Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, other stars disclose their Christmas plans

(First of two parts)

LOS ANGELES—We asked stars, from Harrison Ford to Ryan Gosling, their Christmas thoughts and plans.

Harrison Ford wants the gift of “time. A big box of time and not the kind you sprinkle over lamb chops. We have been so busy promoting this film (‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’) that I have not done a bit of Christmas shopping yet. I get to start shopping on the 18th, when I am done with my promotional duties on this film. It’s going to be interesting.

“We have all of the kids… and the family over. It’s a great time for the family to get together.”

Julia Roberts: We always make tons of Christmas cookies. That’s something fun to do before Christmas with the kids—all the icing, sprinkles and the kitchen full of colors.

We have the basic traditions of Christmas morning—we prepare a lot of food and… [we have] friends coming over. It’s a cozy holiday for us.

Sylvester Stallone: [The worst Christmas gift I received] was a bar of soap from a motel that my mother gave me (laughs), an accordion that I don’t play and half of a violin. She thinks this is funny (laughs). That’s her sense of humor. She’s like, “Who wouldn’t want an accordion?” I don’t play an accordion, OK? (laughs)

Of course, Christmas is amazing, especially when you have three daughters. It’s an excuse to get together and spoil them rotten and that’s what happens.

When I was growing up, Christmas was just another day of the year, and the tree is this big (demonstrates how small). But now, it’s become a big deal! They have made it a very special event. I like it. I try to give out my small painting. That way, they don’t take up too much room if you don’t like them. Primarily, I write them a nice Christmas letter, rather than buy something.

Ryan Gosling: I had one Christmas when she (his daughter) was only a few months old, so this will be our first Christmas when she’s sort of taking it all in, so that’s exciting.

Unfortunately, we have a Christmas tradition with my mother’s obsession with the Hanson Christmas album (“Snowed In”). No disrespect to Hanson—they’re very talented kids—but I’ve heard that record now more times than I think I should.

Tina Fey: We traditionally drive in a freezing cold car from New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio and back. I think we will do some version of that. We do the usual: We decorate a tree. I have a real weak spot. I don’t collect anything other than tree ornaments, so I have. like, 10 boxes of tree ornaments.

And the usual American stuff—watch Christmas movies. My oldest daughter is old enough now that she can watch “Elf.” There are so many movies that I love showing them and being like, guess what, I know that guy (actor). Like “Inside Out”—great, I know all those people!

Liam Hemsworth: Christmas time is usually the one time in the year that my whole family is together. I love Christmas! My family is all together somewhere in the world, whether it’s back in Australia or here in America—or maybe we will go on vacation. But yeah, Christmas is spending time with family.

We have lots of food. The Santa Claus magic goes away when you grow up, but because my brothers have kids, that magic comes back. You get to share it and see how excited they are by Santa Claus, Christmas and presents.

Mark Ruffalo: I see Christmas as a great time for people to have a family get-together, eat together and give presents, but mostly just being together. We have a Christmas tree, and the kids do all that. We cook a lot of Italian food.

Hopefully, we will have some snow, and we will go sledding and ice skating. We will go out and build snow houses and igloos and have snowball fights—the whole thing!

Helen Mirren: I always try to be with my family. For me, Christmas is traditionally British. It’s like American Thanksgiving. I try to be with my family if I possibly can. It’s difficult because we’re all on different continents. We have to arrange how we’re all going to come together but we manage it pretty well every year.

We’re British and American. My husband’s (Taylor Hackford) side is American. My side is British. The British side always wants Christmas pudding, and the American side thinks Christmas pudding is absolutely disgusting and won’t touch it! They can’t understand why we’re all so excited about our Christmas pudding.

We never open our presents until after we’ve eaten, because it gives us something to look forward to. It’s a great time of the year. I love Christmas!

The great thing about Christmas tree decorations is that I still have the decorations that I put on the tree when I was 5 years old. They look like dirty little bits of tat.

Josh Hutcherson: I did this one movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” years ago. As a gift from the studio, they gave my family a trip to Disney World (his best Christmas gift). My family had a tour guide who took us to the front of the lines. I was like 13 years old and my mind was completely blown—and that was incredible!

I love all my Christmas presents. I love socks—I need socks. I find use for every Christmas present I get, so I have never received a bad Christmas present.

A good present is a thoughtful present, something that shows that you know somebody well. Recently—this is so stupid—I started getting into DJ music. For my birthday, my mom got me this cool DJ board thing.

That’s all I do now, for hours and hours on end. My mom knew that I had been really into that, so those thoughtful presents are really nice.

I always go home to Kentucky for Christmas. My family has moved a little bit around the country now. I am going to have Christmas with my family in Kentucky and Christmas with my family in LA. It’s going to be a double Christmas situation, which is the first time for me, but it’s going to be good.

For me, the tradition of Christmas is always sitting in my family room, talking and hanging out. We always have a gift exchange, and we try to play games and things like that. I have a very interesting family—they have very strong personalities, so whenever you mix them together, oftentimes it’s great. But sometimes, it’s a little combative or challenging to mix the personalities.

We always watch “A Christmas Story,” and we always let that play during the whole Christmas party. As for food, I love my grandma’s green beans. I have a whole plate of them—and they’re delicious! It’s a secret recipe.

Jennifer Lawrence: Unfortunately, now our holiday tradition is catching crazy stalkers in our f***ing backyard when I go back to Kentucky. It’s awful! Yeah, I’ll go back to Kentucky. I’ll see my nephews. Christmas is much more fun when there are babies, because my oldest nephew is
4 years old now. He knows everything about Santa.

We’ll dress up my dad as Santa and then we’re like, “Oh my God, Santa’s sleigh just crashed!” We run to the window and he’ll walk by. It’s fun! I’ll go home to Kentucky. I can’t imagine having a Christmas in LA. It would feel so “un-Christmasy.”

My mom makes great mashed potato. It’s like mashed potatoes with something spicy in it. It’s so good!

Antonio Banderas: I am going to celebrate Christmas night in Malaga, my hometown. It’s important for me because my mom is already very old. So I need to be with her and my brothers, nephews and that side of my family.

Then, I will celebrate the New Year in London, and go to America thereafter to spend some time with my kids.

(To be concluded Sunday)

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.