Vince Vaughn and John Michael Higgins in Fred Claus Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Giving the notion of sibling rivalry a Christmas twist, Fred Claus allows motor-mouthed Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up) plenty of opportunity to throw around his trademark banter and less-than-elfin body.

What was your best Christmas?
Well, they were all good. You know when you're younger, you get toys and stuff and your family, your extended family, comes in from out of town? When you are a kid and got gifts you could feel the packaging and know it was going to be socks. That's not fun. I don't want socks. Then I feel the next thing and it's like jeans or something. I was so painfully skinny anyways, it was just a reminder of how awkwardly I was shaped at the time. So then you'd get toys, and you'd open that and that was great. But then you get to a certain age and all you get is clothes. Then the fun of it is over. But now, having a nephew and nieces, that fun is back. There's nothing like kids at Christmas time — the joy that they get, opening the gift that they've been asking for. Setting it up — I'm not that good at setting stuff up — but setting stuff up and playing with it that day, that's really a time to connect and have fun. It's a lot of fun.

How old were you when you stopped believing?
I don't know what you're talking about.

What would be your ideal gifts?
Hot tub, couple girls from Brazil, and a do not disturb sign.

What's your favorite Christmas movie?
I got to say A Christmas Story because Peter Billingsley is my best friend, so I love watching that one. Though there are a lot of great ones.

Vince Vaughn in Fred Claus Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Do you think this movie's a little bit too adult? Is Vince Vaughn maybe too fast or too offbeat for kids?
I'll tell you the great thing about it. The movie has played phenomenal with all audiences. I think Fred in a lot of ways is a big kid. I think he's one of them. So I think that when you're watching the film as a child, you're really connecting to this great world that David [Dobkins] created. You know all these great actors are playing their part. It's almost like those Claymation films that we grew up with, right? Where you walk in this live action sort of reality. I think this is similar. It's got a lot of funny and emotion in it. And the stuff that is for adults is really just smart and clever. It's not that it's grotesque and shocking or risqué. It's a real compliment to David and the tone of the movie that we really never had a need to go there to be enjoyable for adult audiences.