Why Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban flew home to Australia with their daughters for Christmas

Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban are preparing to celebrate Christmas Down Under after jetting into Sydney with their daughters Sunday, 14, and Faith, 12, over the weekend. 

And this year’s festivities will be particularly important, as it could be one of the last ones spent with Nicole’s mother Janelle, 81, who has been unwell since January. 

Insiders say Nicole, 55, is aware her time with Janelle is limited and is planning to make this year’s Christmas celebrations particularly memorable. 

In October Keith, 55, told The Daily Telegraph spending this Christmas with his entire family was of utmost importance. 

‘My mum just turned 80 and Nic’s mum … who knows how many Christmases we get with anybody ever, but particularly with our mums, I really cherish that chance to spend Chrissy with them and our family in Aus,’ he said. 

‘Having the kids in there is great but the extended family as well because we don’t have any family in Nashville so it is incredible to have all of the cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody, it is just amazing,’ he added. 

According to New Idea magazine, Nicole and Keith will spend Christmas Day at Balmoral Beach in Sydney’s North Shore, joined by Nicole’s mum and sister Antonia, her six children as well as Keith’s mother Marienne. 

Both Nicole and Keith lost their respective fathers Antony and Bob in recent years. 

Nicole and Keith wasted no time visiting her mother after arriving in Sydney on Sunday, and were pictured outside Janelle’s home with a bag full of gifts just hours after touching down. 

Nicole previously spoke about her mother’s health issues in an interview with the Fresh Air podcast in January. 

The Oscar winner said they’d managed to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales after-hours, where they took in the Matisse: Life & Spirit exhibition, describing it as ‘soothing balm’.

‘We’re down here primarily to take care of my mother and to have her surrounded by her grandchildren,’ she said. 

‘So luckily yesterday, even though Omicron is raging through this country, we were able to take her into the gallery after hours and show her the Matisse exhibit, which coming from a mother who’s raised me in the arts, it was soothing balm. Matisse was soothing balm last night.’ 

Later in the interview, Nicole said she felt privileged to be able to see the world through her mother’s eyes, describing it as ‘so beneficial’. 

‘I’m at the place where I’m being given the chance to view the world, because of how close we are, my mum is giving me the chance to view the world through an 81-year-old woman’s eyes,’ she explained. 

‘That is so beneficial right now, because she’s so cognisant. She has every brain faculty available, so she hasn’t lost anything. She hasn’t lost any memory, which is fascinating, and she’s extremely bright. 

‘She’s giving me access, because she’s also very direct and very honest, and so I’m getting access to the world through her eyes, my mother’s eyes, so therefore a part of me almost at 80.’

She added: ‘It’s her perspective, obviously. There’s many different 80-year-old perspectives, but it’s her perspective, and her particular path, but I’m drinking it in and learning.’ 

In December 2021, the mother-daughter were spotted at the Being the Ricardos premiere in Sydney in mid-December, with the two women appearing together on the red carpet.

Although they didn’t pose for photos together, Nicole made sure her mother was well taken care of, lovingly holding her hand as she chatted to her.