Why does it seem that when you walk into a Starbucks in June, they're playing Christmas music? Ironically the first Christmas movie to kick off the winter holiday, Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, hit theaters before Thanksgiving. No matter how you look at it, the hype for Christmas is getting earlier and earlier each year. At the recent press conference for Four Christmases, Reese Witherspoon revealed that she's not ready for Christmas just yet after walking into Starbucks, but working on Four Christmases helped prepare her for the arrival of Santa earlier than usual.

Anyone who has lived through a divorce knows that visiting family members during Christmas can be a nightmare. In Four Christmases, Vaughn and Witherspoon's holiday tradition of jetting off to tropical locales without telling their families is interrupted when their flights get cancelled and they're forced to spend Christmas with all four divorced parents.

Although Reese is celebrating Thanksgiving, the blonde starlet sat down in Beverly Hills at the Four Christmases press day to share her own memories of the holiday, the first time she heard Santa didn't exist, how she and ex-hubby Ryan Phillippe come together for the kids, whether she'll ever get married again, and how she once ended up playing a sheep in a stage production of the Nativity.

How do you prepare for the holidays?

REESE WITHERSPOON: There are many stages. First, there’s panic. I walked into Starbucks and they were playing Christmas music last week and I had an absolute panic attack: 'Turn it off! I’m not ready.' I think I have to get through Thanksgiving first, then it starts with the parties, then the family. That’s when the family starts trickling in, then you finally get to get rid of the family and sleep for a few days. Then it’s New Year’s, then it’s all over.

Do you miss it when it’s all over?

WITHERSPOON: Nah, I’m not a look-back kind of person. I’m a go-forward gal.

This doesn’t seem to be a holiday movie that the whole family, including small children, might be able to see.

WITHERSPOON: Yes, this is not for your children. Is it PG-13?

What’s your idea of a good holiday movie, and what about reports that you and Vince Vaughn didn’t get along?

WITHERSPOON: First of all, I don’t know where all that came from. Every co-star I ever worked with I'm either having an affair, about to get married to him, we’re having a baby or we absolutely cannot stand each other.

And it’s always true.

WITHERSPOON: Well, always. Because that’s how you feel about everybody now, right? You can’t just get along with people and work with them. There has to be some sort of drama. But no, we got along great. We were very good friends and were very much partners on this movie. We decided to produce it together, and we rewrote the script together. Every day was like, ‘How are we going to do this? What are we going to do now?’ My idea of a holiday movie? My family always went to go to movies on Christmas Day, so whatever movie was coming out: The Godfather, Elephant Man, your typical cheerful holiday fare. It’s fun to go to a movie on the holidays and it’s nice to be part of a movie that at least grownups and teenagers can see. My kids are looking forward to a lot of movies, mainly Bolt. And Wall-E is playing on DVD at my house on a loop every day.

How would you describe this to people?

WITHERSPOON: It’s all about a couple who avoids their families at the holidays and through a series of circumstances have to go home to all four families, and they have to face that horrible fear of bringing home their significant other to really meet every humiliating memory you have of your past. Everyone avoids it, it’s a natural human instinct to avoid it. So it’s sort of that comedy about having to really deal with it.

You’re part of a divorced couple. What sort of compromises do you have to make with Ryan for your children?

WITHERSPOON: I think the most important thing is the children. What do they want? What makes them happy? What makes them feel comfortable? I think just to bear that in mind - and that the most important thing is to be a grown-up about it and not let any kind of feelings affect how you deal with your children. I think that’s the most important thing. I’m very lucky. We raised our kids just to be happy and it’s all about them - what do they want?

How do you divide up what they do with each of you over the holidays?

WITHERSPOON: I don’t know. It’s not that formal. There’s a lot of communication and a lot of just being very open about things. There’s nothing contentious about any of it. It’s all very go with the flow and whatever happens in the moment.

It’s interesting that your and Vince’s characters want to be together but not get married and have children.

WITHERSPOON: It is interesting. And first of all, that’s a very modern idea - that we’re going to be together but not be married and never have children. It sounds like something people theorize about but is very difficult to do. People grow and evolve and change and it’s sort of interesting to see how this relationship in the movie has to grow. I think the most important thing we really worked on was finding that place of being comfortable in the uncomfortable. Not knowing where things are going to go and still feeling okay about that. We really worked hard on trying to find that in words and scenes.

Can you talk about your development process with Vince and Seth? So much seems like it was off the cuff.

WITHERSPOON: It does but that’s not entirely true. We knew every day what we were shooting. We worked on the script for four months for five or six hours a day before we ever went on set. We broke it down, threw scenes away, started over; by the time we got to shooting we really knew what we were doing. And Seth was there the whole time, and Vince. That kind of gave me a taste of what the improv situation was going to be because Vince is so smart and funny off the top of his head. The funniest person I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. Also when you’re working with that kind of person it’s important to create a space where they feel free to do whatever they want to do. It was a challenge for me to stay there and keep up with him. And he taught me a lot about improv and ad-libbing and I feel really a better actor for that experience.

How did Seth [Gordon] guide the two of you?

WITHERSPOON: His biggest strength is editing. He really knew that he could let us be as free as we wanted to be while we were shooting because being a documentarian, he knows how to cut footage. That’s all you do so we were really confident he would find the story line with all the characters and all the set pieces.

What’s your reaction to Joaquin Phoenix’s quitting acting? Do you think he’d have quit if he’d won the Oscar for Walk the Line?

WITHERSPOON: I don’t think Joaquin cares about Oscars. He’s a great sort of creative spirit, whatever he puts his energy into. He’s done amazing things. Whatever he wants to do he’ll be happy. He’s a great guy.

Do you remember when you found out there is no Santa?

WITHERSPOON: That, for me, was in the second grade when Mary-Beth decided to get up and for show-and-tell told everyone there was no Santa Claus. The whole class burst into tears and she got into a lot of trouble and got sent home.

Did you believe her?

WITHERSPOON: Well, no, because she had to come back the next day and say it wasn’t really true. She was just really lying to hurt people’s feelings. Poor thing. It was a psychological mess.

How did you deal with the disparity in height between you and Vince?

WITHERSPOON: Well, they couldn’t make Vince smaller. We tried. We tried to get him to take his shoes off. He’s 6’5 and I’m 5’2. We had a really funny scene, I don’t know if it’s in the film any more, where he rolls over onto me. We were in bed and then at the very end he rolls over and goes onto sleep, but he rolls over and lays on top of me. It was like a tree trunk had just landed on me. I kept going, 'Tim-berrrrr!' It was really funny. I stood on a lot of boxes and they had to build ramps that were about the same size as where I should be. It was a challenge, especially the kissing scenes. It was hard to get up there to kiss him but we worked it out. And he had to pick me up for half the dancing. He’s actually holding me in the air so we can stay in the same frame. He’s a fantastic dancer, a very, very good dancer, which you’d probably figure from Swingers. They were teaching us dance moves. I just couldn’t keep up and he was like, ‘Oh, it’s a one-two, cha, cha, cha!’

Did you always want to be a mom or were you a little like your character in the film at some point?

WITHERSPOON: Well, I understood, because before I had kids I’d never held a baby. I’d never babysat. I didn’t have any cousins. So the first time I held Ava was the first time I’d ever held a baby in my life. So I understand that kind of fear of not being a good mom. It took me a long time to feel really comfortable in the role of being a mother.

A lot of us just spoke to Twilight’s Rob Pattinson who he said played your son at one point during the Vanity Fair shoot.

WITHERSPOON: I remember he was verrrry handsome. I was like, 'I have a really handsome son.' I was supposed to play an older version of my character who had been sort of a ruined woman and was at the end of her life. I remember I just had to sob and cry all over him. He was great. He was a wonderful actor.

What interests you about comedy?

WITHERSPOON: I enjoy it. I have a really good time. It means a lot to me when I get to have experiences where I meet young people and they say, 'You know, this is the movie that got me through a hard time' or, 'This is the movie I watch with my family.' That’s a big deal for me. I get tired of being labeled sometimes, but I’m so lucky. I’ve got to do Walk The Line and Rendition and Vanity Fair. I feel really lucky I’ve been able to go back and forth.

Was there a Christmas out of the four different houses you go to that you identify with?

WITHERSPOON: Probably the one where you have to go to church. We always had to go to church and nativity plays and all that kind of stuff. So growing up I did a lot of that.

Seth described you as a very powerful person, and I don’t think he meant ‘Hollywood power’ per se. Do you feel emotionally and spiritually powerful right now? And what about the Hollywood aspect of that power? Does that impinge on your life at all? Is it something you laugh about?

WITHERSPOON: No idea. I don’t know what kind of power he’s talking about.

Personal power?

WITHERSPOON: I’m just very clear. I’m not wishy washy. I tell people how I feel about things. If I’m mad at you, you know within a minute [laughs]. There’s no ambiguity. So, yeah. It’s nice to be in a place - I’m getting older and I’m not as fearful of other people’s ideas of who I am. I’m becoming clearer about that myself and am able to express myself better.

What about your Hollywood power?

WITHERSPOON: What Hollywood power? What are you talking about?

Is that really the way you feel?

WITHERSPOON: I don’t know. People say that or they tell you you’re on a list and you feel like - it’s wonderful. It’s very nice to be - but I don’t know what it translates to. I get opportunities to get great parts and work with great directors. That’s the best part about it, I think. It really creates opportunities that I didn’t have before.

What would you like for Christmas this year and do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

WITHERSPOON: Oh, gosh. I don’t know what I want for Christmas this year. I don’t know. Someone to help me out with some stuff! I could really use some help [laughs].

The message of the movie seems to say that the right thing to do is to get married and have kids. Do you agree with that?

WITHERSPOON: I think the message is more - it’s important to stay open to whatever your relationship evolves into. I don’t even think we say at the end that we’re married. I don’t think it says that. We keep it open and I think it also says whenever you think - I’m guilty of this too myself - I had a certain idea of what marriage is and the whole life and sometimes it doesn’t work out that way so you have to be open to whatever comes your way in life. And life and love and relationships take all kinds of shapes and then it’s not necessarily the one you recognize.

Does that mean you would or would never get married again?

WITHERSPOON: [laughs] I don’t know. I don’t think about it much.

Have you ever done more than one Christmas in a day, and how are your kids planning to split their time between mom and dad this Christmas?

WITHERSPOON: Let me see, have I ever done more than one Christmas? Yeah, it’s pretty standard. We’d be at my family’s and then go to my uncle’s house. Yeah, we do that kind of stuff. That’s kind of how it is, I think.

That scene in the church when you have stage fright - I was thinking, did you ever have stage fright and did you ever have to play a character in a pageant like that?

WITHERSPOON: Yes, I get very bad stage fright. I get really, really bad and I’m really bad at - like luncheons when you have to talk [laughs] or even at the award shows - I’m so, so, so nervous. My knees are sweating, my elbows are sweating, I’m sweating in abnormal places. You just have to push me on the stage but I’m getting a little better at it. And yeah, I was in nativity plays when I was little. I remember desperately wanting to play Mary in the nativity play and the preacher’s daughter got it and I was so mad. So mad! But you can’t really compete with the preacher's daughter.

What did you play?

WITHERSPOON: I think I was the third sheep on the left [laughs], and very angry about it.

Should have been a goat?

WITHERSPOON: Yeah, maaaa!

Through your work with The Children’s Defense fund and the Avon Foundation, we know you care about issues relating to children. How important do you think it’ll be to have a couple of young children in the White House? They will be the First Family dealing with some of those issues. Do you think that represents something important?

WITHERSPOON: I hope so, yeah. I have the highest hopes that there’s going to be a real focus on children and community and education. I know that in these times those are low on the ladder but there’s a lot of things that can be done to help educate kids about what’s going on and to get to the root of the problem which is sort of fundamental. We need to educate people so that these situations don’t come up, but yeah it’ll be nice. I’m excited to see those sweet little girls - they look so sweet and they look like a really nice family. It’ll be interesting. I understand traveling and have to set up house in lot of different places, so I feel for them. It’s hard.

This movie, your character and Vince’s character seems like a good relationship but there is conflict. What is the most important aspect of having a good relationship?

WITHERSPOON: I think my character and his character show that it’s important to have honesty and openness and communication. I think that’s what they learn in the film. You can’t have a relationship without those things.