These days, Danica McKellar regularly celebrates Christmas in July — and the holiday cheer doesn’t stop for the next six months.
The actress, instantly recognizable from her teenage role as “Winnie Cooper” in the original “The Wonder Years,” is now part of another small-screen institution: the made-for-TV Christmas movie.
Earlier this year, she filmed her ninth: “Christmas at the Drive-In,” which premieres Friday at 7pm CT on Great American Family.
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It’s her first since becoming a Middle Tennessee resident.
Over the summer, the lifelong Californian moved with her family to a country home about an hour outside of Nashville. She jokes that her experience making these films – which are often set in an idyllic small town – must have rubbed off on her.
In fact, the story behind the decision wouldn’t be out of place in a family movie script. After two of his best friends moved to the state, McKellar says, her son, Draco, “was begging me: ‘Can we please go to Tennessee?’ I said, ‘Sweetie, we can’t go where your friends go.’ But then my husband and I were like, ‘Okay, we need more nature.’
They also wanted to make it easier for Draco to visit his father, who lived in Florida. And McKellar says she and her husband, who is a lawyer, “learned, as a lot of people did during the pandemic, that you can do a lot from home.”
Soon, Draco’s dream came true. And though they still face their first Tennessee winter, the McKellars are thrilled with their new surroundings.
“It sounds like you’re not at all rigged,” she says. “When I drive to get my car serviced, no one is honking. It’s just a beautiful country road. (Your) surroundings being more peaceful, I think that’s wonderful for your whole mind-body connection.”
She is now proud to live in the same state as Dolly Parton – who was her co-star in the 2019 Hallmark movie “Christmas at Dollywood”.
McKellar is also a best-selling children’s author, and her book “Goodnight Numbers” is a staple of Parton’s “Imagination Libraries” program, which sends millions of free books to children 5 and under.
She called the now-Rock and Roll Hall of Famer “a consummate professional, and a bright, sparkling ray of sunshine. She is everything you want and more. “
Even after “Christmas at the Drive-In” aired, McKellar is still in the business of spreading holiday cheer this year. Next month, she will travel to Edison, New Jersey for “Christmas Con,” where she and dozens of other Christmas TV stars will meet their fans. And even in her spare time, believe it or not, she keeps up with the countless Christmas movies churned out by TV Workshops every year.
“I have one lined up,” she says. “These movies sound great. They just make you feel happy. So I am totally into movies and a fan.”
