Alexandra Breckenridge Goes Full Claus in ‘My Secret Santa’ Trailer (Exclusive)

Desperate times call for Doubtfire measures in Netflix’s new Christmas movie, My Secret Santa.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive trailer above, Virgin River’s Alexandra Breckenridge is Taylor, a mom who recently lost her job but doesn’t want her teenage daughter to miss out on the elite snowboarding classes at a nearby resort. So she has an idea and turns to her brother and his partner, who have a handy 3-D printer.

“Okay, let me understand this: You want us to make you into an old man so you can get a job as Santa Claus at the ski resort to get your daughter half-price snowboard lessons?” they ask in the trailer before a makeover montage.

“It really is because this woman needs a job,” Breckenridge, 43, explains to PEOPLE. “And it’s very much a Mrs. Doubtfire situation. In that film, Robin Williams was desperate to see his kids. Here, she’s like, ‘I have no money.’ ”

The actress, who has two children, also recognizes that people may have a difficult time wrapping their heads around a female Santa Claus versus Mrs. Claus: “My children didn’t understand,” she says. “Many of my friends and family did not quite understand when I tried to explain what I was doing.”

Taylor’s Santa, who goes by “Hugh Mann” when not in his suit, soon becomes a hit, complete with news cameras and long lines. But the ruse hits a snag when Taylor’s boss (Tia Mowry) starts to question Hugh Mann’s credentials, and Taylor starts dating the son of the resort owner (New Amsterdam’s Ryan Eggold).

Even with the romantic elements of the film, Breckenridge recognizes that this is a unique character for her.

“This was very out of the box for me,” she says. “It was something that people normally wouldn’t approach me for, and I was extremely flattered. … People tend to look at me for the romantic interest role in whatever it may be — not that this isn’t a romantic comedy, because it absolutely is — but I was able to become a different character.”

“It was scary, but I wanted to take on the challenge,” she adds.

Part of that challenge was figuring out the prosthetics and costumes to make Taylor into a believable Santa.

“The team that built the prosthetics were so talented,” Breckenridge says. “Luckily, I didn’t have to be caked in cement or whatever for them to get my head sculpted; they just did a digital scan.” The whole process “blew my mind,” she adds.

Applying the look also wasn’t as time-consuming as one might expect: “The first time took longer — about three hours — but the team got it down to an hour and 20 minutes sometimes because they would preset everything and paint everything.”

The first time Breckenridge saw herself in the mirror in full Santa Claus regalia, “I giggled,” she admits. “I was giggling, but I was so hot because I was also in the full body suit and then the actual velvet Santa Claus outfit, plus all the pieces on my face. I was sweating so much. And then Michael [Rohl, the director] comes and puts the wig on me!”

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An official logline for the movie reads: “A vivacious single mom in need of a job decides to disguise herself as a man in order to get hired as the seasonal Santa at a luxury ski resort. But when she starts to fall in love with the hotel manager, complications develop that could ruin everything.”

My Secret Santa is on Netflix Dec. 3.