What a difference a year makes! When Marcus Rosner and Vanessa Lengies were filming their new Hallmark movie in early 2025, neither actor was a parent yet.
But as “Snowbound for the Holidays” premieres as part of Hallmark Channel’s 2026 Christmas in July event on July 18, they now both have baby boys who have completely changed their lives in the best ways.
Vanessa Lengies Didn’t Expect How Much She’d Love Being a Mom
HallmarkAhead of her movie’s premiere, Lengies told EntertainmentNow that as she and Rosner filmed in northern Ontario in early 2025, she hadn’t planned to tell the cast and crew of “Snowbound for the Holidays” that she was expecting her first child.
However, after a scary fall on the set, Lengies revealed her happy secret so she could get checked by doctors at a local hospital, who assured her all was well. Months later, in the fall, Lengies welcomed her “perfect” baby boy, Cosmo, with her husband Jens Cromer.
The “Glee” alum told EntertainmentNow that she never imagined how much becoming a mom would change her, reflecting that she’s become “someone who now thinks more about something outside of me and my own experience.”
Noting that it often feels like she has “two minds,” Lengies explained, “One is always thinking, ‘Where is he? What’s he doing? Is he okay? What’s he need next? What’s his next feed? What’s his next nap?’ And there’s just this expanded awareness for him and for the unit of our family, which I love, and I love being a mother.”
Lengies, whose last Hallmark project was 2023’s “Take Me Back For Christmas,” continued, “I never dreamed about what this would look like, and it kind of came on quite suddenly, but not unexpectedly. We were planning to (start a family). But I just feel like I am having a whole new chapter of life, a whole new reality playing out around me that I didn’t expect, and that I love every day.”
Beyond feeling emotionally tethered to Cosmo and her little family, Lengies said that motherhood has given her a new sense of purpose, telling EntertainmentNow, “I feel like I am doing what I’m meant to do, and I can’t explain it.”
“It’s like you get to live your whole life over through their eyes,” she said, “because watching Cosmo discover things for the first time is like I’m discovering it for the first time.”
Marcus Rosner Feared He Wouldn’t Be a Good Dad, But Discovered It’s Very ‘Instinctual’
HallmarkRosner didn’t know he was going to be a dad until after filming “Snowbound for the Holidays,” but Lengies joked to EntertainmentNow that she thinks her pregnancy probably “inspired” Rosner and his wife, producer Ali Kroeker, to start a family. The couple announced their baby boy’s birth on February 1.
Rosner told EntertainmentNow that he put off becoming a father for a while, unsure he was up to the task of being a great dad. But in hindsight, he said, he’s realized he absolutely has what it takes and that the experience has changed him “in a million ways.”
“I feel like I understand myself better,” he said. “Having not grown up with my biological dad, when he was born, it really snapped into focus something that I had missed about my understanding of myself. And now I look at
him, and I’m like, there’s something about seeing the same gender of yourself in another generation. I’m like, ‘Oh, that is my blood, and this is like a small version of me,’ because I’ve never seen a different version of me. I’m, like, nothing else than that kid’s daddy. That’s who I am.”
“I was afraid of that for a long time,” Rosner continued, “and I think we put it off for a few years because of that fact. I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna be good at it because I didn’t have (a present dad), and I don’t really know what to do.’ But like, man, it’s so instinctual, and you just do know (what to do).”
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Lengies happily said that the two little guys have already had their first playdate and that she’s sure they’re destined to be “friends for the rest of our lives.”
“Snowbound for the Holidays,” about a hotel manager (Lengies) tasked with helping the owner of a floundering but charming ski resort (Rosner), premieres on July 18 at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Hallmark Channel, and will be available to stream via Hallmark+ the following day.
