Pushing Daisies

With her movie Four Christmases playing in theaters soon, Kristin Chenoweth talks to Celebrity Parade about how the holiday celebrations are done in her own household, surrounded by families —

Q: You’re really mean to your sister in the movie. Have you ever had to cope with sibling rivalry?

A: I was fortunate enough to have an older brother who was interested in chemical engineering, calculus—everything that I’m not. I should never be near a math book and he should never sing. So we didn’t really have sibling rivalry. It was more of ‘Let me take care of you.’

Q: Come on, he was never mean?

A: OK. He got me once. I was in The Nutcracker every Christmas, and I think he was a little bitter about all the attention I was getting. So one year, after the performance, he said to me, ‘There is no Santa.’ I just remember thinking that he was a liar so I had to get confirmation from my parents. And then I was like, ‘Is that the same as the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy?’ Everything came crashing down.

Q: In Four Christmases, you totally embarrass Reese by revealing some of her ugly childhood secrets, complete with pictures from the family photo album. Did that seem familiar?

A: I remember when I brought my first fiance home for Christmas and he was Jewish. My mother said, ‘Oh, don’t worry we’re not having ham, but I have some funny pictures to show you.’ And she brought out all the pictures that were horrifying to me, things that still scare me to death. Like in the second grade, I cut my own bangs and she had that picture. And my mom was like, ‘Remember, you stuck your tongue out.’ I guess my fiance thought I was a total brat.

Q: So how do you celebrate the holidays?

A: My mom has six sisters and they have kids and they have kids. So you can imagine our Christmas is so Southern it could make you want to vomit. But we have the best time. We eat too much. We laugh. We play games. Somebody gets sick. Somebody gets hurt. It’s dysfunctional, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. You know, we don’t pick our family.  We get one. So I’m happy and I’m the dork that gets depressed when it’s over.

The complete interview is here.