Lance Bass talks 'Christmas at the Grove' milestone

Ah, Halloween is in the rearview mirror. Ah, earmuffs, Amanda. Sorry. Thanksgiving is coming up. That's right, and that means a 25-year tradition at the Grove is also almost here and about to reach a milestone. Three! Wow, this year's a big one. 25 years of the annual Christmas at the Grove happening at the Grove. And our next guest, Lance Bass, is hosting this big 25-quarter century... Thanks for being here this morning. Almost as old as me now. Yes, it's not. How long have you been doing that? Is this my fourth or fifth year? I think so, right? Why do they keep bringing me back? Thanks, Rick. Good job. No, it's so much fun. I mean, if you know me, you know I love the holidays. I love my Halloween. But, you know, Christmas is also, you know, right there on the top of my list. So it's nice to come back and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Christmas at the Grove. It's a big one. So are we going bigger and better than before? Of course. It always gets bigger every year. This year, I mean, we have some incredible musicians coming out. I saw that. I mean, Nicole Scherzinger, Jason Mraz. And we have some really good surprise guests this year that they don't want me to talk about. I don't know why, because they are some big names. But I guess they want to leave a little surprise for you. A little magic. It's probably the biggest holiday celebration we have here. It is. Like our Rockefeller, right? People come from all over the country to see this. I mean, thousands of people gather at the Grove. It is such a beautiful sight. It snows, Santa's there, Mrs. Claus is there. It is such a fun, it really just kind of gets you. In that mood. We've been out there before and it's true, the crowds when they show up, the energy, the enthusiasm, everyone's ready to get their shopping on too. Even last year it rained a little bit and people, they did not even care. They just pretended it was LA snow. That's right. I'm surprised that they fit in all these people. You know what I mean? It's like they pack it in there. It is a celebration. Everyone that goes, even if you're in the very back, you're having the best time ever. What's your favorite part of it? I mean, besides being on stage, I love bringing my family to it. It was the first event I brought my kids to when they were just one. Yeah. So the first time we got them out of the house, it was during the COVID years. Right. I just love that memory of being able to finally have them out of the house and they met Santa for the first time. I love that. Kind of getting to that age where they really can And joy and kind of understanding. I mean, they are holiday kids because, you know, Baba loves the holidays. But, you know, now that they're five, they just turned five, this will be the first holidays they kind of remember, right? That's right. I remember as a kid, like five is when I started really remembering those holidays. So this now I have to make it magical. You've got to really bring it now. Yeah, exactly. Is the elf on the shelf in your household? We do. We do elf on the shelf. Although my kids touch them a lot and their magic disappears. It's okay. It's okay, they have gloves for that, you know. But we have Will Ferrell as our elf on the shelf. So he's, you know, he's our guy. Okay, how quickly do you transition though? Cuz we were talking about, you heard us talking about Carols and stuff like that, does it start- Look, I have rules, Halloween, October 1st, you can't go before that, I go all out for Halloween, the decorations are coming down today. Okay. We'll slowly start getting Christmas up, I have to go to New York a lot this month, but I'll be putting up a few trees this year. A few? What's a few? You have to have, I mean, this year, so it'll probably be about seven, I know, there used to be almost 40. Big, small, all different, right? I know. There used to be how many? Almost 40. What? I imagine. I do, yeah, yeah, I have a good- You have elves. I have friends come over. We have a night, we do this thing every year called a charcuterie Christmas. So everyone brings a charcuterie board and it's a competition. So a lot of people come and help me decorate before that. Okay, who wins the competition every year? I don't get to enter because that would be unfair. That's not fair. But my friend last year did a charcuterie, which was Rihanna. It was in the shape of Rihanna. It was absolutely incredible. That's hilarious. And it definitely won. Okay, so you've been here before, and I think, maybe not the last Last time you were here, but we talked about your Halloween book, which I have to say, I read this Halloween book to my son every night. I love that. And he looks forward to it. He loves it. The Trick or Treat on Scary Street. There we are. Look at that. He loves it. He loves the ghost. The ghost. Yes, yes. Do you have a holiday book out now? I do. You know, I wrote a follow up of Scary Street, my publisher was like, actually, can we do Christmas next? I said, yes, we can. And there's a cute little black cat that's in Scary Street, and my kids just love this cat. And it's not even a main character in the first book, but I was like, okay, what if we spin a Christmas book off of that character? I like that. So that is Mrs. Claus, actually, becomes Santa's cat. Claws, as in claws. As in claws. She's a very mischievous, scary Halloween cat that just has Christmas in her heart. And you will see Santa bestows a nice green eye with her, and so she gets to read the Santa's Naughty and Nice list. It's a really fun character. And it's out right now? It is out now. Yeah. Legend of Mrs. Claus. And, I mean, I'm just so excited about it because now this is my favorite thing I've written because now they're developing a TV show after it. No way. Oh, my gosh. Congratulations. It's going to be really fun. She's become a fun character. Do you find the writing easy? Does it come easy to you, like coming up with the character? It does, it comes so natural when I'm writing. I did not know, until I had kids, I didn't know I had this in me to write children's books. And this is all I think about these days. I like writing music. You like your mind races in your life. But this is very creative. And my kids are huge inspirations. Yeah. Have they given you feedback or character development? They give me feedback all the time. And they said, we want to be elves in the book. So I made them elves in the book. And they did suggest that their friends at school are on the nice list. So you'll see the scroll of the nice kids. And it's all of their friends from school and their playgroups. Well, the elves. Your illustrations look beautiful. They are, they're great. They look really nice. Yeah. They did an incredible, incredible job. All the illustrators I use are from France, actually. Nice, okay. Something about French artists, they're just great, I love working with them. So now, you're a father, the holidays have to hit differently for you now, especially with the kids. Do you have your own traditions that you started with your kids? Kind of started, you know, it's passing on, you know, I love my, my parents, you know, they love the holidays. So, you know, going to all the fancy neighborhoods and looking at all the decorations that really, you know, I love that opening the one present, you know, the night before, you know, it's all those little traditions, you know, it's always like getting the same pajamas the night before putting out your milk and cookies. And again, the milk is out for Mrs. Claus, by the way. Nice. By the way, the carrots for the reindeer are intolerant sometimes. Yeah. I learned that too. I'm sure your parents get really excited for this too, now that you have these little ones too. They do. So do you bring them into town? Do you go to their house? My parents are professional grandparents. They are just the best. They live in Mississippi, and so we get to travel there a good bit. The kids, twice a year, they spend a week with the grandparents like it's their camp. They get to go into the woods and search for dinosaurs and dragons, and they have a magical, magical time with my grandparents. That's what it's all about. Truly. Yeah, family and traditions. Yeah. And they get to experience something different. I mean, it's so different over there, right? It is. Well, you know, one set of their grandparents lives in Miami Beach and the other lives in the country in Mississippi. So they get- Yeah, how did you work out like who gets the which holiday? Because we're trying, me and my husband are trying to figure this out too. Well, the good thing is half my family is Jewish and half are Christians. So you know, we get Hanukkah with one family and then we get Christmas time with my side of the family, which we all celebrate every, you know, every holiday. I hope your kids know how good they have it. I hope they do. I hope they do. I hope they do. I have it good too, though, I have to say. Yeah. And then you recently moved, right? I did, yeah. This is good. I stayed in the Valley, though. Yes. You're a Valley boy. I've lived all over LA for almost 30 years now, and yeah, now we're kind of, We've moved into our next chapter with the kids. They're now going to real school now, and we needed a little bit of a yard. I had no yard, so now we found a house that they could run in. You have more space, for 40 trees. Exactly. Like the way you grew up, you know what I mean? Exactly. Like backyard and just living that dream, Lance. Run around, get lost. I love it. It's fantastic. You're giving them what they need. I try, I try. Okay, so reminder, 25th annual Christmas at the Grove on Monday, November 16th. It's happening so quickly. You can join live in person or via the Fox local YouTube. We'll be right back. Out now. Lance, thank you so much. Always great to be here, guys. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. Holidays. That's the first time I said it this season. Right. Oh.