Alicia Dougherty tells PEOPLE how she handles the holidays with her family of 13

Buying presents and getting Christmas dinner together can be a lot for anyone — but what if you have 11 kids?

Alicia Dougherty, who shares life with her family of 13 on social media under the handle the Dougherty Dozen, tells PEOPLE that even though holidays might require a little extra planning in her house, she’s still procrastinates just like anyone else.

“We are definitely procrastinators when it comes to holiday shopping,” she admits. “We start about two weeks before Christmas.”

Alicia and her husband, Josh, have four biological children — Zoey, 13, Dash, 11, Bodhi, 9, and Harlee, 7 — and have adopted seven children — Alex, 19, James, 18, Patrick, 17, Bree, 14, and 11-year-old twins Jordan and Jason.

In 2022, Alicia, 45, and Josh, 46, also welcomed 16-year-old Dayshawn into their family.

The proud mom says that she typically asks for wishlists from every kid and tries to get through everyone’s lists for Christmas.

“We enjoy doing our shopping in person, and then whatever we can’t find we order from Amazon,” she explains. “Our top places to shop at for Christmas are Kohl’s, Costco and Eastview Mall [in Rochester, N.Y.]. I also try to order from some small businesses as well.”

Of course, Alicia doesn’t weather the shopping by herself. This year, she’s enlisting the help of one of her older kids.

“This year, Alex is helping me with the Mall haul. It’s a struggle carrying all the bags, so I enlisted him as reinforcement,” says Alicia. “Josh likes to do the Costco haul with me. Other than that, I do all the sorting and wrapping by myself.”

As for Christmas itself, Alicia says her family has a few traditions they do every year.

“On Christmas Eve, we get McDonald’s and drive around to look at Christmas lights,” she says. “The McDonald’s tradition started 10 years ago when the ‘triplets’ — our adopted twins and biological son — were toddlers and we were burnt out and exhausted.”

“Our oldest two said, ‘Why don’t we just get McDonald’s?’ And so we did, and it became a tradition after that,” adds Alicia. “On Christmas, we stay home and watch old-fashioned Christmas movies with the fireplace going all day.”

Those films include White Christmas, Holiday Inn, It’s A Wonderful Life, Bells of Saint Mary’s and Miracle on 34th Street.

For Christmas dinner, the family gets a special treat to enjoy as friends and family visit throughout the day.

“We always get a honey baked ham and set out all our favorite foods throughout the day: pumpkin chocolate chip bread, german pancakes, sushi, subs and charcuterie and snack trays. Family and friends stop by throughout the day and we graze on the buffet from morning to night,” she explains.

This year, Alicia says she’s just looking forward to spending time with her loved ones on Christmas.

“I’m most looking forward to having the whole family together on Christmas,” she tells PEOPLE. “With our oldest becoming adults, we don’t always have all the kids home at the same time. It will be nice to feel complete.”