The Brown Family From 'Sister Wives' Splinters Even More Over the Christmas Exchange Group Text

The Gist:

• The Brown family from Sister Wives has a group text together that includes both the kids and parents.
• The family had a huge disagreement over their annual Christmas gift exchange.
• Robyn Brown and her children consider not participating in the 2023 exchange.

When it comes to the family from TLC’s Sister Wives, they might be the biggest one on television. With 18 children from four women, plus six grandchildren so far, there is never a dull moment.

Case in point, things sometimes get difficult when it comes to family functions because everyone is forced to work around this unique dynamic. One of the most challenging holidays the family experiences is Christmas — and their gift exchange was the most notable example.

Season 18’s Episode 9 let viewers in on the Brown family’s biggest family tradition: a gift exchange. Even though the large group has been doing this for over 20 years, their 2023 gift exchange went haywire, just because of a group text disagreement.

The chat about holiday plans started out between just the kids, until someone added all of the parents into the group, which turned out to be a big mistake. Robyn Brown, the only one of the sister wives still married to Kody, wanted to have the exchange happen over Zoom this year so that everyone could see each other.

Not only was her idea rejected by the others in the group, but Robyn’s daughter claimed that the other siblings were acting standoffish against their entire side of the family, saying that there's some "very strong negative feelings" on their part.

The fallout was far-reaching.

In the same episode, it was revealed that Robyn and her kids will not be participating in the tradition for this year. As far as viewers know, this is the first time an entire side of the family has backed out of the exchange.

“I was pushing for the video chat for the sake of the kids, but after too much pushback, I finally went, ‘Why am I trying here? I’m out, this is an effort in futility,'” Robyn explained.

Besides Aurora sharing that she doesn’t feel very comfortable around the others, it’s unclear how the rest of Robyn’s kids feel about the decision. As far as how the other Browns feel about their dramatic exit, Janelle's son Garrison Brown made sure to say that there are no hard feelings.

“If you wanna come back and participate in this gift exchange with us, you’re always welcome. The arms are open. But if you don’t, then we’re not going to chase,” he added.

Watch Sister Wives on TLC and see how the gift exchange ultimately plays out. Either way, it's clear a lot of traditions will not remain now that the giant family is splintering.