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Lucy Hale: Pretty Little Liars’ Christmas Special Is “Just As Heavy, Dramatic, and Mysterious” As Ever

Pretty Little Liars' "How the 'A' Stole Christmas" special episode.
Hold me closer: Aria (Lucy Hale) and the Liars get on the dance floor in the Pretty Little Liars Christmas special.

Get out the eggnog, Liars!

For the first time in its five-season history, Pretty Little Liars ditched its annual Halloween episode in favor of a Christmas special. (Merry Christmas, terror lovers!) While we were initially sad about the lack of PLL Halloween costume fabulousness this year, Lucy Hale helped Us Weekly feel much better about the swap—because it involves the series’ handsome men stripped down!

Related: PHOTOS: PLL stars: Then and now!

Ashley Benson - Pretty Little Liars
Ashley Benson (as Hanna) looks spooked but oh-so-pretty in this still from the Pretty Little Liars Christmas special.

“We, the girls, have these amazing, beautiful costumes,” Hale said, referencing the ice-blue, seemingly Frozen-inspired dresses pictured on the Liars (including Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, and Troian Bellisario) in stills from the episode, airing Tuesday, Dec. 9.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebs buying Christmas trees

Sasha Pierterse - Pretty Little Liars
Allison (Sasha Pieterse) arrives at Rosewood High’s Winter Formal with a new gang of masked ladies in the PLL Christmas special.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebs' favorite holiday traditions

But, the budding country crooner added, there’s an even better costume change: “You get to see all the guys in Santa boxers—and nothing else. I’m dead serious! I think Ian Harding did about 1,000 crunches beforehand,” Hale quipped.

Pretty Little Liars
Ouch! Looks like the Pretty Little Liars Christmas special is going to come with some bruises!

Related: PHOTOS: See Lucy's glam red carpet style

Yes, please! Though that’s not the only change of scenery Hale witnessed: Rosewood got snowed in! “Everyone’s always laughing because [the show is set] in Pennsylvania, and there’s a lot of snow there, but you don’t see it on our show,” the petite actress, who plays aspiring writer Aria in the series, told Us. “So for the Christmas episode, we brought in a snow truck and filled up the whole Warner Brothers backlot with fake snow. While it was, like, 105 degrees. It was crazy—it was so hot!”

Janel Parrish - Pretty Little Liars
Boo! Mona, played by Janel Parrish, returns from the dead as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the PLL Christmas episode.

That’s not the only thing crazy about the Christmas special! Thanks to sneak peek images from tonight’s episode, it looks like former queen bee Allison (Sasha Pieterse) arrives at Rosewood High’s Winter Formal with a new gang of masked ladies. And Mona (Janel Parrish) returns from the grave as the Ghost of Christmas Past!

Lindsay Shaw and Shay Mitchell - Pretty Little Liars
“A” alert? Lindsay Shaw and Shay Mitchell strike a dramatic pose in the Pretty Little Liars Christmas special.

“Despite [the Christmas backdrop], the episode is just as heavy, just as dramatic, just as mysterious as always,” Hale teased. “The girls are still being hunted down. In fact, the episode is probably even more dramatic, because we had to overcompensate for it being Christmas. We added even more drama to it.”

To see all the drama, tune in to ABC Family on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET for the holiday special.

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