Kelsey Grammer Reveals His Family’s Reaction to Newborn’s Arrival (Exclusive)

Kelsey Grammer is loving life as a new dad of eight.

While discussing his upcoming film Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring, the actor, 70, tells PEOPLE it’s been “awesome and fantastic” having “new baby” Christopher — his fourth child with wife Kayte Walsh, 46 — at home.

“The family’s ecstatic,” says Grammer. “We’re all really having a great time. It’s really lovely.”

Grammer announced Christopher’s arrival in the Oct. 27 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 says, “We are closer than we’ve ever been as a family, and I’m proud of that.”

While on set of The Christmas Ring, Grammer’s costar Benjamin Hollingsworth says the two bonded over fatherhood.

“My kids came to set and met Kelsey, and he was very kind to them,” Hollingsworth says. “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.”

“What’s really cool about this movie is the relationship between my character and Kelsey, and what stuff can come between father and son,” he continues. “Christmas is a complex time because it’s filled with joy and excitement and hope, and yet it’s also filled sometimes with family that has unresolved issues that may not have been reconciled.”

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.”

Grammer says that lately, “we usually have someone who works for us go out and get the tree.”

“There’s a thing in California I call celebrity pricing,” he explains. “I’ll find an eight- or nine-foot tree I like, and a guy will say, ‘Mr. Grammer, for you that’s going to be $1,700.’ For my friend, they’ll say, ‘About $600.’ So, I stopped going.”

Grammer’s idea of a perfect gift for the holidays is a book.

“I love books. If somebody gives me a book that you can tell they spent some time thinking about what I might love about it,” he says. “It’s usually some kind of classic, like Shakespeare or something they know I love. That means a lot to me. I’ve been given some Civil War books in my time. I’m a big buff on that. Also some Aristotle. I’ve got some first editions, and those are the prizes for me.”

With The Christmas Ring, Grammer hopes to spread “the spirit of Christmas, selflessness and forgiveness,”

Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring premieres in theaters on Thursday, Nov. 6.