Sara Paxton Reveals Why She Isn't Spending Thanksgiving with Husband Zach Cregger This Year (Exclusive)

The actress spoke to PEOPLE at the Los Angeles Mission Thanksgiving on Skid Row event Nov. 27

Duty calls for actress Sara Paxton and her filmmaker husband Zach Cregger, even if it means having to be apart on Thanksgiving.

Speaking with PEOPLE at the Los Angeles Mission Thanksgiving on Skid Row event in L.A. Wednesday, Nov. 27, the Aquamarine star, 36, revealed she and Cregger, 43, will be spending the holiday on different coasts this year.

“His family’s on the East Coast and he has to stay for work, so he will stay,” Paxton says. “That’s sad, but that’s OK. That’s all right. For the [December] holidays we’ll come together. I think we’re just going to have a New York Christmas.”

Paxton said that Cregger, who wrote and directed the 2022 horror hit Barbarian, is currently hard at work on a new project in New York, and she’s been “going back and forth to see him.” The couple — who both appeared in the 2013 romantic comedy Love & Air Sex — tied the knot in October 2019 in Austin, Texas.

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Though the Based on a True Story actress won’t have Cregger by her side on Turkey Day, she will have plenty of family to celebrate with.

“I do the same thing every year,” she explained of her holiday traditions. “My family is here and my dad cooks and I’m going to help a little bit. I make a vegetable and, yeah, I’m going to see my family.”

The star added that because she and Cregger married just several months before the pandemic hit, they’ve been a bit “sidelined” when it comes to starting their own family traditions, but they hope to start next year.

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“In my family, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas and so I definitely want to keep that going, carry on doing both,” she said.

Paxton was just one of many to turn out for the annual event on Skid Row, which serves more than 4,000 meals to the underprivileged. Volunteers also donate more than 2,000 items of clothing and offer free haircuts, manicures and pedicures to those in need.

“I just think it’s so important to support our community, and everyone deserves a hot meal during the holidays on Thanksgiving,” she said. “I’m really happy to be here.”