Travis and the Chiefs will host the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas DayTravis Kelce (left) and Kelce as he appears in the Nickelodeon NFL Christmas cartoon. PHOTO:
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Merry Swiftmas, Travis Kelce!
In the NFL’s cartoon graphic promoting their upcoming slate of Christmas Day Games for Nickelodeon’s NFL on Nickmas, the league celebrated the 34-year-old Kansas City Chiefs star’s romance with Taylor Swift.
A cartoon version of Kelce sits next to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in the corner of the drawing, wearing his No. 87 jersey while he strings together beads for friendship bracelets.
The post’s caption asked, “Can you spot all the Easter eggs?” and told fans to “unwrap all the surprises” during the Christmas Day NFL special.
Swift’s dedicated fanbase, aka Swifties, brought the lyrics “So make the friendship bracelets / Take the moment and taste it” in her song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” to life when they began making and trading the beaded, Swift-themed bracelets at her concerts.
The trend quickly became a sartorial staple at her shows and even helped inspire the singer’s initial interest in Kelce before she began dating the NFL star.
Travis Kelce attends the 2022 ESPYs; Taylor Swift attends the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards.
ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES; KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES
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In July, Kelce was seen at Swift’s concert from his private box at Arrowhead Stadium as well as trading friendship bracelets with fans inside the Kansas City venue.
Kelce said on an episode of his podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, that he had planned to give Swift his phone number on a friendship bracelet at the show, but didn’t get the opportunity to do so.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs she sings, so I was a little butthurt that I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” he said on the episode earlier this year.
Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce.
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But it turned out that his public shoutout did the trick, and Swift reached out to him shortly after.
In December, Swift told TIME she thought it was “metal as hell” that “Travis very adorably put [her] on blast on his podcast.”
“We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other,” she explained.
The NFL’s Nickmas cartoon promotes the Chiefs’ Dec. 25 Christmas Day game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes also gets the Nickelodeon treatment in the festive cartoon as his caricature flies toward the Christmas tree holding a gift.
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Behind him, a cartoon of the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby, wearing purple ear muffs, attempts a tackle on Mahomes.
Chiefs Isiah Pacheco, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Christopher Deshun Jones are also featured in the cartoon. Meanwhile, Davante Adams, Amik Robertson and Josh Jacobs represent the Las Vegas Raiders in the graphic.
The Chiefs will have home-field advantage at Arrowhead Stadium for the matchup, and are coming off a 27-17 win over the New England Patriots.