Jennifer Garner posts wholesome content on Instagram, including sharing her volunteering work, a cooking show called “Jennifer’s Pretend Cooking Show,” and some just plain silly, fun moments. There’s also the occasional behind-the-scenes look at her fashion, fitness, and other work moments. It’s a good balance of letting fans see an engaging glimpse of her life without giving away anything too personal.

Jennifer has been a KitchenAid brand ambassador since March 2022. She frequently uses their products on her “Pretend Cooking Show” and participates in different campaigns. For this year’s holiday campaign, Jen was joined by her mom, Pat Garner, in an unconventional ad. It begins with them being led onto a mystery set that KitchenAid had created for them. Once there, they were surprised by a complete replica of the 1980s kitchen from Jennifer’s childhood home, prompting the Garner women to take an emotional trip down memory lane.

Jennifer Garner is revisiting childhood memories with her mom. In a video shared on Instagram on Dec. 7, KitchenAid surprised the 53-year-old actress and her mom, Patricia “Pat” Garner, with a replica of their kitchen from their home in Charleston, W.V., on Greystone Place.

While Jennifer and her mom, 87, were expecting to walk into a typical holiday photoshoot, the familiar wooden table, green refrigerator and sliding glass doors immediately brought Garner to tears.

“This is where we would hang out, all our crafts happened right here with somebody looking through from that side,” Jennifer said while crouching to look underneath the wooden cabinets. “This is the cabinet where you hid the chocolate chips.”

The 13 Going on 30 actress also pointed out an old photo of her mom sitting on the counter, adding that it reminded her of the perm Pat would get while “sitting at that table” on the other side of the room.

“I think it’s a privilege to get to see where we used to be,” Pat noted while sitting at the kitchen table, after which Jennifer expressed just how real it all felt by adding, “I want that to be the den and then I wanna hear dad come home from work. That’s what I feel.”

Jennifer’s dad and Pat’s husband, William, died in 2024 at age 85.

Pat also said that, when they walked into the replica set together, the patterned wallpaper hit her with a particularly strong wave of nostalgia.

Meanwhile, Jennifer said the entire experience gave her “a really deep feeling of homesickness and gratitude.”

“You made everything,” she explained, turning to her mom. “Whatever we had was stuff that we made. You made every cookie we ate, you made our homemade pizza. We would hover around the stove waiting for that.”

Later on in the video, Jennifer and her mom got to relive old memories by making their signature “chock-full cookies” in the replica kitchen.

[From People]

I love this so much. It’s a brilliant ad that pulls on the heart strings. Recreating Jennifer’s childhood home right down to the wallpaper and kitchen table was a really sweet gesture. When you watch the video, it’s obvious that Jen had some sort of advanced warning about the “surprise.” My theory is they gave her some potential set recreation options and asked for pictures but never confirmed which one they were going with. You can tell how moved they both were by how unexpectedly realistic it was because the emotions in their voices and tears in their eyes were genuine. This is truly a great example of how to tap into nostalgia to sell your product. It wouldn’t work with just any actress but it works perfectly with Jen’s brand image and personal history. I don’t need any new kitchen equipment but I’m tempted to get a KitchenAid now.

Jennifer was also recently home in West Virginia for the holidays and visited a local elementary school on behalf of Save The Children, which she’s worked with for over 15 years. She’s so dedicated to charity and is constantly putting her time and money where her mouth is. I’m sure those kids had a blast during her visit.

Photos via social media and credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon