Melissa Joan Hart Says Her Mom Used to Dress Up as Santa on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch Set Each Season (Exclusive)

Melissa Joan Hart looks back at some of her favorite Christmas traditions from the past.

During a recent chat with PEOPLE about her ongoing partnership with World Vision, Hart, 48, recalled spending the holidays on set Sabrina the teenage witch.

Hart, who starred on the show from 1996 to 2003, says that because they filmed their Christmas episodes in October, the show’s cast and crew spent weeks already getting into the holiday spirit. Aside from the memories she says she would sometimes bring home from the festive episode each year, her mom would also play a role in making the holiday special for everyone involved in the show.

Melissa Joan Hart and her mom Paula in celebration of the 100th episode of ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’.

SGranitz/WireImage

“My favorite tradition on set Sabrina was that my mom – [who] she was the executive producer — when Santa would come, kind of Paula, my mom wasn’t around, but Santa was there,” she recalls. “A very small Santa Claus with a very nasty beard.”

“Everyone had to sit on her lap,” she explains, before recalling a crew member they called “Big George,” who would pose for a particularly silly photo while visiting with “Santa Claus.”

Melissa Joan Hart on Specific Sabrina the teenage witch Episode She shows her children — to teach them a lesson

“He was one of our cameramen, we had Big George and Little George, and Big George is a big man.” she says. “And the joke was that every year when Big George sat on Santa’s lap, he had to put his feet up. So we have so many pictures of Big George kicking his feet up, sitting on Santa’s lap.”

Beth Broderick, Melissa Joan Hart and Caroline Rhea.

ABC/Viacom/Kobal/Shutterstock

These days, Hart says she’s brought some of her favorite childhood customs to her family of five. The actress says that when she was a child, she and her siblings had to wait at the top of the stairs while mom and dad came downstairs to “make sure Santa came.” Years later, her three sons, Mason, 18, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12, repeated the same routine.

The most wonderful moments of Melissa Joan Hart with sons Mason, Braydon and Tucker

“I love that tradition of making my kids wait at the top of the stairs and there are so many pictures of me as kids and then my kids as kids sitting at the top of the stairs waiting, just waiting,” she says. “Because of that anticipation right before you run downstairs to see the presents, I think it’s like walking through the doors of Disneyland. It’s even better than tearing gifts.”

Melissa Joan Hart and her children Mason, Braydon and Tucker in Zambia in 2023.

Melissa Joan Hart’s Instagram

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Through her work with World Vision, Hart has also involved her children in giving back and earlier this year joined her son Braydon’s soccer team in packing 400 hygiene kits that ended up going to people affected by Hurricane Milton, she shares.

“It was nice for these boys to see the immediate impact of their time — the people they helped — and were able to help,” she says.

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Source: HIS Education