Netflix Sets 'In A Holidaze' for December 2 Release with Maddie Ziegler and Rob Lowe
Netflix will release its film adaptation of Christina Lauren's holiday novel In A Holidaze on December 2, 2026, the authors announced on their Instagram account on 27 August (Deadline).
The film stars Maddie Ziegler, Rob Lowe, Graham Phillips, and Elias Kacavas, with Patton Oswalt, Jackie Sandler, Gil Bellows, and Andrea Anders in supporting roles (Deadline). Tiffany Paulsen wrote and directed the picture — her first directing credit on a Netflix feature. The story centres on a directionless twentysomething who, after making a romantic mistake, finds herself trapped in a time loop, reliving the same Christmas at her family's cabin until she gets it right.
The project moved fast. Deadline first reported a script in early development at Netflix in November 2024 (Deadline). Christina Lauren confirmed on their official site that filming would begin with Netflix in January 2026 (christinalaurenbooks.com), with production scheduled to start on 29 January, according to What's on Netflix (What's on Netflix). A December release means roughly ten months from camera to streaming — a brisk but not unusual turnaround for a Netflix original.
Alloy Entertainment produced the film, with president and chief creative officer Leslie Morgenstein and EVP Film Elysa Koplovitz Dutton producing. Rob Lowe serves as executive producer. In A Holidaze was the first film project to emerge from Alloy's multi-year first-look deal with Netflix — an arrangement giving the streamer first claim on Alloy's slate of properties (Deadline).
Christina Lauren is the pen name for the writing duo Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs, whose 2020 novel became a bestseller in the holiday-romance category. Their literary agency, Weintraub, described the adaptation as "a new romantic comedy starring Maddie Ziegler and Rob Lowe" (Weintraub).
The book-to-screen pipeline for the pair is widening. Their novel The Paradise Problem is in development with Rebelle Media, and Love and Other Words is in the adaptation process with Magic Hour Entertainment (Deadline). Their next novel, The Romance Revival, was published on 14 July 2026 (christinalaurenbooks.com).
Netflix's Tudum page for new book adaptations in 2026 listed In A Holidaze among its incoming literary titles back in May (Netflix Tudum). A 2 December drop places the film squarely in the holiday corridor — early enough to catch viewers planning their seasonal watchlists, late enough to land after the Thanksgiving rush in the United States.
