‘Tis the season for lights and tinsel! In Netflix’s Holiday Home Makeover With Mr. Christmas, Benjamin Bradley — a.k.a. Mr. Christmas — and his team transform the abodes of deserving families into winter wonderlands.
“I kept [being Mr. Christmas] under my hat for a long time. When word got out how much I love [the holiday], a producer friend found out and pitched me a Christmas-oriented makeover show,” the interior designer of 20 years told Us Weekly exclusively. “It was my year of saying ‘Yes.’ I promised myself I was gonna say ‘Yes’ to every invitation that came my way. It was completely out of my wheelhouse. I never pursued something like this, but it just fell in my lap, and it felt right.”
Each episode of the series follows Bradley and his staff as they makeover different homes.
“We did a casting call and looked at who had compelling stories,” he shared with Us. “Netflix was so great, because they really wanted it to be seasonal, which I really appreciated. They didn’t want us selling sometime off-season.”
Bradley also had an important note for the streaming service: “I told them, ‘I really just don’t want drama. This is Christmas, and Christmas is supposed to be fun and feel good. The stories needed to have some content that was relatable and that would make real, feel-good television.’”
Although the Indiana native doesn’t have holiday lights up all year round, his mother always told him “it’s good luck to leave one thing out” all year — so he does. However, he loves the joy of putting up decorations year after year.
“I like the excitement,” he added. “To me, the anticipation of decorating is even greater and more exciting than the day itself. I really love unpacking it all and seeing it again. I think that’s what makes it so special for me — before I even take the tissue off of something, I can probably tell you what it is. It’s like seeing old friends.”
Holiday Home Makeover With Mr. Christmas is now streaming on Netflix.
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