Happy 100th Birthday Rod Serling: His Daughters Reflect On “The Twilight Zone” Creator's Love of Christmas (Exclusive)

• The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling would have turned 100 on Dec. 25, 2024

• Ahead of the anniversary, Rod’s daughters, Anne and Jodi Serling, are looking back at their father’s lasting legacy, as well as their family's Christmas traditions

• “He could be very funny. He had an incredible sense of humor, and he was also so warm and gentle,” says Jodi

The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, who died at age 50 in 1975, would have turned 100 this Christmas Day. In addition to launching one of the most recognizable television shows in history, the screenwriter and producer was also a veteran, a civil rights advocate and a loving family man.

Now, on what would have been his centennial birthday, Rod’s daughters, Anne and Jodi, are looking back on his legacy with PEOPLE.

Because Rod’s birthday fell on Christmas, Jodi Serling says that the day was an especially celebratory one for the family.

“Christmas was the most exciting time for my dad,” Jodi tells PEOPLE. “He had a huge tree. My dad decorated it. He was like a little kid, because he used to always say to me, ‘When you lose your childlike qualities, then you become old.’” She recalls how her father insisted on dressing up the family’s pets in Christmas regalia, and had his own tradition too.

“He always wanted to open up the Christmas presents the day before Christmas, like a little kid does,” Jodi says. “And my mother would say, ‘No, no, no, we have to wait for Christmas.’ So, Christmas was a really important time … He used to say that he was an unwrapped Christmas gift when he entered into the world on Christmas Day.”

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Jodi also recalls her favorite present that her parents ever gave her: a kitten.

“It was wonderful. They enjoyed it because they wrapped up little things prior to giving me the kitty, giving the collar and the cat food, and [were] just like, ‘Hint hint, look what you're getting,’” she says. “And then there was the kitten in the box that they tried to keep quiet the night before. That was my best gift.”

Anne Serling, author of the memoir As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, also recalls a Twilight Zone Christmas tradition of her own.

“We always watch ‘Night of the Meek’ [on] Christmas Eve,” Anne tells PEOPLE. “I knew my dad was a writer, but I didn't really understand or know what he was writing about until some mean kid on the playground asked me, when I was about seven or eight, ‘Are you something out of The Twilight Zone?’ And then I asked my father what that meant, and he explained that he wrote for a series. It was probably too old for me.”

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Anne and Jodi both share that they weren't avid watchers ofThe Twilight Zone, since they were just kids when it aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Both daughters, however, say they came to appreciate their father’s work as adults, after his death.

“I loved seeing my dad on TV as a child,” Jodi says. “I was young, but I would still sneak into the other bedroom and watch it. But I don't think I ever really shared the extent and excitement of it as a child until I became an adult. But I truly value the enduring quality [of] The Twilight Zone and the other things that he wrote.”

For Anne, there was one episode of the show that especially touched her — and which featured a special memory she shared with her father.

“The one that really brought the writer and my dad together was the episode ‘In Praise of Pip,’ because he'd used some dialogue that was a routine that my father and I had,” Anne says. “‘Who's your best buddy? Pops, you are.’ And it was just this amazing moment where I literally found my father in The Twilight Zone.”

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Both daughters also grew to appreciate the lasting influence of the writer, who tackled topics like prejudice in his work ahead of his time, and who aimed to spread that message elsewhere in his life.

“I've heard from so many people who say they became writers because of my dad, or people who had tumultuous childhoods who said that they thought of my dad as their own father,” Anne says. “And this just stunned him.”

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“He could be very funny. He had an incredible sense of humor, and he was also so warm and gentle,” Jodi says. “But there was also a flip side when he wanted to share another side of himself. And I think that that was a side that was extremely ethical and nostalgic and proud.”

“He said to me, "Always be yourself and never live in anyone's shadow or try to reap anyone else's success or benefits,” she adds. “And I've tried to be that person that he taught me to be.”

Read the original article on People