John C. McGinley Reveals the Thoughtful Accommodation He Makes for Son Max, Who Has Down Syndrome, at the Holidays (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

John C. McGinley and his son Max at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s 14th Annual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show at the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel on Nov. 12, 2022 in Denver.Photo:Thomas Cooper/Getty

Thomas Cooper/Getty

“My wife, I don’t know how she does it, but she strings about 4,000 miniature lights, the electric ones, around the tree, and then the rest of the family is invited to put the ornaments up. It works like a well-oiled machine,” McGinley, 65, tells PEOPLE of his wife Nichole.

“My son Max was born with Down syndrome, so we have ornaments that can’t break. If a hook doesn’t take and it drops, no big deal.”

Meanwhile, his daughters Billie, 16, and Kate, 14, don’t always want to partake in decorating the tree. “The girls sometimes can exercise some petulance,” McGinley says.

In response, McGinley says he tells them: “You can not hang ornaments if you don’t want to. But your sister’s going to hang the ornament that you wanted to last year, but you don’t seem to want to be involved in this year. Fine. Go sit in the dunce corner and put the dunce cap on. But we’re doing this with or without you. We’re going to dress the tree.”

ohn C. McGinley with wife Nichole and daughters Kate (left) and Billie and son Max at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s 9th annual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show in Denver on Nov. 11, 2017.Tom Cooper/Getty

Tom Cooper/Getty

TheScrubsstar says that, for his family, “Christmas in our house starts the day after Thanksgiving.”

He also tried to institute a rule when it comes to holiday gift-giving.

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“I have tried to initiate a movement in our house where we started to diminish the number of tchotchkes that you get and instead afford you the opportunity to get one big present,” McGinley says. “And it failed miserably. It was something I tried to introduce with vigor, and I got run over, so I surrendered. People in my house want a lot of presents, and I’ve gotten out of the way of that. Get all the presents you want. I don’t care.”

In Hallmark+’sHolidazed, the network’s first-ever holiday series, McGinley’s character Chuck Manetti-Hanahan puts up a fight when his wife (Virginia Madsen) tries to put some guidelines to hopefully make the holidays as conflict-free as possible — especially her no drinking rule. McGinley says he “was super-duper looking forward” to teaming up with Madsen, 63, again after working with her in 1991’sHighlandersequel.

John C. McGinley and Virginia Madsen in ‘Holidazed’.Hallmark Media

Hallmark Media

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Holidazedis streaming now on Hallmark+.

source: people.com