The xXx star talks superstitions, guilty pleasures and more in PEOPLE’s “One Last Thing”

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He may be one of the world’s biggest action stars, but when it comes to his kids, Vin Diesel is a big softie.

“My pride in my kids is through the roof,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Oh my God, I’m proud of them all the time.” The star of xXx: Return of Xander Cage, 49, is dad to daughters, Similce, 8, and Pauline, 23 months, and son Vincent, 6, with his wife, Paloma Jimenez. “The last time was when Pauline said, ‘Merry Christmas, everyone, from the Diesels,’ and she put it all together in one sentence,” he adds. “It was a big moment.”

For more of Diesel’s One Last Thing interview, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE on newsstands now

The actor admits he can easily get teary-eyed when it comes to his children. “My kids move me to tears all the time,” he says. “My daughter Similce said to me a couple of weeks ago, ‘Daddy, I know what song should at every funeral.’ I said, ‘What is it?’ And she said, ‘See You Again.’ That was not fair.”

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Diesel also has his fair share of superstitions. Most recently he was driving a golf cart with his kids in the back when he suddenly had to pull over. “They were watching the xXx trailer. At the end of it, my son goes, ‘That’s going to be a giant hit,’ ” the actor recalls. “I stopped in the middle of traffic and had to kiss him on both cheeks. Just to let the universe know I had heard.”

As for guilty pleasures, Diesel insists he has a hard time resisting ice cream — mint chocolate chip to be exact. “It’s hard for me to refuse,” he says, noting he last indulged over the holidays. “I don’t actively go out and buy it, but it was put in front of me, and I was just like, ‘All right, no one’s looking. I deserve it.’ “