Unlike Drew Latham, the lonely, but wealthy executive he played in 2004's holiday movie Surviving Christmas, actor/director Ben Affleck's life away from the cameras is anything but empty and depressing. For the father of two young daughters with wife Jennifer Garner, the Academy Award-winner Affleck (he shares a Best Screenplay Oscar with longtime BFF Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting) every birthday and holiday is treated like a major event in the Affleck/Garner household. "If it's birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day or any day vaguely special, it's treated like it was a national holiday around our house," jokingly admits the 38-year-old Affleck, who recently directed and starred in the crime thriller The Town. "Seriously, though, when you have young children, you try to make every Christmas special, particularly for the little ones (five-year-old Violet Anne and Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, who turns two in January).


Ben Affleck and Christina Applegate in Surviving Christmas.

In Surviving Christmas, Affleck's character Drew Latham may have all the money and success in the world, but he doesn't have a family or a better half to share any of it with. Christmas is right around the corner and it looks like he'll be facing another lonely Yuletide all by himself. But Drew wants this December 25th to be different, like the Christmases he used to enjoy as a kid. However, when he visits the home he used to live in as a boy, it looks nothing like the warm, loving house he was raised in. His one-time home is no occupied by The Valco Family - played by James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O'Hara and Josh Zuckerman. It doesn't matter what the Valcos are like, Drew is determined to have a very, merry Christmas, so he hires the Valcos - for an incredible amount of dough - to act as his family for the holiday. While the Valcos think that have won the lottery, they don't know just how annoying a guest - or fake family member - Drew can really be.

"We had a lot of fun making that movie," recalls Christina Applegate. "It was a fun part to play. I played the daughter of the family that Ben rents, sort of his nemesis-slash-lusty-desire. But I had a great time working with him. It was fantastic. I love Ben .He is the nicest person, he has this amazing brain, he's very funny, he's really professional and a good person all the way round. We had an even better time meeting the press to promote it."

At a Los Angles press gathering shortly before the film's release, the two chatted about Christmases past and when they found out that Santa isn't real.

What is the strangest Christmas you have ever had?

Ben Affleck: The most unusual Christmas I had was probably last year, which I spent in the Middle East. That was definitely an unusual Christmas, being there with all the soldiers in the Middle East - it was strange. I mean, it's shocking how grand a form of service that it really is to be in war time in the military and how hard that kind of life is to be working 12 hour shifts on Christmas and being afraid you might get blown up. They are out there for like fifty cents an hour, I mean, that is kind of no joke.

When did either of you find out that there was no Santa Claus?

Christina Applegate: Do you remember what year that was? That was last year wasn't it, Mr. Affleck?

Affleck: (Laughs) When did I find out? I did at one time believe in Santa, because I do remember asking my mother, 'How did Santa know?' That's what really freaked me out - how did he know that that's just what I wanted? I think it disturbed me more than anything else. It gave me like a weird 1984-ish feeling, like Big Brother was watching me, and I wasn't happy with that because I was humping into the bed posts and I hoped Santa didn't know that.

You were what?

Applegate: He was humping the bedpost and he was hoping that Santa didn't know that. That's the worst thing when you find out that there's no Santa Claus.

Affleck: Not when you hump the bedpost.

So, Christina, how did you find out there was no Santa Claus?

Applegate: I was six years old and...humping the bed post. (laughs) I went out because I was so excited because the cake had been eaten and the presents were laid out. Then, I looked on the shelf and there was the same wrapping paper on the shelf that there was on the presents from Santa Claus. I put two and two together and I was pissed.

Did you confront your parents?

Applegate: I was pissed for the lying, for all the lying all those years. I was so mad. I was like six years old, and I think I was like cursing my mother out, going, 'How could you do this and lie to me all these years?' It was awful.

Affleck: It was the lies. It's not the gaff, it's the cover up, you know what I mean?

Applegate: I know they went through all that effort.

So you think parents shouldn't actually make their kids believe in Santa Claus?

Applegate: No, I think it's a beautiful thing to believe in Santa Claus. Those were the best Christmases ever - the ones where you believed in Santa Claus.

Affleck: You have to have a Santa or there would be no Christmas. You know what, just rent one if you need to.  Boy, that sounds like a good movie.

Applegate: It does. You are Mr. Oscar Winner, maybe you can write Surviving Christmas 2.

Affleck: Where is the eggnog? (laughs)

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By: Earl Dittman

Surviving Christmas airs Friday, December 17th at 9.00 pm on Global.