Lacey Chabert Says the Hardest Part of Filming Mean Girls Was ‘Trying Not to Laugh’ During This Memorable Scene (Exclusive)

Chabert opens up to PEOPLE about her Christmas memories, her holiday traditions and her partnership with Russell Stover

Victoria Edel is a staff writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2024. Her work has previously appeared in POPSUGAR, The New Yorker, and Eater.

The “Jingle Bell Rock” dance scene from Mean Girls is a millennial Christmas classic — but it was actually tough for Lacey Chabert to get through.

“Dancing is not my strongest suit,” Chabert, 42, exclusively tells PEOPLE. Though she says she’s since “gotten better” because she’s had to dance in other movies since 2004’s Mean Girls, one of her main memories of performing the over-the-top holiday dance was messing the steps up.

“I just remember Mark Waters, the director, who’s just wonderful, yelling out, definitely more than once, ‘Cut. Lacey’s offbeat. Someone help her.’ ” Chabert points out her less-than-perfect dancing “kind of made sense,” since in the movie, her character, Gretchen, gets a new spot on stage moments before they begin. 

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“I just remember every day of that movie laughing and trying not to laugh, trying not to break character,” she remembers. “And actually, when Gretchen kicks the stereo off of the stage accidentally, I remembered we were genuinely laughing. If you look close enough, you can see I’m about to break and laugh. It was such a fun scene to film.”

Chabert’s Mean Girls Christmas moment was perhaps a small preview of her career, which has included dozens of Christmas movies, including 40 (so far) for Hallmark since. Chabert says that even though she didn’t intend to become so heavily associated with the holiday, it’s her favorite time of year.

“My happy place is Christmas Eve, when I was, 5, 6 or 7 years old in Mississippi,” she says. That night, she and her siblings would all sleep in the same room before “waking up super early” on Christmas Day. “[It’s] that feeling of rounding the corner, seeing the tree all lit up, seeing the presents that Santa had brought, and my family being together all day and cooking and just enjoying each other’s company.”

“I try to infuse that feeling into the movies that we make now, no matter what they’re about,” the Hot Frosty star says. “And now as a parent, for to all be full circle and to get to see the magic of the season through my daughter’s eyes, is something that is so special, because I feel like I get to relive some of those cherished memories.”

This holiday season, Chabert is teaming up with Russell Stover to help make others’ holidays a little brighter. In the brand’s “Make Happy Memories with Russell Stover” contest, she says, “You can talk about a past memory or one that you’re planning to create, and you can enter to win a holiday trip for you and your family. And I love that because it’ll be an opportunity to create new memories.” Contestants can enter online for the chance to win a 2025 holiday getaway to New York, Vermont or Lake Tahoe.

“I was so excited at the chance to partner with Russell Stover because it’s a brand that has been a part of my family’s tradition since I was little,” The Christmas Quest star, who calls herself a “chocoholic,” says.

“I remember seeing the box of chocolate on my grandparents’ dining room table, especially during the holidays, and being so excited about what was inside.” The actress also says that the first gift she ever gave her mom was “a little box of Russell Stover chocolate” that she saved her allowance to buy. “I was just so proud and excited for it, so that’s always held a special memory for me.”