diff --git a/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/execution_time/task_runner.py b/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/execution_time/task_runner.py
index a4d8f6dbbd92d..7b0ff7b42ab80 100644
--- a/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/execution_time/task_runner.py
+++ b/task-sdk/src/airflow/sdk/execution_time/task_runner.py
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ def xcom_pull(
                 )
 
                 if values is None:
-                    xcoms.append(None)
+                    xcoms.append(default)
                 else:
                     xcoms.extend(values)
             # For single task pulling from unmapped task, return single value