Haylie Duff has a lot to be excited about this holiday season.
The mom of two is celebrating in a new home in Austin after relocating from Los Angeles. After a busy end of year filming back-to-back movies, Haylie is excited for downtime in her new town with partner Matt Rosenberg and daughters Ryan Ava, 6, and Lulu Gray, 3.
Haylie chatted with LittleThings about her family's favorite holiday treat and how they like to enjoy the magic of the holiday season. Haylie also opened up about her new Lifetime Christmas movie, Blending Christmas, where she worked alongside cast members from The Brady Bunch.
Haylie Duff has loved celebrating the holiday season ever since she was a kid
Like many families, food was the center of Duff holiday celebrations.
"I feel like most of my childhood memories, honestly are centered around food and like the gathering of our family for great meals," she told LittleThings.
"I have good memories about everyone in matching PJs and always enjoying the chaotic gathering of families."
For Haylie, the holidays are all about making things festive and fun for her kiddos
Decorating for Christmas starts as soon as Thanksgiving is over in Haylie's home.
"We're basically into decorating, so we put up garland and a tree and we do lights outside," she shared.
"We try to make our home feel really festive, so that, the kids feel like it's a holiday for a month and a half versus for about a week."
Haylie's family is having a blast exploring holiday activities in their new neighborhood
"I take them to do all the holiday things that I can in our neighborhood. If there's like a drive-through Christmas lights or, Austin does this really great thing called Trail of Lights and we're gonna try to do that next week," she shared.
Holiday activity outings are just one occasion where Haylie exercises her new holiday hack, which has quickly become a family favorite holiday treat.
When it comes to yummy treats, Haylie's family is loving hot chocolate
Haylie was excited to partner with fairlife to celebrate a delicious, simple way to keep the hot chocolate coming for her family this year.
"My family's favorite will always be hot chocolate, for sure," she shared.
"It's one of the reasons I loved partnering with fairlife because I discovered this hot chocolate hack of just microwaving it. It's a lot easier not having to like mix a powder or anything like that."
"fairlife really changed my way of preparing hot chocolate," Haylie raved.
"I had no idea that you could do that. You could just microwave a mug of cold chocolate milk, and fairlife's chocolate milk also is a next-level situation, just like so thick and amazing. When I figured out the hack of just microwaving it, it was a game-changer for us."
"We love to make hot chocolate for the road, get in the car pile up, put on Christmas music," Haylie continued.
"Even if it's something as simple as just driving through our neighborhood and looking at Christmas lights, we just we try to get out and enjoy the holiday."
"My kids are also really into, we call them a snack trays. It's any time I set up some type of bar situation where they can like make their own combinations of stuff and serve themselves," Haylie shared.
"They're always really excited. So we've been doing this little hot chocolate station so that they can put their own little marshmallows or sprinkles, whatever it is that they want to add to their hot chocolate."
Haylie recently made her kids a throwback holiday treat they loved
"We definitely do a lot of hot chocolate for like our our little adventures around, but my kids are big snackers, too," Haylie shared.
"I think that something that I grew up always having was Chex Mix puppy chow. My mom used to make that like in the 80s and 90s for us all the time. And I just made it for my kids for the first time. I was like 'Kids, this is what I grew up eating when I was little.'"
Classic holiday treats go a long way in their home
"We do a lot of cinnamon rolls. I've been making cinnamon rolls in my air fryer lately, and that's been a big hit," said The Real Girl's Kitchen cookbook author.
"We decorate a lot cookies. I'm not the best baker, so I'm more inclined to pick up like a pack of pre-made something and then just let them decorate it."
Haylie shared a beloved family recipe during the pandemic and it was a huge hit
Like many celebrities, Haylie shared some scenes from her home kitchen during the lockdown and found that one of her recipes really struck a chord with fans.
"We do make something called apple cake, which I shared during the pandemic," Haylie said.
"I feel like I get more messages about this cake than just about anything."
Making delicious meals together is just one way Haylie's making memories in her new home
"This is our first Christmas in our house in Texas. And I mean, we love it. We love it here," the mom of two gushed.
"It's cold in the mornings, so now it feels like you get more of a sense of the season here in Texas than you do in Los Angeles. So we've been embracing the cold weather and there's been a couple rainy days, but it's nice."
"It's exciting to be in a new house for the first time for the holiday."
Haylie's also excited about her new Lifetime Christmas film, 'Blending Christmas'
Haylie's new film featured a lot of fun opportunities for her to work with incredible talents.
"I had such a fun time doing this movie because one of my very, very close friends directed it, Marla Sokoloff," she shared.
"We filmed it last March, which is basically when we were moving to Texas. So it was so nice to be able to be on a set coming out of the pandemic, you know, doing what I love."
Haylie has incredible memories of making the film with a fun-filled cast
"I have just great memories making this movie. Telma Hopkins is just an absolute joy and she's so good in the movie and the Brady Bunch play all of our family members," Haylie shared.
"Aaron O'Connell is incredible in the movie and biggest, sweetest love. He's so awesome. Girls are going to be so obsessed with him in this movie. Greg Evigan is my dad and he is just the sweetest man that's ever walked to the planet. I loved working with him, too."
"I related a lot with this film, because blending everyone's families can always be a little bit crazy during the holidays. And that's really what this movie is about, is blending people's families but having it be a positive thing and a funny thing versus an annoying thing."
Haylie was especially impressed to see the real-life family bond between 'The Brady Bunch' cast members
Working with members of TV's first blended family was an experience that Haylie cherished.
"They were incredible, honestly. You could see the camaraderie, the care for each other," she shared.
"When they were in the hair and makeup trailer and hanging out on set, they didn't go off to their own separate trailers and like ignore each other when the camera stopped rolling. You could tell that there is real love for each other between all of them, which was so cool to see that. Just knowing the long history that they've had together, you never know what to expect and they just every single one of them were so amazing, and so cool with each other."
Haylie's excited to relax and unwind a bit in 2022
Haylie's looking forward to the release of her first sequel film, as well as some downtime in the year ahead.
"I have another movie that's going to be ready to come out pretty soon called The Baby Pact. I filmed it right after Blending Christmas, and I'm really excited for people to see that. It's part two of the movie I did called The Wedding Pact, and I've never been part of a sequel."
"I'm also just excited to settle into our home here, and my kids' life here. The transition of moving from California to Texas has been a lot. Sometimes for me, because I go back and forth for work so much, it's chaos."
"So after the first of the year, I have a little time to just be here and enjoy home. And to be honest, I'm really looking forward to that."
