Bruce Willis’ Family Wants an ‘Extra Special’ Christmas This Year: They’re ‘Focused’ on ‘Quality Time’

He was surrounded by love. In a pair of photos jointly posted by Tallulah and Scout Willis on Instagram on November 28, their father, Bruce, sits between them, smiling and holding a “Best Dad Ever” plaque as they gaze at him. Their simple caption for the Thanksgiving moment? “Grateful.”

That’s a sentiment the whole family have learned to embrace during Bruce’s brave fight with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). “Holidays are hard,” his wife, Emma Heming, has said, but now, a year-and-a-half after Bruce’s heartbreaking diagnosis, she reveals, “I have so much more hope. I have hope in how our entire family can find joy in the small things, and in coming together to celebrate all the moments life has to offer.”

Together, she and Bruce’s ex, Demi Moore, along with his daughters, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn, are “planning to make this Christmas extra special,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “They’re still praying for a miracle, of course, and finding a cure for the disease, but they’re mostly focused on spending quality time with him while they still can. At this point, every second of connection with him is special.”

Bruce Willis’ Sparks of Joy

And they all have more reasons than ever to feel grateful. “Wild how so little has changed even though so much has changed,” Scout, 33, has said. “My dad is one of my best friends, perhaps now on a deeper level than ever, honestly.”

Rumer, 36, cherishes how Bruce — who she says was always “a girl dad, through-and-through” — interacts with her 20-month-old daughter, Louetta. “It almost unlocks that kind of little kid, girl-dad thing,” she said recently. “He’s so sweet with her.”

His family has learned to appreciate those glimpses of the man they love. Tallulah, 30, shared on the Today show in September that “he’s stable, which in this situation is good. There are painful days, but there’s so much love, and it’s really shown me to not take any moment for granted. You have to be present.”

Demi has helped her daughters come to terms with Bruce’s condition. “The disease is what the disease is. You have to be in real deep acceptance of what that is. When you’re holding on to what was, I think it’s a losing game,” the actress, 62, said recently. “But when you show up to meet them where they’re at, there is great beauty and sweetness. And being able to share with whatever we have, for however long we have it.”

Bruce Willis’ Holiday Plans

Christmas will be no exception. Demi and her kids, who are known for wearing matching pajamas and nesting in snowy Idaho for the holidays, “will definitely have a special celebration with Bruce, Emma, Mabel and Evelyn,” says the source. “They’ll listen to music and look at old photos and videos. They love coming together as a family.”

They always will. Demi — who wrote in her 2019 memoir, Inside Out, that she and Bruce were “more connected than ever” after their divorce, and once described her relationship with Emma as “mothers united, sisters bonded on this crazy adventure of life” — has vowed to keep the family close while preparing to say an emotional goodbye to her ex, says the source. “She made a promise to Bruce that she’ll always be there to support Emma and all of his girls.”

They can all use it. Emma, 46, has thrown herself into her role as Bruce’s caretaker and has become an FTD advocate, which she’s said has helped bring “some power and control back in my life, where this disease just takes. I’m not going to allow FTD to take our whole family down. Bruce wouldn’t want that.”

What he did want was for them to share their story with the world, says the source. So as they celebrate the holidays and approach another emotional milestone — his 70th birthday — in March, “the whole family will continue posting videos and photos,” says the source, “to serve as a touching message from Bruce to his fans — that he’ll always find joy in his life, even now.”