Spencer Grammer talks The 12 Days of Christmas Eve, working with her dad, Greek, and more

Spencer Grammer is ready to show the world a different side of her. The 39-year-old actress, daughter to Fraiser star Kelsey Grammer, is currently studying for her MFA in directing at Columbia, and she tells Hidden Remote that she wants to write, direct, and produce projects that feature women she can relate to, women representative of the kind of woman that she is.

Spencer says her character, Michelle, in her new Lifetime Christmas movie The 12 Days of Christmas Eve, is the type of woman she wants to see represented more often on-screen. In the movie, Michelle is working through a complicated relationship with her father, played by Spencer’s real-life dad Kelsey Grammer.

The 12 Days of Christmas Eve follows Brian Conway (Kelsey Grammer) after he gets into a car accident and Santa gifts him 12 chances to re-do the day and repair the relationships in his life, including the complicated one with his daughter (Spencer Grammer) and, by extension, his granddaughter (played by Uschi Umscheid). The movie premieres on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 8/7c. It will also be available for streaming the next day via the Lifetime app.

Surprisingly, this film marks the first time that Spencer has worked with her dad in this capacity and she talked to us about what that experience was like for her, plus more (including her thoughts on a potential Greek reunion movie).

Spencer Grammer talks The 12 Days of Christmas Eve and more

Hidden Remote: Is this the first Christmas movie you’ve done?

Spencer Grammer: It is my first one, and it’s with my dad, so it felt very momentous and special and unique. I’m happy I waited until I could do one with my dad. It feels like a passing of the torch.

Hidden Remote: He’s done several Lifetime movies and shows over the years.

Spencer Grammer: Yeah, he’s done a couple of Christmas movies. He loves Christmas. It has been really nice to be part of it and work with him.

Hidden Remote: It was also your first time working with him on-screen, what was that like?

Spencer Grammer: I’ve grown up watching him work. I’ve been in the wings backstage for many different productions and I used to go to tapings of Frasier when I was 17 or 18. I was always fascinated by how he makes films and tv shows, what the actors do, and what the directors do. I love showtime, so being able to work with him and share that was quite a luxury and quite fun.

I’ve been finishing my MFA in directing at Columbia and it’s very different in pre-production where you’re directing and writing it and producing it as opposed to coming into act. [Doing this movie] was almost like taking a vacation. It’s like this is great! I just come in and do the lines and look pretty as opposed to coming up with the entire creative process.

It was a wonderful, fantastic experience, and I hope everyone can see it on-screen. We shot in Mystic, Connecticut, which was beautiful. We were able to enjoy spending time together, so it was really nice.

Hidden Remote: Was it fun to play his daughter on-screen, too?

Spencer Grammer: Yes, and I have an 11-year-old son in real life, and Uschi [Umscheid], who plays my daughter in the movie, is a great actress. It was nice to do a movie where I have a daughter and he was a grandfather and all that stuff I could use because those are things that I have in my actual life.

Hidden Remote: Do you guys have fun holiday traditions?

Spencer Grammer: We usually do a karaoke night for Christmas or New Year and we drink champagne!

Hidden Remote: Who is your go-to karaoke artist?

Spencer Grammer: I always do Alanis Morissette, like “You Oughta Know,” throw in some ’90s feminism all day! My dad will do Christmas songs, like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” or he’ll do David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” sometimes.

Hidden Remote: Where do you stand on the debate of celebrating Christmas after Halloween or are you a strictly after-Thanksgiving person?

Spencer Grammer: I think Christmas starts after Thanksgiving, I do. But I also wish Halloween would transition into Christmas, like Nightmare Before Christmas, I’m definitely a more Halloween-centric person.

But you know, I really enjoy Thanksgiving even though it seems controversial nowadays for a number of reasons that we don’t need to go into now [Laughs], but I feel like we can blast over Thanksgiving moving forward and just go straight from Halloween to Christmas!

Hidden Remote: I always justify it like, well, we’re one of the only places that celebrate Thanksgiving so a lot of places do go from Halloween to Christmas.

Spencer Grammer: That’s true.

Hidden Remote: Plus, I always think Thanksgiving is better when you have some Christmas decor up already.

Spencer Grammer: I feel similarly. When you have a little garland around I put them up on Thanksgiving, like the weekend of, I’m prepping the food [and decorating].

Hidden Remote: I was huge a Greek fan. I know the movie you guys were thinking of doing was also holiday-themed so I was wondering if that would ever happen, or if it’s really dead dead?

Spencer Grammer: Oh my god, what a brilliant idea, we should have a Christmas Greek reunion and a regular reunion, too.

Hidden Remote: Or a Halloween one!

Spencer Grammer: Or a Halloween special. I mean there is always a world where that’s possible. I am not in charge of it but I keep trying.

Hidden Remote: There’s Disney+ now, too.

Spencer Grammer: Disney+, I know! There are so many worlds. I know that since the show was made, a lot of the execs that were part of Greek or the ABC Family, have moved to other networks, so we would maybe potentially have to figure out that side of it, but I think there is a world [where it could happen]. I don’t know when, but I have a feeling it will be the right time when it does happen.

Spencer Grammer stars alongside her dad Kelsey Grammer in the upcoming Christmas movie The 12 Days of Christmas Eve, premiering this Saturday, Nov. 26, at 8/7c on Lifetime.