Witherspoon 'not into Xmas spirit'

Reese Witherspoon may well be fed up of the tinsel and turkey this year but that doesn't stop her talking about her new film Four Christmases, which she appears in alongside Vince Vaughn. She speaks to Newsbeat about the up-coming festive season, being a geeky child and remaining strict with her kids.

Reese says she used to be mortified about pictures of her as a kid

Are you so sick of Christmas by now that you're dreading it?

No. I'm just not getting into the spirit of it. After I get done with this tour I'm going to definitely start doing the Christmas shopping, the whole thing.

I read that you were all filming before Christmas last year, had a break and came back with your own things to add.

Yeah, a lot of the baby humour was sort of my character stuff so I came up with a lot of that stuff. And Vince [Vaughn] came up with the board games, because his family does a lot of that. We all picked bits and pieces from our own experiences.

Were the baby sick scenes from personal experience?

Ah, yes. Definitely I know what it feels like to be thrown up on or doing all that kind of stuff. I thought it would be quite funny because my character's so scared of children.

I never knew anything about kids until I had my own. I'd never even held a baby until I had my own baby so I totally understood where she was coming from.

Reese's character in the film is a bit shy of babies

Your character's got a lot of things to hide from your past. Have you had that experience?

Oh yeah, of course. I was a very scrawny little kid with gigantic glasses. There are always those pictures that come out that are so mortifying.

What's a typical Christmas Day for you?

I have kids, so it's a lot about opening presents. And then I start cooking and I really enjoy that part of it. They play with their toys and I cook some dinner. It's nice.

Are you a generous mum or do you have to exercise some control?

I'm a little strict about that kind of stuff. I think kids do best when they only have a couple of things that they really enjoy. I try and stay away from the gluttony of things. They don't appreciate it as much. When they only get one or two things they really like it.

I read somewhere that your kids enjoy dressing up your Oscar. Is that true?

Yes, at Christmas time they put a little hat on him and a little scarf so he doesn't get cold.

Apparently Vince added a lot of improvisation in the film, it must have been fun to work with him?

Yeah, he's so funny off the top of his head. The hardest part of the whole movie was trying not to laugh in the middle of him talking.