Interview: Soap Stars Share the Magic of the Holiday Season, Part 2

Allyson Rice (ex-Connor, “As the World Turns”): I LOVE Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. I put up an absurd amount of lights in my yard and on my house, including an 8-foot-tall inflated Santa on the roof. They go up immediately after Halloween (none of this after-Thanksgiving nonsense!). Starting last year, I decorate my car in lights as well. I wrap about four strands of multicolored lights all over it and plug them into an adapter inside the car. I have actually started to keep lights up in my house and one strand on the front and back porches throughout the entire year now. It just makes me happy to look at them. I say, Why limit the wonderful festive feeling of the season to only a month or two out of the year? I also make handmade Christmas balls (pictured) that we decorate our tree with, and I give them to family members as Christmas gifts. My grandmother started the tradition, and my dad and I, and now my youngest niece, are the ones who have kept it going, thanks to my mom’s encouragement after my grandmother passed away. I put up an art studio in my backyard earlier this year, where I have all my jewelry-making supplies, and I’ve set aside one corner of the place for my Christmas-ball-decorating supplies as well, so that I can make them year-round, whenever the inspiration hits. And of course I play the Christmas playlist I created on my iPod while I make them (I have more than 400 Christmas songs on it!).

Kassie DePaiva (Blair, “One Life to Live”): Normally I spend Christmas up in the Catskills with my immediate family, and between Christmas and New Year’s, I have cousins who come up from Atlanta with their children, and we just sit by the fire, play in the snow, snow-ski, and just eat, drink and be merry. It’s all a very fun, family time that has become tradition for the past 15 years. Usually there’s a lot of good snow, and there is always a lot of good fun.

Mario Lopez (ex-Christian, “The Bold and the Beautiful”): I spend the holidays with my family. It’s family and friends and a lot of food, a lot of cocktails and a lot of love.

Murray Bartlett (Cyrus, “Guiding Light”): It’s about being with family. I usually spend the holidays with family. Because it’s the middle of the summer in December in Australia, I’ll spend the holidays with family on a beach or something. It’s beautiful where we go — there’s the beach and the ocean, there’s tropical rainforests. Also, I remember back in 2000, I rang in the new millennium on a sand dune with my best friends. We just hung out there and waited for the New Year. That is my perfect kind of holiday.

James Reynolds (Abe, “Days of Our Lives”): Every Christmas when my son was young was a special Christmas. A child’s excitement on Christmas morning goes deeper than just getting things. There is a sense of magic and fantasy in the anticipation of this special day.

John O’Hurley (ex-Jim, “The Young and the Restless”): We are developing a family tradition. We just bought a place up in Vermont in an effort to return to authenticity. We’re now going to be spending our holidays up there; it’ll be our return to an authentic Christmas. It’s going to be spent in Vermont rather than L.A. I think Vermont is such a beautiful state, and the holidays are more special up there.

Interview: Catching Up With Mario Lopez

It is an inevitability that when one mentions Mario Lopez, A.C. Slater from “Saved by the Bell” comes to mind. Since leaving the world of Bayside High, Mario has tried it all: nighttime dramas (“Nip/Tuck”), daytime dramas (Dr. Christian Ramirez on “The Bold and the Beautiful”), sitcoms (“The George Lopez Show”), reality shows (“Dancing With the Stars”) and Broadway (“A Chorus Line”).

Mario has added another item to his resume: TV host. Mario is the newest host for the entertainment television show “Extra.” He took over hosting duties from Mark McGrath this past September, and he promises a different “Extra” for his go-round.

“The whole show is different,” Mario tells me. “We have a new set, a strong Internet presence that is very interactive. We’ve got fans asking stars questions, stars asking other stars questions. Also, I am the solo host, rather than having a co-host. It’s very conversational and very loose and fun, and the whole deal is different.”

This isn’t the first time Mario has hosted a television show. It all began with “Name Your Adventure” on NBC, which was a Saturday-morning kids’ show dedicated to making the dreams of teens come true. Mario explains: “That’s what kind of started it. I just had to be myself and not work with a script, and that’s pretty much what started the whole hosting thing. That was awhile back — I was still doing ‘Saved by the Bell.’”

It wasn’t until a decade later that a cutting-edge cable show and crazy-popular dance competition caused Mario to create more than a blip on many people’s radar screens. And Mario is thankful for all of the opportunities that have been presented to him as a result.

“Things were going great, and I was feeling blessed with momentum, because I was working on ‘Nip/Tuck’ around the same time I got ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ It just seemed that things were coming together around that time, and I was thankful for that opportunity and for everything that is happening now.”

For Mario, it was a natural move to host “Extra.” He explains: “I’d been a part of the team for a couple of years doing the weekend show. At the time I think I was a little young; it was maybe too early to step in the big chair at the time. ‘Extra’ is just a wonderful opportunity that I am enjoying right now. I am loving it, and I’m having a blast.”

So what sets Mario’s “Extra” apart from the other entertainment shows on television? “We’re not too gossipy; we try to be informative and entertaining. Any time I have some of my friends come out, whether it’s Eva Longoria or George Lopez, it’s going to be fun. I love having my friends on the set because it’s always fun just messing around.”

Fun is what November sweeps is about for viewers of “Extra.” While Mario wouldn’t divulge any state secrets, he did let me know a little of what they have in store for us: “We’ve got some good people lined up to come in, and fun pieces we’re going to do. I am definitely fired up about it.”

(Check your local listings to see what time and station you can catch Mario on “Extra.”)