NEED TO KNOW
Kelsey Grammer caught some flak on the set of Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring.
His costar in the film, Benjamin Hollingsworth, tells PEOPLE he playfully poked fun at the Cheers alum, 70, for recently welcoming his eighth child, a baby boy named Christopher. “My kids came to set and met Kelsey, and he was very kind to them,” says Hollingsworth, 41.
He adds, “We had talks about being a dad and it’s crazy, but he welcomed his eighth child just this year. So, he’s got a newborn at home. I was giving him lots of crap about that.”
All jokes aside, Grammer tells PEOPLE it’s been “awesome and fantastic” having a new baby, his fourth child with wife Kayte Walsh, 46. “The family’s ecstatic,” says the proud father. “We’re all really having a great time. It’s really lovely.”
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Grammer announced Christopher’s arrival in the Oct. 27th episode of Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong’s Pod Meets World podcast. Christopher joins Grammer and Walsh’s kids Faith, 12, Gabriel, 10, and James, 8, as well as Grammer’s daughters Spencer, 41, Greer, 33, and Mason, 23, and son Jude, 20, from previous relationships.
Reflecting on this past year, Grammer tells PEOPLE, “We are closer than we’ve ever been as a family, and I’m proud of that.”
As for Grammer’s favorite holiday traditions with his family, he says they “do a Christmas roast dinner” every year. “The family doesn’t like turkey quite so much, but I try to do prime rib and a turkey and a chicken, and we do Yorkshire puddings and mint sauce and all kinds of stuff,” he says.
“That’s about it, really. We love trimming the tree. We go early on the tree, at least three weeks before Christmas, right after Thanksgiving,” he continues.
Hollingsworth, meanwhile, is going to spend the holidays with his wife, Nila Myers, and their three kdis in Vancouver. “It gets very snowy at the top of the mountain, so we usually go up to the top of the mountain, and I’ll tie a bunch of sleds together behind me and I’ll put on this little harness and basically do my best Rudolph impression and I’ll snow shoe,” he says.
The actor adds, “It’s kind of magical. There’s a few different spots where they light up the trail with Christmas lights and my wife and I hike through it, and the kids get to be pulled behind dad. Dad gets a good workout.”
With The Christmas Ring, out now, Grammer hopes to spread “the spirit of Christmas, selflessness and forgiveness.”
