Cameron Mathison And His Wife Vanessa Reveal Their Family’s Unusual 2018 Holiday Plans (Exclusive)

The new co-host of Hallmark’s Home & Family, Cameron Mathison, recently welcomed a very special guest star on set to celebrate the holidays: his wife, Vanessa Mathison. And, in an exclusive new interview, Closer Weekly sat down with the couple to talk about their family’s unusual holiday plans this year.

It’s easy to be in the holiday spirit while on the set of Home & Family. Props must be given to the set decorators. Not an inch of the Universal Studios backlot set was overlooked. Blankets of snow, twinkling lights, giant red bows, and gold glitter galore. For our sit-down, Cameron, 49, and Vanessa cozied up on a faux fur throw, holding hands as they reminisced about Christmases past. “When the kids were younger, we used to go to great length to make it feel like Santa was coming. When I say that I mean I would even climb up on the roof and stomp around like Santa while my brother was hiding in the bushes with a red Rudolph nose light,” Cameron, who will be representing the Working Group and #TeamDoberman at the AKC National Championship Dog Show Presented by Royal Canin airing on Animal Planet on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2019, recalled.

Sure, that may be a little dangerous, but he assured it was all worth it. “The joy in the kids’ faces when they looked out and Rudolph’s there! I’ll always remember the phonetic excitement of the kids that Christmas,” the dad to Lucas, 15, and Leila, 12, shared with Closer. For Vanessa, Christmas is all about, “That feeling of giving, the gift-giving process — that feels good inside.”

Vanessa’s sweet words reminded Cameron of the very first gift he bought with his own money. “The first gift that I ever remember getting my dad with my own money was the 8-track tape of KISS Destroyer. I was really like here, dad, now you have this tape that I can listen to whenever I’m in your car! So I had some work to do as far as being an honest, authentic gift-giver,” he shared.

Cameron’s gift-giving skills have since improved. Vanessa gushed about the amazing trip he planned for them this Christmas, a surprise gift for Vanessa’s birthday. “My whole entire life, I’ve wanted to go to Southeast Asia. Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos,” she said. “He surprised me with this dream trip!”

Which is why Christmas will be a bit unusual for the Hallmark host and his family this year. “It will be a very, very different Christmas this year,” Vanessa said. “Cameron and the kids are meeting me in Myanmar. Christmas day is going to be our first day in Myanmar! Then we will go to Thailand.”

To make sure Christmas away from home and all the usual traditions isn’t difficult for their kids, Lucas and Leila, Cameron said they’ll be bringing the tree along with them. “We’re bringing a little portable Christmas tree. Vanessa’s been unbelievable, it’s crazy how organized she is. She’s got pictures of all the presents so we can put them on the tree and that way we’re not worrying about packing all the gifts in our luggage and toting it all around,” he explained.

Although it will be a very different Christmas with new traditions for the Mathison family, for Cameron, “The magic of this time of year is all about spending good quality time together, a time for us to recharge as a family. We’re all taking a pause from our busy lives and spending time together.”

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