One December three decades ago, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn were Christmas shopping at the Glenwood Springs Mall in Colorado, not far from the ranch they’d built just a few years before. They were planning to take their 5-year-old son, Wyatt, to see Santa, but before they got to his chair, ol’ Kris Kringle had left.
Rather than disappoint their son and the other children, “Kurt got in the back and put on Santa’s clothes, and he sat there!” recalls Hawn, noting that Russell made a very convincing Santa. “And he didn’t say anything, even to Wyatt, except, ‘What do you want, little boy?’”
Today, Russell, 69, and Hawn, 74, still head to their ranch in Snowmass, Colorado, for Christmas with their four “kids”—Oliver Hudson, 44, and Kate Hudson, 41 (both from Hawn’s second marriage, to Bill Hudson); Boston Russell, 40 (from Russell’s previous marriage to Season Hubley); and Wyatt Russell, 34. (They also have six grandchildren.) And as for that Santa suit? You’ll see Russell put it on again this month, when he reprises his role as Santa Claus in The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (on Netflix Nov. 25).
Related: Why We Can’t Wait for Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles 2
In 2018’s The Christmas Chronicles, viewers met new widow Claire Pierce (played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and her two children, Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy (Judah Lewis), who furtively hop onto Santa’s sleigh and into a wild Christmas Eve adventure. The sequel picks up with Kate, now a teen, spending the holiday with her mom, her mother’s new boyfriend and his young son, Jack (Jahzir Bruno).
The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two is Hawn and Russell’s fourth film collaboration. (Joe Lederer/fotojo/Netflix)
“This is a little bit more adventurous,” says Russell of the sequel, which follows Kate and Jack to the North and South Poles and introduces a villain determined to steal the Christmas star off the tree in Santa’s Village, which is what keeps the Claus world hidden. This sets off an action-filled romp to save Christmas—with the help of Mrs. Claus (Hawn), who plays a much larger role in the sequel. “It’s about believing,” she says.
Russell drew inspiration for his iconic character from his father, Bing, who was an actor and minor league baseball club owner. “It’s a nod to the way my pop presented the whole world of Christmas and Santa Claus,” he says. In the Russell family, “Christmas was an absolutely huge event.” So much so, he recalls, his parents often left the tree up “until easily mid-February.”
Russell and Hawn in 2016 with (from left) Oliver Hudson; grandkids Rio, Ryder, Bodhi, Wilder and Bingham; Kate Hudson and Wyatt Russell (Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Image)
Home for the Holidays
Russell was raised with three sisters in Thousand Oaks, California, by father Bing and mom Louise, a dancer. He fondly remembers holiday trips to visit his grandparents just outside of Rangeley, Maine, where, Russell recalls, “It was always cold and snowy, and there was a fire going inside.” Opening presents was reserved for Christmas night, not Christmas morning, he says, “So we had to sort of struggle through the day until it would get dark.” He remembers everything set to a soundtrack of Christmas music and the scents of homemade food. “It seems there was always something on my grandmother’s stove.”
Russell had two passions at the time, acting and baseball. And he was good at both. By age 12, he was already starring in the title role of the television Western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters; he also played baseball through high school, eventually earning his way onto a minor league team as a second baseman. But when an injury to his rotator cuff forced him to retire in his early 20s, Russell shifted his focus back to acting, appearing on popular TV shows and making movie appearances throughout the 1960s and ’70s. In 1981, his memorable role as the swaggering war-hero-turned-robber Snake Plissken in Escape From New York made him a star. He followed that with notable roles in Silkwood, Backdraft, Tombstone, Breakdown and Miracle.
Hawn, meanwhile, grew up celebrating Christmas in Takoma Park, Maryland, with her older sister, Patti, and her “fabulous and very eccentric parents.” Her mother, Laura (“a party girl who was also funny as hell,” says Hawn), owned a dance school; her father, Edward, was “a mean musician with a crazy, dry sense of humor.” When it came to the holidays, she celebrated almost all of them.
“I was raised everything,” she says with a laugh, remembering going to temple with her Jewish mother, a Presbyterian church with her father and Catholic services with her best friend. On Christmas day, Hawn recalls, “My dad used to come in playing the fiddle, and my mom always made Christmas hats with little bells on them. And she made a ham and scalloped potatoes, and we decorated the Christmas tree, and everybody in the neighborhood came.”
Like Russell, Hawn was drawn to performing early: She started dancing at 3 and was on stage in The Nutcracker by 10. “It’s all I breathed; it’s all I did,” she says. In fact, the first time Russell laid eyes on Hawn, she was 21 and auditioning as a dancer for the Disney musical film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. Hawn remembers that day. She asked a woman where the audition was, and, Hawn laughs, “She turned out to be Kurt’s mother!”
Russell, 15 at the time, remembers watching the dance auditions after school with his mom. He recalls, “She leaned into me and said, ‘You see that blonde? That girl there with the funny haircut?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘She’s gonna get the job.’”
The prediction of Russell’s mom was spot-on: Hawn indeed got the job—and then another. Just one year later, she was cast on the prime-time TV comedy sketch show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, performing skits alongside Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson and Jo Anne Worley for millions of viewers. “I loved being a part of a team,” she says. “It was a lovefest, a beautiful two and a half years.” Those were also the years she stepped fully into the spotlight.
Her first major feature role, as Toni Simmons in the 1969 comedy Cactus Flower, won her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, and in 1974’s crime drama The Sugarland Express—Steven Spielberg’s debut theatrical film—Hawn played Lou Jean Poplin, a role she says she could have played over and over again: “She was enigmatic, she was wacky, and I’d love to see what a crazy older woman she’d be today.”
Hawn then had decades of success in films like Shampoo, Foul Play, Private Benjamin, Seems Like Old Times and The First Wives Club. But the film that changed her and Russell’s life was 1984’s Swing Shift, when they officially met and began dating. And a few years later, they brought their perfect pairing to the screen again in Overboard, having no idea what a beloved cult comedy it would become.
Health, Happiness & Purpose
Despite being together for 37 years, Russell and Hawn have never gotten married. Their secret? They set their intentions on being happy and having a strong family, and everything else falls into place. “It’s not about what you do, it’s how you do it,” says Hawn. And they seem to do a lot of it laughing.
“Goldie can literally physically walk away sometimes and make me laugh,” says Russell. “She’s funny by nature. She just…is.” Her joyful Instagram posts are proof, showing her belting tunes into a home karaoke microphone or dancing while doing the dishes. Hawn says Russell’s smart comments amuse her the most, “because, you know, Kurt’s not goofy.” But he objects. “I can do some pretty goofy dance movements, honey, in the morning sometimes!” he insists, citing the day he asked Alexa to play a song, then danced around. OK, concedes Hawn, “Every once in a while, you are goofy. I forgot about that Alexa moment.”
But their youthful energy is no goof. Hawn makes their health a priority. “I’m quite sure that if it weren’t for Goldie, I’d probably weigh 300 pounds by now,” says Russell, who doesn’t put fitness on the top of his to-do list. His partner, on the other hand? “Goldie’s a beast!” he says. Hawn works out regularly (she loves her mini trampoline), tends to her diet (a green juice every day) and finds time to calm her mind through meditation. “As we get older, there’s something other than just our lives we have to care about,” she says—which is why in 2003, she founded the Goldie Hawn Foundation and its MindUP program, a nonprofit enterprise that helps children regulate their emotions and manage stress. “I’m so dedicated to doing whatever I can do to make the world better,” Hawn says. “And I think for me, that’s another piece of health: happiness and purpose.”
Their main source of happiness is the time they spend with their kids. “I mean, my family is primarily it,” says Russell. In fact, after five months of quarantining for the pandemic, at the end of summer Russell bought the family a nearly 30-foot RV, which they recently took on a six-day trip with sons Oliver and Wyatt and their families. “Driving that thing is a blast,” he says. “We’re getting it in really good shape to hopefully take some more real fun trips.”
Looking ahead to this holiday season, they hope to spend Christmas together as they always do at their Colorado ranch. “We completely overdo it,” says Russell. “I mean, that’s the whole point of it!” They’ll gather for a week, where they’ll cook and go skiing and, like every year, choose someone new to read “The Night Before Christmas.” “We turn all the lights down, and all the children are just perched, and we listen by the fire,” says Hawn.
There are plenty of family gifts under the tree on Christmas morning, but they also give gifts to organizations that support children and families in need in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley. “I think this year coming up, giving is going to be even more important than ever,” Hawn says.
They hope The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two feels like a gift too, providing a respite for families everywhere who’ve been affected by the pandemic. After all, if there was ever a year that needed a good dose of positive spirit, it’s this one.
“When people watch something that makes them happy, it opens their heart and gives them the ability to actually have hope and feel a little bit more optimistic about right now,” says Hawn. “I think we need to just have fun, laugh and feel there’s magic in the air.”
A Few of Their Favorite Things
Meal
Hawn: “It’s sauteed, very soft, very yummy dark-meat chicken over a really nice gravy with, like, a little mushroom in it; really great mashed potatoes; and I like string beans that are really well done, because basically, I’m a Mason-Dixon girl. I’m from Maryland. I’m probably more Southern than Northern, so I like that Southern fix.”
Russell: “Goldie’s seriously a good chef. She can just go in anybody’s cupboard and make a meal. If you’ve got a really nice elk tenderloin and corn on the cob and mashed potatoes with gravy and peas, yeah…she does a good job there too.”
Chore
Hawn: “Isn’t that an oxymoron? [laughs] One of them that I like to do because it’s very satisfying is taking your power hose and hosing off your front porch. The other one would be vacuuming a carpet. I can’t say I do that one very much [Russell laughs], but when I do, I forget how much fun it was.”
Russell: “I still take the trash out.”
Watching
Hawn: “I’m watching The Great [on Hulu]; I think it’s quite good. I always have an argument with myself whether I want to read or watch something, because reading is so wonderful.”
Russell: “It’s nice for me that there’s finally some live sports again. It’s a saving grace. We’re gonna watch Kansas City [NFL football] tonight.”
Reading
Hawn: “[Ulysses S.] Grant by Ron Chernow.”
Russell: “I haven’t gotten too deep into it, but Dersu the Trapper [by V.K. Arseniev]. Goldie reads every night. She plays a little solitaire, and then she reads.”
Hawn: “Yeah, I do solitaire online—I see how fast I can get it done—and then I lie down with a little bit of Ulysses.”
https://parade.com/1118497/amyspencer/kurt-russell-goldie-hawn-christmas-chronicles-2/