How the Radio City Rockettes Spend the Holidays When Their Full-Time Jobs Revolve to It (Exclusive)

Between the Secret Santa exchange in the dressing room and the ‘Friendsgiving’ party at Radio City, here’s how the Rockettes are enjoying the holidays between shows

There’s no place like home (and Radio City Music Hall) for the holidays!

For a season often celebrated by spending time with loved ones at home, you might wonder how the Radio City Christmas Spectacular’s Rockettes balance their personal and professional lives when their jobs revolve around the most festive time of the year.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, three Rockettes — Britain Feeny, Alexis Payton and Jordan Betscher — broke down their holiday schedule and explained how they make time for their friends and family while also dazzling the crowds that fill the iconic music hall to see them . performing from November to January – including performances on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

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For Feeny, her “sense of home” comes from loved ones who travel to join her in New York City from her native Toledo, Ohio. “I’m very lucky to have my family visit me during the holidays,” she says, though she notes they won’t be able to come for Thanksgiving this year.

The void, however, will be filled by the familial “environment” that Christmas Specular evokes. “We’re creating a family here,” Feeny says — and even though I can’t see my family at Thanksgiving this year, they’re actually having a dinner upstairs in our big rehearsal room for the whole cast and crew.”

“We come and celebrate Thanksgiving together,” Feeny shares, though she says it can be “hard to get all 84” Rockettes together because of the morning and evening throws. Still, Payton says Friendsgiving at Radio City Music Hall is a “special” tradition they do “every year” to enjoy the holidays.

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“There’s a Friendsgiving, a potluck, something where everyone in the cast and crew can come up in what we call our big rehearsal room and eat together and celebrate,” she explains. “It’s really going to be our home away from home, for sure.”

They even make the most of having shows on Christmas Day as it is the most wonderful time of the year! “A lot of people in their locker room will do Secret Santa and hang out with their people here,” Payton says. “This really becomes your family,” Feeny adds.

Betscher, who considers the Rockettes her “real sisters,” notes that they will also venture outside Radio City Music Hall to celebrate. “We might choose a different occasion every single week to have a little friendship party or just a little get-together… it’s really that special,” she says.

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For the holidays themselves, Payton’s family will join her in Manhattan. “Growing up, Thanksgiving and Christmas were the two big holidays that I spent with my family — but (they’ve) been great. They come up and see the show.”

Turkey Day will be a little different for Payton’s family because she wants to make her Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut this year as she performs on the city streets outside the famous flagship store on 34th Street in New York City.

“They’re actually going to see me perform,” Payton enthuses. “So to be able to have those new memories and create those new memories with them, it just keeps it special and amazing for me as well,” she explains, noting that she will have three more shows to perform after the parade.

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As for Betscher, coming to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is a family affair in more ways than one because her sibling is also a Rockette! She says they’ve “come in every single year” since her sister joined the cast.

“I’m really thankful that I have my sister with me this holiday season,” Betcher says. “We actually live together so I can have a little piece of home with my sister. I always have my family with me.”

Betcher, who is in her eighth season as a Rockette, says she was actually “inspired” by her sister to pursue the dream. “She’s been a Rockette for 12 years. I saw her for the first time when I was 16 years old and I just remember being in awe of the women on stage,” she recalls.

“They had so much power, so much grace, and I knew I had to be up there one day,” Betcher says, explaining how she auditioned “a few years later” at 18. “(My sister) is actually here, still a Rockette — and last season we kicked next to each other in the lineup. It was really great.”

She concludes, “We literally had each other’s backs, and it was really incredible.”