Yahoo Lifestyle Lacey Chabert Recalls When Her Daughter First Realized She Was a Star
It probably comes as no surprise that Lacey Chabert, Queen of Christmas Movies, relishes the festivities and traditions of the season.
Holiday hosting is among her favorites: “I love having people over for dinner, especially around our holiday table. It brings back so many cherished childhood memories for me, and now I’m getting to create new memories with my daughter who just turned eight,” she tells Country Living.
Along with husband David Nehdar and daughter Julia, she also loves “driving around looking at Christmas lights, drinking hot chocolates, making cookies for Santa, Elf on the Shelf, and watching our favorite Christmas movies” during the holidays.
And when she hears someone say she’s in a movie that has become a part of their family’s Christmas tradition, “It feels like such an honor to me because that’s something that I really cherish in our house,” she says.
This Christmas, Lacey is wrapping up all her favorite things about the holidays in a big bow for fans. She’s starring in two new Christmas movies: Netflix’s Hot Frosty, also starring Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek) and Craig Robinson (The Office), joins the streaming service’s Christmas movie list on November 13. Then, on December 1, it’s time to gear up for Hallmark: The Christmas Quest, a holiday adventure costarring another Hallmark hall-of-famer, Kristoffer Polaha.
On the holiday food and entertaining front, she’s teaming up with Barilla to promote its limited-edition Snowfall pasta (you guessed right—it’s your favorite pasta turned into snowflake shapes!). We sat down with Lacey to get the details on all of it, including the best Elf on the Shelf feat she’s ever pulled off.
On Netflix’s “Hot Frosty”
Lacey Chabert: This movie was an absolute blast. Everyone is so funny and talented. I was so inspired at work every day and really enjoyed watching all of the other actors bring these characters to life. The movie’s really funny, and it has this perfect mix of comedy and the nostalgia of a small town, cozy feel.
There’s a lot of heart to it. My character is overcoming the grief of losing her husband and starts to realize that she really is good at taking care of other people and not herself. Dustin Milligan’s character is a snowman that magically comes to life and has to learn to be human, and he helps Kathy have the courage to open her heart again. It’s just a really sweet and beautiful message while being a very fun and lighthearted movie.
We filmed almost the entirety of the movie in the small town of Brockville [near Ottawa, Canada], which was just a lovely place. Everyone there was so welcoming, and they would come and watch us film every day. It felt so supportive, and there was such kindness around.
On being the one most likely to break in the blooper reel
Lacey Chabert: There was a lot of laughter [behind-the-scenes on Hot Frosty] and it was usually my fault. I’m the worst at not laughing when you’re not supposed to. At the end, there’s a really fun blooper reel, which I always love when you get to see people breaking on camera and genuinely laughing. It was a totally joyful experience.
On “Hallmark: The Christmas Quest”
Lacey Chabert: This movie is so much fun because it is a treasure hunt through Iceland. It’s unlike any other movie I’ve done for Hallmark before, and I think the audience is going to really enjoy it. First of all, working with Kris Polaha was such a great experience. I’d wanted to work with him for a long time. We had the chance to do a very brief thing in Haul Out the Holly before this, but this was the first time we got to share an entire movie together, and he’s just wonderful.
We got to film the entire thing in Iceland, and we were filming on the top of ice glaciers and ice caves and places that were incredible and I couldn’t believe we were allowed to film. It really was a true adventure off camera as well as on, and I’m so proud of the movie.
On keeping up with The Elf on the Shelf as a busy parent
Lacey Chabert: Well, now we have four elves. It’s a long story, but we keep misplacing our elves, and then Santa brings us more, and then we miraculously found the other elves. So now we have four elves, and they get into a lot of mischief at night, so that’s really fun.
Our elves seem to have a pattern of starting out doing really elaborate fun kinds of things that seem like they put a lot of thought into it. Then after about a week or so of that, I’ve noticed it sort of tapers off, and our elves start just hiding different places, and it gets a little less creative. Parents will understand what I’m talking about.
But one of my favorite things that our elves did—now that we have a whole family of elves and we even have little elves—they did a family photo shoot on little tiny Polaroids while we were sleeping, and then they strung them along the mantel. They even made a little photo backdrop to stand in front of for the photos.
On holiday meals with Barilla’s Snowfall pasta
Lacey Chabert: I absolutely love the Barilla Snowfall pasta. It’s a limited-edition pasta and it’s such a cute and fun whimsical shape. It brings that wintry vibe to your holiday table, especially when you live in a place like I do, Southern California, where it doesn’t exactly snow very often or ever. I’ve made many different seasonal recipes with it, everything from my grandmother’s mac and cheese to marinara sauce with Parm. My daughter absolutely loves pasta, so we eat it a lot in our house.
On the classic Christmas movies she loves
Lacey Chabert: There are so many favorites, everything from Elf, Christmas with the Kranks, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone—those are the ones that pop into my head at first, but I love them all. When you put one on, it’s such a heartwarming feeling and it brings back the memory of when I first saw the movie.
It’s so fun as a parent now to get to share these things with my daughter and be like, “Oh, you’re going to love this.” I can’t wait to see her reaction to it, and really, that applies to the whole holiday season. Seeing the season through her eyes and the magic of the season is a truly special experience.
On how her daughter reacts to seeing her mom on screen
Lacey Chabert: It was about two or three years ago, she said to me, “Do other people watch these movies?” I realized she had thought I was making them just for her, just for our family to watch. And she goes, “Oh, so now I get it, why people come up to you sometimes when we’re at a store or at a restaurant—they’ve seen you before.”
So we had that whole conversation and explained that, but she loves the Christmas ones the best. And she loves when I get to dress up and wear a beautiful dress. In the ones where I’ve gotten to play more a princess or when the character goes to the ball and there’s that big glamorous moment, she always gets excited to see what the dress is going to look like. And she loved Haul Out the Holly, which was a comedy. It makes me happy as a parent that I’m able to make things that she's able to enjoy too.
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