James Van Der Beek, Tori Spelling and More Celebs Bring Their Kids to Santa's Secret Workshop
Who needs Santa Claus when the season of giving is already so embraced by charitable celebs?
On Saturday, television stars like Mark-Paul Gosselaar, James Van Der Beek and Lisa Ling attended Bill Horn and Scout Masterson‘s 7th Annual Santa’s Secret Workshop in Los Angeles, with their adorable families in tow.
The philanthropic event is held yearly to benefit LA Family Housing which, according to its website, “helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty by providing a continuum of housing enriched with supportive services.”
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Many of the celebs on hand, who spent time visiting booths including Mabel’s Labels, were happy to chat with PEOPLE about their evolving family dynamics — and current plans for the holiday season.
“We were out of town last year for Christmas and our family had always talked about doing a vacation Christmas and so we finally did it, and now this year all we want to do is be home, isn’t that funny?” said Haylie Duff, who attended Saturday’s shindig with fiancé Matt Rosenberg and their daughter Ryan Ava Erhard, 2½.
“We are pretty traditional when it comes to the holidays,” she adds. “We will go see lights, we will have family over for a nice dinner. Open a bunch of presents we don’t need. All those Christmas things that you do.”
Duff explains that Ryan is starting to grasp the concept of Christmas a little more now that she’s older — which was a relief for her parents when it came to visiting Kris Kringle this time around.
“Last year we had a pretty epic meltdown at the Santa at The Grove — makes me laugh so hard. It’s like the classic crying photo,” says the star.
“But this year, she was excited to see him, and she said, ‘I’m gonna tell him I want a microphone,’ ” Duff continues. “We’ve been reading books about it and stuff like that.”
Tori Spelling‘s appearance on Saturday was alongside her entire immediate family: husband Dean McDermott, plus their five kids Beau Dean, 9 months, Finn Davey, 5, Hattie Margaret, 6, Stella Doreen, 9, and Liam Aaron, 9½.
“I feel like Beau is really the pillar of the rebirth of our relationship because our relationship had to crumble for it to be rebuilt and it was really important that we just start it over,” Spelling told PEOPLE at the event.
She continued, “I think Beau is a symbol of that because he’s the first baby out of all five that we’re raising in a communicative way.”
Reporting by RAHA LEWIS
