BREAKING NEWS: Dad Has Been Surprising Daughter, Now 18, with a New Dress Every Christmas. He Hopes to Keep the Tradition Going ‘Forever’ .giang

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Mark Mabry isn’t a big traditions guy, but there’s one that’s become a big part of his life.

As a child, every year for Christmas, Mark’s parents surprised his sisters with a new dress each to wear that day. So, when Mark welcomed his daughter, Ava, with his wife in 2006, he thought it would be fun to keep this ritual alive.

For her first Christmas, Mark, now 47, shopped around and purchased a red dress for Ava to wear to church, along with festive shoes and a red diaper cover. The next year, he went back to find another dress. While he and his wife Tara, are inseparable, every year, when he goes to pick out the dress, he goes alone.

Now, 18 years later, the dress reveal has become a staple of the family’s holiday festivities, which Ava, a singer-songwriter in Franklin, Tenn., looks forward to opening all year.

“This is Janie and Jack, and it’s my favorite,” Mark tells PEOPLE exclusively on Zoom, while holding up a tiny dress. “It was the first year that I splurged on a dress and was like, ‘Wow, that’s kind of an expensive dress.’ But then it locked in. I was like, ‘This is worth kind of sacrificing for.’ “

“It’s kind of fun because I don’t know what I am going to be wearing the next day,” Ava adds. “I get up and then my mom’s like, ‘You should put your hair in a ponytail.’ Before this year, because the dress was short, my mom was like, ‘You should self tan’. “

Last year, after opening her 17th dress, Ava decided to film an OOTD with her dad and share it on TikTok. While she’d never posted about the tradition online, she thought it might fun way inspire others to start similar traditions with their families.

To her surprise, the video went viral, amassing millions of views and hundreds of comments.

“It’s funny because people were commenting and asking if there was ever a dress I hated,” she says. “There’s never had one that I’m like, ‘Oh, I hate that dress.’ But I’ve definitely had dresses where I’m like, ‘This is so my dad’s style, and it’s not necessarily my style, but I love it because it is so my dad.’ “

“People are like, ‘How do you let your dad pick?’ ” Mark chimes in. “Here’s the cheat code. If it looks good on the mannequin or if it’s even on a mannequin, you’re kind of safe because you’re not picking it. The stylist from Anthropologie is picking.”

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After going viral, Mark says he took some time to read through the comments. Many of them broke his heart.

“Some of them they’re like, ‘My dad would never,’ and ‘My dad doesn’t even call me on Christmas,’ ” he continues. “Most of the dads I know are good dads. But man, when you have a dad that’s not, it hurts and it’s not fair. People deserve somebody to love.”

“When she moves out and gets married, I’ll want to still do it and have it be something that I do forever,” Mark adds. “This might be my only tradition and I just love it and I hope it can be something that I just keep doing that’ll bring us together. Wherever she moves, wherever she goes, it’ll bring us together.”

Every year along with the dress, Mark also always gifts Ava an accessory. In the past these have included a coat, bucket hat or shoes. In 2024, in addition to the dress and some tights, he surprised her with a pair of silver Coach shoes.

The family has kept all the dresses, along with the accessories, from throughout the years. Until recently, Mark and Tara had framed Ava’s first red dress. More recent items, which still fit Ava, she keeps in her closet, and often rewears.

“I feel like over the past few years my dad has gathered a sense of what I feel confident in,” Ava explains.

However, “I remember the year he got me the bucket hat. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh’ I have to wear this, I never wear hats,” she continues. “Now I bring that hat on every trip that we go on because it’s so warm and I feel so cute in it. I would’ve never thought that I would’ve felt cute in it. So it’s like my dad knows me so well and he was just like, she will love this, but it’s going to take some convincing.”

But while Ava has learned to trust that her dad will pick out something she’ll like, it hasn’t stopped her from dropping subtle hints about brands — Anthropologie, Free People — or shoes she really wants.

“That’s the worst thing to do if you want this thing,” Mark says, chuckling, and adding that this year, for the first time, he ordered the dress online.