Jennifer Hudson Determined to Spread Holiday Cheer!

Scrooges beware! Jennifer Hudson is on a mission to convert you. ”It hurts me so when I see people like, ‘Whatever, Christmas is just another day,’” the self-proclaimed “holiday fanatic” said over the phone Friday. “I’m that person who’s going to go over there and get you into the holiday spirit. And that’s how I’ve always been.”

With that kind of attitude, it’s no surprise the Academy Award winner plans to help audiences across the country get into the spirit Monday with her first televised holiday special. Jennifer Hudson: I’ll be Home for Christmas features musical performances shot on location in Hudson’s native Chicago: the local church where she got her start singing in the choir and the music academy where she studied, among other places. Hudson will also introduce audiences to her family, former teachers and childhood friends.

“The first thing you do for the holidays is go back home, so I went back home, and the next thing you do is spend it with all of your family and your friends in those familiar places. That’s why I chose to go back home and share it and make it personal,” Hudson said.

As excited as Hudson is to share this Christmas with her fans, there’s one person she simply can’t wait to spend it with – her 4-month-old son David Daniel Otunga Jr.

“I need to make it great for him,” says the Dreamgirls star of her son’s first Christmas. “I just want to make it as exciting and fun for him as it was for me. And I want him to have this feeling each time this time of year comes around. Whatever that is, that’s what I want to make my tradition.”

With so much already on her plate, there’s one thing the merry mom won’t have to worry about this holiday season – preparing Christmas dinner.

“I learned my lesson from Thanksgiving,” she said. “I bit off far more than I could chew trying to cook because I am not a cook!”

Jennifer Hudson: I’ll be Home for Christmas airs Monday (8 p.m. EST) on ABC.

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