Viral: Cousins surprise California grandparents with Christmas sleepover

LOS GATOS, Calif. – The heartwarming video shows cousin after cousin pouring into Toni and Carroll Blackstock’s living room, surprising the sweet octogenarians with hugs and sleeping bags.

Grandma looks a little confused at first. From his recliner, it takes a minute for Grandpa to figure out what’s going on. 

Viral video

What the video shows is the couple’s grandchildren re-creating the family’s annual tradition of “Grandparents’ Christmas,” held in Los Gatos, Calif. – a few days before Christmas as a nod to their children and love for their grandparents. As of Wednesday, the video that one of the grandchildren, Daniel Miller, 35, of Tracy, Calif., posted on Facebook had more than 12 million views and 111,000 likes. 

“We had no idea that this was going to go viral,” Miller said. “We honestly just made this video for the cousins and the extended family, and obviously, our grandparents to remember the day.” 

The video starts with Miller and his wife walking into his grandparents’ living room. The caption reads: “When you used to sleepover your grandparents house every Christmas with all the cousins, and you surprise them with the same tradition as adults.” 

The song, “Home,” by Phillip Phillips plays in the background. 

Then another cousin rolls in, pillow in tow. Then another. And another. 

“Merry Christmas!” someone shouts. 

Grandma Toni, 86, gets up from her green chair and hugs a grandchild. Grandpa Carroll, 89, beams. 

Then, the video cuts to their annual tradition of making homemade pizza, and the family eating and chatting together.

And then come the hugs.

The cousins planned a T-shirt craft, where they painted their hands and when they hugged each other left their palm prints all over their backs. 

At the end of the video, Grandpa Carroll notes how much love he felt in the room. He and his wife have seven children betwen the two of them and have been married since they were very young. They have 11 great-grandchildren among them. 

Cousins surround Blackstock grandparents in Los Gatos. Photo: Daniel Miller

The backstory

In an interview, Miller explained the backstory of the video.

The tradition of sleeping over at his grandparents’ house started about 25 years ago, when his grandmother organized everything, including the pizzas, since she’s Italian. 

And then after eating, which included drumstick ice cream cones, all 15 cousins would sleep over in the living room with sleeping bags. 

As the cousins grew older, many moved away, others got married, and the sleepover tradition waned.

“We haven’t done this for about six years or so,” Miller said. 

Then Miller’s wife and high school sweetheart, Stephanie, lost her own grandparents recently and planted the idea in his head to revive the family tradition. 

Realizing what you have

Cousins walk into their grandparents’ Los Gatos, Calif. living room. Photo: Daniel Miller 

“She helped me to kind of stop and realize what I have,” Miller said. “Me, a 35-year-old having both grandparents is pretty rare.” 

Miller said he and his wife were also inspired by other Christmas videos on social media and decided to film their surprise. An aunt planned a fake event to look at Christmas lights with Grandma Toni as a ruse. Then, the aunt and the Millers took turns making the video. 

“So, I was the first one that walked in and part of the fun of the video was for her to be confused, right?” Miller recounted. “So it’s like, ‘Hey Grandma, I’m here to spend the night and she’s kind of like, ‘What?’ And then as more and more cousins arrive, it was very quickly, like, ‘Oh, are you guys doing Grandparents Christmas?’ So it clicked, really clicked for her.”

In the end, half of the cousins who came over ended up sleeping over on the floor. 

Miller is thrilled to have made the video and read the sweet comments, now numbering more than 5,000, on his post. If anything, the sleepover made him realize how important it is to put away differences. 

“We put everything aside when it comes to family, especially at the holidays,” he said. “And so, we all have that mutual respect with each other. And I think that’s something that’s very rare nowadays. We know of a lot of families that have a lot of division and we try not to let that happen with our family.”