December may be the month when the West Coast slows down and the New York area bundles up, but for actors, it’s one of the most strategic windows of the entire year. It’s when productions wrap, casting offices shift gears, and the industry pauses before the January surge.
This guide brings together the most valuable intensives and community events to help you close out 2025 with clarity and step into 2026 with purpose.
Think of it as your actor’s advent calendar: every day holds something to learn, spark, practice, or explore. From local meetup ideas to high-energy live events, this December lineup is designed to keep you grounded, growing, and connected — even while the industry catches its breath.
Here’s to ending the year strong!
Advice & Inspiration
1. The “Holiday Monologue” Challenge – Pick a classic holiday movie or story and rewrite one scene as a modern monologue. Perform it and post it (or just save it for your reel). It sharpens adaptation skills. Here are a few suggestions for movies: Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, Fiddler on the Roof, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
2. Create a Warm-Up Ritual for Cold Weather – Hydrate more than usual and add a short morning vocal steam to protect your voice from dry indoor heat. If you want to go that extra step, use a humidifier such as the Levoit OasisMist 1000S.
3. Email (or even snail mail!) Your Reps a Gratitude Note – A simple, sincere “thank you for the work this year” goes a long way in nurturing the relationship.
4. Update Your Casting Profiles – While this should be ongoing during the year, our busy schedules sometimes keep us from this type of task. Add new credits, new clips, updated sizes, and refresh your bio for January submissions.
5. Practice Cold Reads with Family Holiday Chaos – Ask a friend or family member to hand you a random page from a book. Perform it instantly. Real-life distractions make the rehearsal more useful. This is a lot of fun!
6. Attend a Local Play or Holiday Concert – Support local performers and refill your creative inspiration. Take notes on staging, character presence, and ensemble energy. It’s also a great way to meet new acting friends!
7. Choose One Acting Skill to Master in 2026 – Dialect? Physical comedy? On-camera technique? Pick one. Write a plan. December is perfect for choosing intentional growth.
8. Winter Wardrobe Prep for Auditions – Plan five audition-ready outfits that are warm, layer-friendly, and camera-friendly so you don’t scramble indoors/outdoors all month.
9. Build Your 2026 Vision Board – Creating a Vision Board is a great activity to do on a restful day. Add casting goals, dream roles, collaborators, directors, and locations.
10. Learn How to Write a Script – So what if you don’t think you can write. Put your ideas down and see what happens. Choose a comedy, a drama, or horror and see where it takes you. Work on structure, pacing, and character arcs. This book will help.
11. Celebrate Your 2025 Wins – List 25 achievements from 2025, big or small. Even “I kept going” counts. This boosts confidence before heading into pilot season prep.
12. This month’s social media spotlight goes to Colton Macaulay! “Coltyy” (with two “y’s”) is a guy who literally jumps into quicksand and lets venomous spiders crawl on his face. He turns terrifying situations into a masterclass on instinct, commitment, and staying calm under pressure. Curious. Bold. Unafraid of the messy, unpredictable parts of being human — and being an actor. Who knows? Coltyy’s actions may be the jolt you need to start your own channel.
What to Watch
Special Holiday Month Viewing Guide
Family-Friendly Picks
- The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (Dec. 19 2025) – SpongeBob and Patrick embark on a festive ocean quest filled with jokes and heart.
- My Secret Santa (Dec. 3, Netflix) – A kindhearted holiday mystery about gifts that magically appear around a struggling family.
- Disney Holiday Shorts Collection (Disney+) – Olaf, Groot, and the Pixar crew return in brand-new minis perfect for little ones.
- A Charlie Brown Christmas (CBS Annual Broadcast) – Classic Animation. A tradition still loved by kids and grandparents.
Teen & Young Adult Favorites
- Man vs. Baby (Dec 11, Netflix) – Absurd, youthful humor perfect for bingeing with friends.
- Love Is Blind: Italy (Dec 1, Netflix) – Reality Romance. Huge among YA audiences, especially during the holidays.
- Oh. What. Fun. (Dec 3, Prime) – Holiday family comedy with ensemble cast, fun premise (“mom goes off-script”), good for YA looking for light but smart viewing.
- Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first ever Fazfest.
Adult Line-Up
- Goodbye June (Dec 12, Netflix) – A nostalgic, emotional December romance with strong performances.
- Silent Night, Deadly Night – A reimagining of the controversial 1984 cult horror classic. Holiday-themed for adults who want something other than cozy viewing.
- New York Philharmonic Winter Gala – Elegant, seasonal, and popular among adult viewers.
- The Night Before (2015) – On Christmas Eve, three lifelong friends spend the night in New York City looking for the Holy Grail of Christmas parties.
Films
13. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (action / adventure) – Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR unites Volume 1 and Volume 2 into a single, unrated epic — presented exactly as Quentin intended, complete with a new, never-before-seen anime sequence. Starring Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu, and David Carradine. December 5 in theaters.
14. Avatar: Fire and Ash (sci-fi / adventure) – On December 19, the third installment in James Cameron’s Avatar series starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Winslet hits theaters. The conflict on Pandora escalates as Jake and Neytiri’s family encounter a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe.
15. No Other Choice (drama) Abruptly laid off after 25 years at the same company, a desperate man goes to extreme lengths to eliminate the competition for the job he wants. Starring Lee Byung Hun and Son Yejin. In Select Theaters Christmas and everywhere in January.
16. Marty Supreme (drama) – Want to see a film on Christmas Day, December 25? From writer/director Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher, Marty Supreme is about… wait for it… ping pong!
TV/Small Screen
17. Countdown to 2026: Times Square Celebration is the yearly tradition where you can watch the ball drop! Big musical guests + celebrity hosts. Starts around 6pm ET on December 31.
18. Merv (romantic comedy) Starring Charlie Cox, Zooey Deschanel, and Gus the pooch, this film arrives on Prime on December 10. An estranged couple decide to co-parent their dog, Merv, after their breakup. When the dog becomes depressed, Russ takes him on a holiday to Florida, and Anna unexpectedly shows up, forcing the two to confront their feelings while trying to help their dog.
19. Taylor Swift:The End of an Era (docuseries) premieres on Disney+ on December 12. Experience a streaming event for the eras with behind-the-scenes footage of Taylor’s tour. Taylor Swift’s 6-episode docuseries, The End of an Era, streams exclusively on Disney+ beginning December 12.
20. I AM BOXER (Singapore competition / sports reality) premiered on November 24, 2025, with subsequent episodes following a weekly release schedule throughout December and beyond. The series is a survival competition featuring ninety boxers, hosted by Don Lee, Kim Jong Kook, and Dex. You can watch the available episodes on the Hulu website or as part of the Disney+ and Hulu combined offerings.
Wellness Activities:
21. The “Cozy Character” Journaling Night. Bundle up with blankets, tea, and soft lighting. Spend 20 minutes journaling as one of your characters either past, present, or imaginary. Grab your blank lined Actor’s Journal of if you’re feeling a little more playful, check out the Hack Your Acting Audition Journal.
22. A Holiday Lights Walking Meditation. Visit a decorated neighborhood or park. Walk slowly, notice the lights, breathe deeply, and let the visuals spark story ideas. This combines grounding mindfulness with sensory inspiration.
23. The Winter Body Reset Stretch Session. Do a gentle 10-minute stretch routine after long days spent indoors. Focus on the hips, jaw, upper back, and breath. You can also visit one of the many Stretch Zone franchises or a business like it.
24. Aromatherapy for Audition Nerves. Create a winter scent blend like pine + orange + clove or lavender + peppermint. Use it before filming self-tapes. This builds ritual and sharpens presence.
25. A Holiday Film & Feelings Night. Watch a nostalgic holiday movie, but instead of studying acting choices, tune into your emotional response. Ask yourself, “What did this awaken in me?” The idea is to reconnect you to emotional truth without analysis paralysis.
26. Go Bonkers With a Different Type of Word Search. Pick one Saturday or Sunday to drive yourself off the wall with Scene Stealers for Actors, One Phrase Word Search. This addictively not-so-simple puzzle book challenges you to find just ONE hidden acting phrase per page — but don’t be fooled. These tiny hunts pack big personality.
Live / Virtual Events:
27. Improv Jam is set for December 10 on the second floor of the Oakes Center, 120 Morris Avenue in Summit, NJ. It’s like an open mic for improv!
28. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Winter Tour 2025 has dates set throughout the winter in various cities across the States. When Paul O’Neill first conceived the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, his goal was as straightforward as it was incredibly ambitious. “The whole idea,” he explained, “was to create a progressive rock band that would push the boundaries [of the genre] further than any group before…Way, way further.”
29. Mariah Carey’s Merry & Bright Tour 2025. This performance is part of a 10-show holiday residency running from November 28 through December 13, 2025. She is not on a full “Merry & Bright Tour” in the traditional sense of traveling to multiple cities, but rather performing a limited engagement in one location at the Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, Nevada.
30. ICE! Featuring The Polar Express™” is a holiday attraction at Gaylord National in National Harbor, Maryland that brings the story to life through large-scale ice sculptures. The attraction features scenes from the popular Christmas movie, carved from thousands of blocks of ice, and is typically part of a larger Christmas event held at the resort. There may be sister sites in different throughout the U.S. that have the ICE! Attraction. See the website for more info.
Actors with December Birthdays
Watch their performances for inspiration. Read interviews or biographies of these actors for insight. Post a tribute on social media about the actors below to spark conversation.
December 1
- Zoë Kravitz – The Batman, Big Little Lies, Fantastic Beasts
- Sarah Silverman – Comedian/actor; Wreck-It Ralph, The Sarah Silverman Program
December 3
- Amanda Seyfried – Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls, Les Misérables, The Dropout
December 4
- Jeff Bridges – The Big Lebowski, Crazy Heart, Tron, True Grit
December 5
- Walt Disney (historic figure, actor/voice actor/producer) – Voice of Mickey Mouse, founder of Disney Studios
- Frankie Muniz – Malcolm in the Middle, Agent Cody Banks
December 7
- Nicholas Hoult – X-Men, The Menu, About a Boy, The Great
December 8
- Ian Somerhalder – The Vampire Diaries, Lost
December 9
- Judi Dench – James Bond franchise (M), Philomena, Shakespeare in Love
December 10
- Kenneth Branagh – Harry Potter (Gilderoy Lockhart), Belfast, Thor (director & actor)
- Raven-Symoné – That’s So Raven, The Cosby Show, Raven’s Home
December 11
- Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit, Hawkeye, Bumblebee, Dickinson
December 12
- Mayim Bialik – Big Bang Theory, Jeopardy! host, Blossom
- Regina Hall – Girls Trip, Scary Movie franchise
December 13
- Jamie Foxx – Ray (Oscar), Django Unchained, Collateral
December 18
- Brad Pitt – Fight Club, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Oscar), Troy, Seven
December 20
- Jonah Hill – Superbad, The Wolf of Wall Street, Moneyball
December 22
- Ralph Fiennes – Harry Potter (Voldemort), The Grand Budapest Hotel, Schindler’s List
- Jordin Sparks (actor/singer) – Sparkle, Broadway roles
December 27
- Timothée Chalamet – Dune, Call Me By Your Name, Wonka
December 28
- Denzel Washington – Training Day (Oscar), Fences, Malcolm X, Equalizer
December 29
- Jude Law – The Holiday, Sherlock Holmes, Fantastic Beasts
December 30
- Lucy Punch – Bad Teacher, Into the Woods, Dinner for Schmucks
December 31
- Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs (Oscar), Thor, The Father (Oscar)
