Mindy Kaling Reveals B.J. Novak Will Dress up as Santa for Her Kids in New Holiday Tradition

Mindy Kaling will celebrate Christmas as a mom of two for the first time this year, and she and her family are starting a sweet new tradition with the help of B.J. Novak. Speaking to Tory Burch on the designer’s YouTube talk show #ToryTalks, Kaling was asked about Christmas traditions with her kids, and she shared that this year she hopes to start a new one with her 3-year-old daughter Katherine and 3-month-old son Spencer.

“[Katherine’s] godfather is B.J. Novak, and he is going to show up and go to our living room, where the tree is, in a Santa costume,” Kaling told Burch, sharing that she is planning to be in the kitchen making cookies with her daughter when Novak arrives. “Just so you know, we’re Hindu and B.J. is Jewish, so this is cultural appropriation on our part.”

The 41-year-old explained that she had wanted to take Katherine to the mall to see Santa, because “she’s the one kid that doesn’t cry and scream,” but because of the pandemic, she decided to shift her plans to help Katherine still see Santa.

“This is the whole ruse that we’re going to do, and this might become a tradition,” she continued. “We’re going to be baking cookies, and then all of a sudden, we’re going to hear bells from another room, and I’m going to go, ‘Kit, what do you think that is?’ And then we’re going to go over to the living room where we hear bells, and B.J., dressed as Santa, is going to be asleep on the sofa with a bag because he needed to take a rest. It’s so complicated, why Santa was there, why he’s taking a nap, but we’re gonna do that.”

The Never Have I Ever creator added that she already attempted to start another tradition with Katherine, who wasn’t exactly into it. “We did the tree and I had pictured, I was like, ‘Oh, me and my almost 3-year-old daughter will bond together and do the tree,’” she said. “Everything, you know, the Burl Ives playing, hot cocoa. She hated it, didn’t want anything to do with it. But it was good, because then I could put a little vodka in my hot cocoa.”

As for her socially-distanced holiday plans, Kaling shared, “I think I’m probably gonna order food in and just watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with my daughter and hang out with my baby.”