Cozy night
In a HolidazeBook club questions, food & host guide
Christina Lauren
A cozy book club night for In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.
A club that reads for comfort and shows up in slippers to talk about feelings more than footnotes
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A snowed-in holiday romance about a woman who wishes for happiness and gets a chance to redo the same Christmas week in a beloved cabin full of chosen family. It is warm, funny, and tailor-made for a December night under blankets.
Why it works for clubs
- The found-family cabin setup gives everyone something to talk about: traditions, belonging, and the people you choose
- The time-loop premise invites gentle what-would-you-redo conversation without needing literary analysis
- Short, fast, and genuinely feel-good, so nobody arrives half-finished
- Christina Lauren is a writing duo, which sparks fun talk about co-written books
Themes & mood
Browse all themes →Reading level
Easy
Pages
320
Warm-up questions
- 1 If you could be snowed in for a week at any one place from your own life, where would it be, and who would have to be there?
- 2 What was the first moment in this book where you felt yourself relax into it, like settling into a warm room?
Digging in
- 1 The Hollis cabin is a place where traditions get repeated every year on purpose. Which of your own repeated traditions comforts you most, even the slightly silly ones?
- 2 Mae is surrounded by people who are family without being related to her. When has a group like that held you up, and what did it feel like to be let in?
- 3 This book treats a wish for happiness as a real and reasonable thing to ask for. If you got to make that wish out loud tonight, what would you actually be asking for?
- 4 So much of the warmth here comes from small sensory things: snow outside, a crowded kitchen, old pajamas. Which of those details stayed with you after you closed the book?
Going deep
- 1 Getting to live the same days again means getting to be braver in them. Was there a stretch of your own life you would happily walk back through, not to fix it, but just to say the thing you did not say?
- 2 By the last pages, Mae has changed how she treats her own wanting. Without giving anything away, did the book leave you feeling more hopeful about asking for what you want, or more tender about how hard that is?
On the table
Big pot of creamy potato soup with a bread bowl basket
Exactly the thing you eat after coming in from the snow, and it holds all night for latecomers
Decorate-your-own sugar cookies with bowls of icing and sprinkles
A cabin-kitchen Christmas activity that doubles as something to do with your hands while you talk
Pan of warm cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze
Pajama-morning food, served at night on purpose, since this is a book about getting a holiday morning over and over
To sip
Slow cooker hot cocoa with whipped cream and crushed candy cane
No alcohol
The non-alcoholic anchor of the night, and the drink of every snowed-in kitchen
Mulled red wine with orange peel and cinnamon sticks
Smells like the whole house is a cabin, and it needs almost no tending
Spiked eggnog or buttered rum, poured by request
The slightly indulgent grown-up option for a holiday house full of chosen family
Soft, crackly holiday warmth: acoustic guitars, vintage crooners, and a little snow-globe nostalgia at low volume
Tap a track to play it. Full songs play when you're signed into Spotify.
Run of show
7:00
Slippers and cocoa
Blankets on the couch, cocoa in the slow cooker, no seating chart. Let people drift in for twenty minutes before anything starts.
7:20
Soup and warm-ups
Serve soup in mugs so it is lap-friendly, then pass the two warm-up questions around the circle.
7:45
Cookie decorating and theme talk
Move to the table, hand out icing, and work through the theme questions while everyone frosts. Hands busy makes mouths honest.
8:20
Trivia break
Read trivia out loud, no teams, no scoring unless someone insists. Winner picks the next book's dessert.
8:40
The deep two
Dim the lights, refill the warm drinks, and take the two deep questions slowly. Silence is allowed here.
9:05
Scorecards and soft landing
Fill out scorecards, read a few out loud, hand out bookmarks, send leftovers home in jars.
Host tips
- Say it in the invite: pajamas or sweatpants encouraged. One person in real clothes changes the whole temperature of the night.
- Nobody has to answer. Let the question go around in order so the quiet people get a turn without being called on.
- Make the soup the day before. A host who is still cooking at 7:15 cannot be cozy.
You're invited
Snowed In (On Purpose)
Come be cozy with us for In a Holidaze: soup in mugs, cookies to frost, and cocoa that never runs out. Pajamas strongly encouraged, opinions optional.
Trivia
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1
Christina Lauren is the pen name for how many writers?Answer: Two. It is the writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.
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2
What year was In a Holidaze published?Answer: 2020.
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3
Roughly how long is the book?Answer: About 320 pages.
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4
Which bestseller list did the book appear on in 2020?Answer: The New York Times list, in trade fiction paperback.
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5
What genre blend does the book sit in?Answer: Holiday romantic comedy with a time-loop twist.
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6
What holiday season is the story set during?Answer: Christmas.
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7
Which Christina Lauren novel got a Netflix film adaptation?Answer: The Unhoneymooners is the one often cited in adaptation news; the duo's Roomies and others have also been optioned.
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8
The classic film most often compared to this book's premise is about a weatherman stuck repeating one day. What is it?Answer: Groundhog Day.
Bookmarks
Cozy night
Warm and still
Snow outside, a crowded kitchen, nowhere to be.
In a Holidaze
Cozy night
Tender hope
Some wishes are just asking to be happy out loud.
In a Holidaze
Cozy night
Snowed in
Keep the cocoa coming. We are not leaving.
In a Holidaze
Rate the book
Coziness
Warmth of the characters
How much it made me feel
Holiday atmosphere
Would reread in December
One word for how this book left me:
The scene I would live in:
Who I want to lend this to:
Print pack
- Warm-up and theme question cards in a mug on the table
- Cocoa bar label tent cards (cocoa, mulled wine, add-ins)
- Printable bookmarks, three to a page, for the take-home pile
- Cozy scorecards on half sheets with pencils
- A snowed-in door sign for the invite photo and the front door
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