Jamie Foxx knows the true meaning of Christmas: lighting your house up so you can see it from space. The actor/singer who has been keeping a low profile since an as-yet-unexplained “medical complication” sent him to a hospital in April spread some holiday joy on Monday in a short video chronicling the North Pole-worthy decorations at his California mansion, a display he said was inspired by his more modest childhood Christmases.
“When I was a kid the only lights we could afford for outside the house was a red light bulb… I said when I’m finally blessed enough. I’m GON LIGHT IT UP!!! Murrrrrrkrima,” Foxx wrote. The clip — cued to Nat “King” Cole’s iconic “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas)” — appears to be a drone-shot fly-over of the sprawling estate.
It opens with a swoop past giant red letters spelling out “JOY,” which leads to the snowman-flanked front gate, hung with snowflakes and Jewish stars. An overhead shot gives a glimpse of the long driveway studded with colorfully lit-up trees, leading up to a smiling Black Santa statue near the circular driveway outside the front door.
The flight then takes us for a spin around the house, which is festooned with lights from top-to-bottom and a final shot of the star’s tennis/pickleball courts and a last look from above proving that Foxx is no Grinch.
Foxx made his first public appearance since the medical issue on Dec. 4, where he told the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements that the incident was horrifying.
“I couldn’t do that six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk to [the stage]. And I’m not a clone, I’m not a clone. I know a lot of people saying that I was cloned out there,” the Oscar-winner told the crowd at the Fairmont Plaza Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It feels good to be here. I cherish every single minute now, it’s different. I wouldn’t wish what I went though on my worst enemy because it’s tough when it’s almost over, when you see the tunnel. I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘S–t, am I going to the right place?’”
The unannounced appearance marked Foxx’s first official public appearance since his hospitalization; to date, spokespeople for Foxx, 55, have not given any details about what medical condition prompted the actor’s hospitalization. “I have a new respect for life, I have a new respect for my art. I watched so many movies and listened to so many songs trying to have the time go by,” he said. “Don’t give up on your art, man, don’t give up on your art. When you realize that it could be over like that… I got to tell you don’t give up on your art and don’t let them take the art from you either.”
Check out Jamie Foxx’s Christmas display below.
