas. The “Hannah Montana” star recently earned her first Golden Globe nomination—a Best Original Song nod—for “I Thought I Lost You,” which she composed with Jeffrey Steele for Disney’s “Bolt,” in the running for the Globes’ Best Animated Feature Film.

Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter, a millionaire at 16, talked about her simple holiday wish: “I just want to go home to Nashville, spend a couple of weeks there, get my feet back on the ground for a little while and go ride my horses. That’s my wish and hopefully, that’s what I get to do. It was really refreshing when I was there recently for the Country Music Awards. I got up and I rode for a little while with my sister and one of my best friends. It was really nice. I hope I get to do that a little more around Christmas time.

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.