Candy Cane Lane Interview: Kelly Younger Talks About Growing Up On The Real Candy Cane Lane

Chris Carver wants nothing more than to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas decoration competition in Candy Cane Lane. In his desperation, he makes a deal with Pepper, who offers him the ability to use magic to make his house the most festive. However, things take a dark turn when he learns that those who have made this deal in the past were turned into plastic dolls. In an effort to save himself and his family, Chris will need to rally them together before all is lost.

Candy Cane Lane stars Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Robin Thede, Nick Offerman, Jillian Bell, and Chris Redd. Candy Cane Lane was written by Kelly Younger and directed by Reginald Hudlin. Murphy not only starred in but also produced the original new Christmas movie.

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Screen Rant interviewed writer Kelly Younger about his new Christmas movie, Candy Cane Lane. He shared how growing up on the real Candy Cane Lane was an inspiration and how he incorporated the “12 Days of Christmas” carol into the movie. Younger also discussed the Carver family, who are at the center of the story.

Kelly Younger Talks Candy Cane Lane

Screen Rant: Kelly, this movie is so much fun. Candy Cane Lane. Listen, I know this film is based in El Segundo. I live in Hawthorne, which is literally the next town over.

Kelly Younger: Yes.

What went into the thinking of putting the film based in El Segundo?

Kelly Younger: Joe, I’m so glad that you connected with that in that local way. So, my parents live in El Segundo. My wife was born and raised in El Segundo. My parents’ house, they moved there many, many years ago, but they live at the street at the very, very top of Candy Cane Lane. So it truly is a personal story. We’ve been going to Candy Cane Lane for years. We’ve been taking our kids since they were in strollers. So yes, it is locally inspired.

I go to Candy Cane Lane all the time to go check out the lights every holiday. But, so this was definitely a personal story about Candy Cane Lane. One of the things I loved about this as well is the “12 Days of Christmas” theme song. Can you talk about incorporating that theme song and having it a plot point in Candy Cane Lane?

Kelly Younger: Great. So I knew I wanted the premise of the movie to be linked to a classic holiday carol, and there’s no stranger carol then that song, isn’t there? I mean, there’s so many birds, and I don’t even know why would a partridge be in a pear tree, and what is a turtle-dove, and why do these five golden rings that are so prominent, but they’re kind of out of place.

So, I knew that I wanted to connect it to a song, and what I loved about that song is that there were so many characters within it that I thought would be really fun to bring to life. I had no idea there’d be so many birds. There’s a lot of birds in that song and a lot of birds in the movie. So thank you to our partners at ILM for doing all their great work on the visual effects for those birds. I wanted to connect it to something that we all knew and would sing together and kind of play into that.

I mean, I love what you just said, because the last time I saw the “12 Days of Christmas” represented, I think, was in an episode of The Office. This is exactly why I attached this song. Now, tell me a little bit about the Carver family and what they’re up to for Christmas.

Kelly Younger: Well, the Carvers, Chris, Carol, Joy, Nick and Holly. Yes, I did specifically pick all of those Christmas names. They love Christmas for obvious reasons, but they live on Candy Cane Lane. There’s a competition every year, and for various reasons, it’s really important this year for the dad character, for Chris, played brilliantly by Eddie Murphy. He really needs this win.

There’s just some things going on in life, and we’ve all been in that situation. Like, I just need a win. Just give me one win here. But of course, as happens in the holidays, one decision, or choice, leads to a lot of other things, a lot of consequences. So, it’s going to get his wife and kids involved, and wait till you see Eddie and Tracy Ellis Ross and how they play off of each other.

They’re absolutely superb. But I also, even to me, family is really important in the holidays. Our family traditions are watching family Christmas movies together. I wanted this to be an every family that every family could relate to. Besides all the magic and fun, there’s the real family stuff of the holidays and traditions, but also the chaos and the stress and everything that goes along with it.

About Candy Cane Lane

Candy Cane Lane is a holiday comedy adventure about a man on a mission to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest and inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life.

Check out our other Candy Cane Lane interviews:

• Reggie Hudlin
• Aaron Osborne