Jennifer Garner brings her mom straight into her past in a heartfelt new video that features the recreation of her childhood kitchen down to the smallest detail. As the actress and her mom take a walk down memory lane, the two reminisce about family recipes and holiday traditions.
Jennifer & Her Mom Are Transported Back in Time
The “13 Going on 30” actress shared the reel on her Instagram on December 7, featuring her and her mom, Patricia, seeing her childhood kitchen lovingly recreated by Kitchen Aid.
The company originally invited the pair to do a holiday photo shoot for them, but they had something even more special in mind and decided to surprise them right before the holidays.
“This is a total surprise to Mom and me,” Garner began the video, tightly holding onto her mom’s hand. She assured viewers that her reaction would be a genuine one when she added, “we have seen nothing.”
The caption on the video pointed out that “kitchens hold the sweetest holiday memories,” just as Garner noticed that outside the set was a “Greystone Place” street sign that both her and her mom recognized.
“Look at this!” her mom exclaimed alongside the actress who realized, “that’s our actual table.”
“There’s the sliding glass door, and there’s the laundry,” Garner looked around the set of her childhood kitchen in complete awe, beginning to get emotional. “I wasn’t expecting to be so…” she said, teary-eyed as she touched her heart.
Garner shared a warm hug with her mom. “That’s so nice,” she said as they embraced, which made her long for her whole family to be in the space together. “Oh, I want my sisters.”
“Now, this was my dream,” Garner pointed out the yellow stand-mixer sitting on the counter, an addition to the otherwise perfectly recreated set. “To have a stand-mixer. And wouldn’t a yellow mixer have looked so good?”
“And this is where we would hang out. All our crafts happened here,” Garner said of the counter space where the stand-mixer was. “This is the cabinet where you hid the chocolate chips.” Garner pointed to one of the cabinets, which elicited a hearty laugh from her mom.
“And there’s the green refrigerator,” her mom said before the video cut to a clip that gave a full view of the fridge, which was covered in crayon drawings hung up by colorful magnets.
Garner continued to admire how they even got the smallest details right. “They got the wallpaper.”
They also had a framed photo of her mom on one of the counters. Garner picked up the photo and asked her mom, “do you know what I think when I think of this picture? The perm you would get sitting at that table.”
At the end of the video, Garner sat at the table with her mom, surrounded by beautiful memories adorned with holiday cheer.
“I think it’s a privilege to get to see where we used to be,” her mom said, still looking around, and Garner agreed.
When emphasizing how real the set felt to her, Garner said, “I want that to be the den, and then I want to hear Dad come home from work. That’s what I feel. It’s like you said, what a privilege to get to visit your past.”
She went on to ask her mom, “when we walked in together, what struck you the most?”
“The wallpaper,” she answered, and when she was asked what she felt the most when walking in, she replied, “nostalgic.”
“It gave me a really deep feeling of homesickness and gratitude,” Garner concluded before telling her mom how thankful she was for making everything they had as children, like every cookie they ate for the holiday season.
Garner Shares a Tribute to Her Parents
GettyOn April 8, 2025, the actress shared an Instagram story noting the anniversary of her father William’s death.
“We buried our dad a year ago today. Everyone I speak to asks how my mom is doing (thank you for asking, friends). I spoke to my mom for a long time this morning — she spent half of the conversation telling me she’s grateful and the other half laughing,” Garner shared in the post. “She loves and misses Dad (of course, he was the best and they were such a great time), but Mom is determined to live.”
“You are the coolest, best example, Mom. I love you,” Garner concluded, adding “Hi, Dad, we love you too.”
