Kate Beckinsale 'Didn't Realize' She Was Straddling Santa & Instagram Just Lost It

Kate Beckinsale/Instagram

When you straddle Santa Claus, you generally know it. Kate Beckinsale proved a different story earlier today as she posted a snap ahead of the upcoming holiday.

Kate's Instagram photo showed her posing with a friend and a very festive-looking Santa. The 46-year-old was perched on Santa's knee with her legs apart and looking a touch caught-off-guard.

The caption said it all, though. Kate straight-up stated that she hadn't "realized" that she was straddling Santa until after the picture was taken – Kate then wrote that she figured she'd be getting "coal" this year.

Kate's Instagram is definitely a humorous one. It's also followed by individuals who appear to share the British actress' fun streak – their comments today definitely reflected that.

"You could say, legs a crimbo," a fan wrote.

"I think Santa will let ya slide on this one ?," another added.

"Only you ???" was another comment.

It looked like Kate's fans had spotted Santa's facial expression, too.

"Happiest looking Santa you’ll ever see. And I don’t think coal is exactly what was on his mind at that moment. ??❤️?," one fan wrote, appearing to carefully choose their emoji.

Kate's social media doesn't come with a Kardashian-level following. The "Pearl Harbor" actress has 3.7 million Instagram followers. Nonetheless, Kate's post racked up over 110,000 likes in the space of 19 hours.

Kate then followed her still image up with a video in the same setting. Here, the star simply couldn't hold it together and was seen laughing alongside her gal pal.

Kate seemed to be in the mood to be spotted in her Insta-look in public: the actress headed out for some Christmas shopping later in the day and was even seen vaping in the street.

Gettyimages | Dia Dipasupil

Kate is currently fronting media outlets on account of her Women's Health feature. The star spoke to the magazine about her lifestyle (and that fabulous figure), alongside mentioning that she was told to lose weight for her breakthrough "Pearl Harbor" movie.

Kate did talk food, though. The British beauty made an interesting comparison as she talked chocolate.

"I think some people's systems are just a bit sensitive to things," she said.

"If you told me you had nausea yesterday, I might start throwing up myself. If I ate too much dark chocolate, it would be like someone else taking cocaine," Kate added.

Gettyimages | Frazer Harrison

If you've been eyeing up the body that's been dubbed Benjamin Button by a fan, you might want to listen up.

Kate spoke of prioritizing wellness.

"I'm very connected to my body, so if I'm going to experience stress, I'm probably going to experience it physically," she continued.

"So it's usually a good idea for me to go do something physical to get rid of it. I kind of have to think of myself as a horse or something — time for a run around the paddock."

We've heard it a million times before, but not from Kate. The Women's Health feature also saw Kate reveal that "Pearl Harbor" director Michael Bay asked her to shed the pounds for the role.

“It wasn’t great, it didn’t make me feel good, and in general, I think women are body-shamed 100 million percent more than men. But on this particular project, I wasn’t,” Kate stated.

Less about the weight and more about Santa, it looks like Kate more than delivered with her Instagram update.