Zooey Deschanel delays fantasy family outing to the 'Candy Cane Forest'

American actress and musician Zooey Deschanel hasn’t been able to take her family through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, past the sea of twirly-swirly gum drops.

Zooey kids, especially Elsie, 10, and Charlie, 8 who she shares with ex-husband Jacob Pechenik, aren’t exactly the biggest fans of their mom’s 2003 hit film Elf.

In an interview with E!News’ Will Marfuggi during an exclusive interview alongside Merv costar Charlie Cox, Zooey explained, “They’ve seen part of it, but they weren’t really that into watching it”.

As for why her children couldn’t get into the Christmas classic? As she put it, “I think it was a little weird.”

Still, the 45-year-old is hoping for a bit of an Elf resurgence for her kids this year.

She added, “A bunch of my daughter’s friends were talking about it, so now she wants to watch it with her friends”.

While her kids might not be super into an evening with Buddy the Elf, her costar Charlie is a big fan, even confessing that he was actually nervous about costarring alongside Zooey in Merv which starts streaming globally on Prime Video December 10, because of his love for Elf.

Charlie further noted, “My biggest fear making this movie: that I was going to dislike Zooey. I wasn’t going to be able to like Elf ”.

Luckily, the two got along great, with Charlie joking that he’s seen the Christmas film “multiple times” since working on their own holiday project.

But having two Christmas movies under her belt with Elf and Merv did make Zooey wonder if she might be suited to take over the moniker Queen of Christmas from Mariah Carey.

“Look, I’m just I’m just stating facts here. I have two Christmas movies out and two Christmas records,” she joked. “Does Mariah have two Christmas movies? I’m just wondering.” Zooey quickly added, “No, I love Mariah. She is the Queen of Christmas”.

But the New Girl alum is certainly the Queen in her own home, sharing with E! that she and fiancé Jonathan Scott “go hard on Christmas”.

She said, “It’s so decorated. Everywhere is Christmasy. It is so Christmasy at my house it’s insane. We do Christmas carols. We like to make baked goods, baking cookies. I’ll do any Christmas activity”.