James Stewart has gone down in history as a Hollywood icon largely because he starred in the 1946 classic It’s A Wonderful Life. Now, the late actor’s daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt is opening up about what her favorite holiday memory is with the star.

“My father often said his favorite movie was It’s a Wonderful Life,” Stewart Harcourt told Closer Weekly.

She added that Stewart, who died in 1997 at the age of 89, always made sure to make Christmases special for her family. Her favorite holiday memory of him involved a trip to Hawaii in 1958, where someone made a surprise appearance.

“Once my dad dressed as Santa Claus and came into our bedroom — my sister and I were astounded,” Stewart Harcourt recalled, adding that her father never broke character.

“I slapped him on the back and nudged him, but he just carried on as Santa,” she said.

Stewart Harcourt went on to say that her father was initially drawn to the script for It’s A Wonderful Life because of its hopeful message of love.

“When he needed strength, help and comfort, he would pray and go to church,” she explained.

Karolyn Grimes and Jimmy Hawkins, the former child actors who played Zuzu and Tommy Bailey in the movie, told Fox News last year that they still had fond memories of Stewart.

“Well, when I was upstairs in the petal scene with him and I was sick, I messed up a line,” said Grimes, 80. “Jimmy Stewart said, ‘That’s OK, Karolyn. You’ll get it right next time.’ We did the scene again and I got the line perfectly. I’ll tell you, it was really good for my ego and my self-confidence. He really gave me a pat on the back there, and I’ll never forget that. He was a wonderful, wonderful man. He touched a lot of lives, just being him. He was George Bailey in real life.”

“He was,” added Hawkins, 79. “You could see where Jimmy Stewart came from. Indiana, Pennsylvania — kind of a small town. And of course, Donna Reed in Denison, Iowa. They brought the elements of those towns to that movie. You could see it. They were just regular people and they captured who they really were, from small-town America.”