When you’ve been in show business for as long as Dan Lauria has, “home for the holidays” means many things: carving up a turkey with Fred Savage and Danica McKellar, his castmates from TV’s “The Wonder Years,” or going to his mentor Charles Durning’s house on Christmas Eve.
And then there are the Bronx native’s actual relatives. “Christmas night is always at my Aunt Millie’s, who’s 103 and lives alone in Richmond Hill, Queens,” says Lauria, 66. Last year, he had a limo pick up his aunt and bring her to Broadway to see him in “A Christmas Story,” the musical based on Jean Shepherd’s iconic story, which was also the basis for the classic 1983 film. (The show is playing at the Theater at Madison Square Garden through Dec. 29.)
“The kids in the show were like, ‘How’d you get to be 102?’ ” Lauria recalls. “And [Millie] said, ‘Well, first God has to lose your address.’ ”
Here are a few more of his own Christmas stories:
Shopping Little Italy with his mom
“I love to go to Little Italy and have cannolis at Ferrara’s, because I always did that with my mother. For Christmas, the pastries have red and green sprinkles, and there’s tinsel all around. We’d buy a cannoli and maybe a little gelato and walk around to the little shops and she’d always buy something. She found a carving that said ‘Carmela’s Kitchen’ there one Christmas night, and it was in her kitchen for 30 years.”
(Ferrara Bakery & Cafe, 195 Grand St.)
Trading war stories
“Last year, Gen. Carl Fulford, who was my captain in the Marine Corps, came to see ‘A Christmas Story,’ and I took him and little Johnny Rabe, our 12-year-old lead, to Joe Allen’s. Johnny’s ambition in life is to be a military historian, and they sat there talking about the Civil War. I’m thinking, ‘It’s Christmas and we’re talking about war!’ The thing you get at Joe Allen’s that’s the best is the desserts. That banana cream pie, the Key lime pie . . . For Christmas, they usually drop a little red sugar on top of the fresh whipped cream.”
(Joe Allen, 326 W. 46th St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues)
Visiting his “dad,” Charles Durning
“Charlie was like my dad, and I always saw him on Christmas Eve, after a show. We would have dinner together and he always had the same toast: ‘Here’s to all the plays we’re going to do next year.’ His idea of Christmas was watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ for the 9 millionth time, and always finding something new . . . He and Jack Klugman, my other mentor, both passed away [last] Christmas Eve. That Thursday, the lights on Broadway were darkened for Charlie, and the next night, for Jack.”
(90 Riverside Drive at 81st Street)
Gathering ’round the leg lamp “tree”
“We were all working so hard last year, we didn’t even have Christmas Eve off. So [cast members] John Bolton, Erin Dilly, Caroline O’Connor and I ordered some red and green scarves with ‘A Christmas Story’ on it, got there real early, wrapped them up and gave them to the kids. We’re debating what we’re going to do this year — maybe gloves. My dressing room’s a hangout. Last year, Kathy Kline, my dresser, turned a leg lamp into a Christmas tree — she tossed some tinsel around it.”
(The Theater at Madison Square Garden, 4 Pennsylvania Plaza)