Erin and Ben Napier Share Their Sweet Mistletoe Holiday Tradition: 'A Lot of Kissing Going On'
PLUS: How they're teaching daughters Helen, 5, and Mae, 2, about the spirit of giving during the holidays
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 Now it's the sit down.
00:01 Five questions with Erin and Ben Napier.
00:04 You've got a new season of "Hometown" out in January,
00:07 a new Christmas special,
00:08 and you've got two little girls at home.
00:10 Describe in three words this chapter of your life.
00:14 - Exhausting, fulfilling, and legacy.
00:19 - Ooh, gosh, you went deep.
00:23 - Yeah.
00:24 - I was gonna go with like wrestling.
00:28 (bell dings)
00:30 - Vegetables and coloring.
00:33 - You've both spoken about the importance of giving back.
00:35 So how do you instill that in your two daughters,
00:37 Helen and May?
00:38 - So we do a lot with the Salvation Army,
00:41 and Helen understands, like during the holidays,
00:46 she knows that the red kettles are gonna come out
00:48 and she wants to put money in them.
00:51 - We're trying to work on right now,
00:53 getting some bags that look like something
00:54 Santa would carry,
00:55 and asking them to choose five toys each
00:59 to put in this bag and tell them it's for Santa
01:02 to give to kids who may not get anything for Christmas
01:05 if we don't help.
01:07 - It's not going very smooth.
01:08 - It's not.
01:09 We're suckers, but we're trying.
01:12 - What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
01:15 - Making pomanders, you know, the oranges with the cloves.
01:18 My mama and I did that when I was little,
01:20 so now I do it with the girls.
01:23 And Ben goes out in the woods
01:25 and shoots mistletoe out of the trees
01:27 and brings it in the house.
01:29 Helen makes little bundles with ribbon
01:32 and they hang them in every single doorway in the house.
01:35 - That is so sweet.
01:36 - A lot of kissing going on.
01:37 (laughing)
01:39 - I can't wait to see the new season next month.
01:41 What can we expect?
01:43 - I really think it's some of our very best episodes ever.
01:46 We get to tell our origin story.
01:49 Where we met at our college campus,
01:51 we get to do a house there,
01:53 and- - Which is an incredible honor.
01:54 - It was.
01:55 And you also see Ben's recovery from major surgery,
02:00 which was a lot, a lot.
02:03 I know you both like older things, houses and cars,
02:06 but when it comes to decorating and renovating,
02:08 how important is it to stay up to date on current trends?
02:12 - Well, I have no idea what is on trend right now.
02:15 Well, I know that color is making a comeback.
02:20 Color's in.
02:20 I see all white interiors that Leeann Ford does,
02:24 and I think- - God, that looks good.
02:25 - Amazing.
02:26 It's so dependent upon personal tastes,
02:29 and that's what we care about most of all.
02:31 So we are the least informed on trends.
02:34 - And the big thing is that everything that we do,
02:36 we try to be timeless with it,
02:38 because we want our homeowners to live in
02:40 and love these houses for a long time, for decades.
02:45 - We've caught up with you a lot over the years
02:47 here at "People,"
02:48 but does it ever sink in that you're famous?
02:50 - That's a weird word.
02:52 - As far as being famous,
02:55 I got a speeding ticket the other day in Mississippi,
02:58 and-
02:59 - It didn't help you fix it.
03:01 - It didn't help me fix that.
03:02 (laughing)
03:03 - Have you met anyone recently
03:05 that you fanboyed or fangirled over?
03:08 - Patrick Jephson.
03:09 Is that episode aired?
03:11 - No, no.
03:14 He was Princess Diana's press secretary.
03:18 - Oh, wow.
03:19 Okay.
03:20 - He and his wife are hometown fans.
03:23 - And they were in Ben's bookshop store.
03:26 - And he came in and he said,
03:27 "Oh, well, actually my great-grandmother
03:30 was at Queen Victoria's coronation,"
03:32 which was just like,
03:33 so he knew all about Victorian furniture.
03:36 We actually put a microphone on him.
03:38 He came into the scene.
03:39 It was the greatest small-town weird thing.
03:44 - And now we talk every day,
03:46 and I just am, ugh, it's so cool to know someone-
03:49 - His wife's from Mississippi.
03:49 - Who has touched history, yeah.
03:51 - And finally, pick one of your many upcoming projects
03:55 and plug it in.
03:56 10 seconds, go.
03:56 - Coming up, you are going to see the biggest house
04:00 that we have ever,
04:00 our biggest home we've ever got on home camera.
04:02 - It's not exactly a house.
04:04 - Not exactly a house.
04:06 - Aaron and Ben, happy holidays.
04:07 Thank you so much for being here.
04:09 - Thank you.
04:10 (upbeat music)