See Virgin River's Alexandra Breckenridge transform into Santa Claus in My Secret Santa first loo...

Breckenridge turned to Tim Allen in &34;The Santa Clause&34; for inspiration. See Virgin River's Alexandra Breckenridge transform into Santa Claus in My Secret

Breckenridge turned to Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause" for inspiration.

See Virgin River's Alexandra Breckenridge transform into Santa Claus in My Secret Santa first look (exclusive)

Breckenridge turned to Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause" for inspiration.

By Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at ** with over nine years of experience. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, *Ms. Magazine*, *The Hollywood Reporter*, and more.

EW's editorial guidelines

October 7, 2025 10:00 a.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Alexandra Breckenridge in 'My Secret Santa'. Credit:

- In *My Secret Santa, Virgin River *star Alexandra Breckenridge is going far outside her comfort zone.

- Breckenridge plays a single mom who takes a job as a hotel Santa Claus to get through the holidays.

- ** has your first look at Breckenridge in costume, as well as her take on the lengthy process required to become Kris Kringle.

Santa Claus is getting in touch with his feminine side. In *My Secret Santa, *single mom Taylor (Alexandra Breckenridge) suits up as jolly old St. Nick at her local luxury ski lodge in her attempt to make some extra cash to make her daughter's Christmas wish come true. But things get as sticky as a candy cane when she starts falling for the hotel manager.

* *has your official exclusive first look at the holiday film, which hits Netflix on Dec. 3. The film, which also stars Ryan Eggold and Tia Mowry, is directed by *The Princess Switch *trilogy helmer Mike Rohl. It is co-written by Ron Oliver and Carley Smale, both of whom have many Hallmark and Netflix holiday films to their name.

Madison MacIsaac and Alexandra Breckenridge in 'My Secret Santa'.

Breckenridge explains: "It's close to *Mrs. Doubtfire *— this is similar in that she doesn't have a job. She's desperate to pay her rent, plus send her daughter to this snowboarding school, because she wants to provide everything that she possibly can for her daughter. But she's a single parent. It's very difficult for her, and she's just lost her job during Christmas.

"Luckily, her brother and his husband are very adept at making creatures," she continues. "The only job that's available in and around the area is to play Santa Claus at the ski resort. She's just like, 'Oh, heck with it. Why not?" Which is pretty bold."

Alexandra Breckenridge as Santa Claus in 'My Secret Santa'.

Bolder than the names on the naughty list. Though the *Virgin River *star confesses that the holiday magic required to pass herself as Santa Claus was "very uncomfortable." At its longest, the transformation process took over three hours, requiring Breckenridge to be outfitted with a prosthetic forehead piece, two cheek pieces, a nose piece, as well as fake eyebrows, a mustache, a beard, and a wig. Plus, a "Santa" suit to give her the requisite belly that laughs like a bowl full of jelly.

"It was a lot," she says. "I'm not going to lie to you. It's hard to get into prosthetics. I had never done something like that before, and  I was excited because it's not very often that a woman gets to play something like this."

See exclusive photos from 16 Hallmark Christmas movies

Great American Family announces 14 new Christmas movies — see the full lineup (exclusive)

As a 5'7" blond who plays the romantic lead on one of Netflix's biggest shows ever, Breckenridge isn't exactly who you would think of to play Santa Claus — but that's precisely what made her want to do it. "It scared me to death," she confesses. "But I was like, 'I have to do this because this is actually why I became an actress. If I don't meet my fear head on, what am I doing?'"

Ryan Eggold and Alexandra Breckenridge in 'My Secret Santa'.

That didn't make the physical ordeal of becoming Kris Kringle any easier. "The prosthetics were extraordinarily uncomfortable," she continues. "The suit was uncomfortable. I was hot. I had to put ice packs in the front, ice packs in the back, but I had the most fun I have had working in years. It reignited this passion of why I do what I do. It was a real treat to be able to pull it off. I was really nervous. I was like, 'If I don't look like a convincing Santa Claus, then people aren't going to be on board with this.'"

Oddly enough, this isn't Breckenridge's first time appearing in a film about a woman who must disguise herself as a man to get what she needs. Breckenridge appears in 2006's *She's The Man, *a contemporary teen rom-com update of Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night, *in which Amanda Bynes portrays Viola, a young woman who disguises herself as her twin brother to play soccer. But Bynes had it easy compared to Breckenridge in *My Secret Santa.*

"She didn't have a full prosthetics situation," Breckenridge notes. "I was covered in glue all over my head and face. I have a new respect for men who have to wear beards in film and television because, wow, it was very uncomfortable."

Tia Mowry in 'My Secret Santa'.

Still, Breckenridge made the most of the situation, particularly enjoying herself while sitting in the makeup chair and gradually undergoing her transformation. She made up characters for each of her different looks along the way. "I had a witch that I came up with before I had my eyebrows on," she says. "When I had my eyebrows and my wig on, then I was Helga. And then when I had the eyebrows, the wig, and just the bottom beard, not the mustache, I was Jebediah, and then Santa Claus. I have so much footage of myself. I was basically making audition tapes while the prosthetics were being built on my face."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.*****

However, the prosthetics were just the beginning. Breckenridge also had to find the voice and emotional tenor of her take on Santa. For that, she turned to Tim Allen. "When I was digging into this character and what I was going to make him into, I wanted to make it the most realistic within the circumstances that I could," the actress explains. "She can't be totally professional and just immediately know how to be a Santa Claus. Why would you know that? There had to be an element of her that was sort of clumsy. So, I watched the Tim Allen movies, [*The Santa Clause* films]."

Alexandra Breckenridge and Ryan Eggold in 'My Secret Santa'.

Once she was fully in costume, not just hair and make-up, Breckenridge was able to find her voice. Literally. "I was watching all these men playing Santa, and to get the voice down was tricky," she says. "I felt like he needed to have an older, gravelly voice in order for the whole thing to come together and be convincing. But I didn't get the voice entirely until the whole costume got on me."

As fun (and silly) as watching Breckenridge transform into Santa Claus might sound, she promises the film also has some real heart, as holiday films so often do.

"[My character] hasn't let herself be open to any relationships to find love because she's been so focused on her daughter, which is very sweet and very noble," the actress explains. "But within that, you find a very lonely person. This idea that you can only focus on one thing and push aside your own happiness isn't realistic. It's not very balanced. Through this very wacky experience that she has becoming Santa, she meets someone that she connects with and realizes that she can be there for her daughter, and have a relationship and be happy."

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL Movies"

Read More

---

Source: VOGUE MAG

Full Article on Source: VOGUE MAG

#LALifestyle #USCelebrities