Ripa and Consuelos praise their “big family” at the show in an exclusive interview with EW.

Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos do Christmas early on Live, from ‘grandma’s crack’ to sweet off-camera moments (exclusive)

Ripa and Consuelos praise their "big family" at the show in an exclusive interview with EW.

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes *RuPaul's Drag Race* video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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December 23, 2025 9:30 a.m. ET

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Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on "Live with Kelly and Mark". Credit:

Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC

- Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos share an exclusive first look at the *Live* holiday episode with EW.

- "The crew is part of our family, I’m excited about how excited everybody else gets backstage to put this on," Consuelos tells EW.

- The Rockettes, Santa Claus, John Stamos, and more stopped by during EW's set visit.

Christmas came early — and so did a slew of yuletide surprises, like "grandma's crack" — on the set of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos' *Live With Kelly & Mark* holiday special. And ** has an exclusive report from the New York City talk show's set, including photos from the episode set to air on Christmas Eve.

"This is a big family here on our show. The crew is part of our family, I’m excited about how excited everybody else gets backstage to put this on," Consuelos exclusively tells EW between takes of the special episode, which he says "takes a long time to do" each year.

On set, EW witnessed several wild holiday happenings set to roll out as part of the 2025 edition, including performances from the iconic Rockettes dance group (which Ripa jokes she'd "show up" to watch if her husband ever joined the lineup of ladies) and the band Train; an interview with actor John Stamos; an on-the-street clip package from Steve Patterson; and a special visit from Santa Claus near the end of the show.

John Stamos, Kelly Ripa, and Mark Consuelos on "Live with Kelly and Mark".

Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC

"[The Rockettes are] extraordinary, Santa Claus always show up. But, from our perspective, we love watching our producers and all of the crew and everybody that works on this show, get their moment when we do the holiday credits," Ripa says of the show's tradition of showing off photos and footage of the people who work behind-the-scenes to make the talk show happen each day.

Still, as Ripa jokes, "They complain about it the whole time. So, I personally love watching. I was like, 'Oh, is being on camera hard? Is that hard for you?'"

The cohosts had little difficulty, however, getting through Stamos' interview, which saw the *Full House* star share one of his grandmother's traditional family snacks with the couple — which they likened to "grandma's crack" because it's so addictively delicious.

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Another jovial segment that played during the episode included pre-taped footage of various past *Live* guests reminiscing about holiday memories, with Leanne Morgan even crying as she recounted a gift she received as a child, with other appearances in the clip segment by Maya Rudolph, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Sebastian Maniscalco, and more.**

Also among the Christmas edition is the fan-favorite *Stump Mark *trivia segment, which, instead of the usual call-in contestant, saw Consuelos play a live round of the guessing game with a sweet member of the studio audience.

Light spoiler warning for the information ahead, but, while the contestant wasn't able to stump Consuelos with her chosen set of topics for him to decide which was true and which was false, the actor approached her during the commercial break when the cameras went down, and gifted her with a set of prizes typically reserved only for those who dupe him.

The contestant thanked him and posed with the 54-year-old for a photo, while Ripa, 55, also walked over to spread some holiday cheer to the audience member, as she signed a copy of her book, *Live Wire*, and gave it to the viewer.

As for gifts for each other, Consuelos and Ripa maintain to EW that they're holding firm to a promise they made on a Dec. 4 episode of the show, when they proposed going "giftless" for the 2025 Christmas season.**

"We [usually] get practical things. If we have a trip coming up, we’ll get luggage for each other. Not sexy!" Ripa says of the kinds of gifts they've exchanged in the past, which the couple says have never veered into territory that's too extravagant by most standards.

They say they're not, however, easing up on presents they're getting for others.

"Thankfully, we do these gifting segments on our show. I’ve picked up a lot of gifts — I buy them, I don’t steal them, I’m not a monster — but, we’ve been super busy, and to have gifts already curated, I’m like, oh, your mom would love that. *My* mom would love that!" Ripa says.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter*.**

*Live With Kelly & Mark* airs weekdays in syndication. Check your local listings for timing in your area. See EW's exclusive reporting (including photos) from* Live*'s Christmas Eve episode, debuting Wednesday, above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Talk”