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Shot during the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). The special has been described by Gunn as the epilogue of Phase Four of the MCU.
The Holiday Special was the first piece of content Marvel Studios planned to create for Disney+, and was originally conceived by Gunn during the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017); at that time, it was being developed for ABC following Vol. 2's release. Gunn stated that the special would be live-action and canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and noted that he had been a fan of the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and animated Christmas specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) as a child.
For the flashback scenes they used old school rotoscoping animation in the style of the Ralph Bakshi films that James Gunn watched growing up and to give the 1970s and '80s nostalgic Christmas special feel. They filmed actors Luke Klein, Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn and then traced the footage frame by frame. Luke's features were altered to more closely resemble young Peter, Rooker's fin was added, and Sean was reduced in size to his younger self. The rotoscoping effects were done by Stoopid Buddy Studios.
Gunn decided to focus on the Drax and Mantis relationship in the special because he felt those characters had been "sidelined" in their appearances outside of the Guardians of the Galaxy films between Vol. 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
Gunn noted there were parts of the special that would help set up material in Vol. 3, calling the Holiday Special a "Trojan Horse" that allowed him to introduce important elements to Vol. 3 that he then would not need to explain at the beginning of that film. Some of this material includes filling in the Guardians recent history, such as how they now operate out of Knowhere, have a new ship called the Bowie, Cosmo the Spacedog is now a member of the Guardians, and "a couple of bigger pieces of spoiler-y lore".
In the comics, Cosmo the Spacedog is male but in the special is female, voiced by Maria Bakalova. This harkens back to the actual Soviet space dog program where many of the canines were female, including Laika, the very first Earth-born creature in space, which Cosmo is based on.
Kevin Bacon had previously starred as a mutant villain, Sebastian Shaw, in the Marvel film X-Men: First Class (2011).
The house used as Kevin Bacon's in the film actually belongs to music artist David Crowder. It was remodeled by his wife, Toni, who is an architect.
While Kevin Bacon is at home he is watching Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) in which Santa is kidnapped and taken to outer space, which is exactly what happens to himself a few minutes later.
The band on Knowhere, that eventually backs up Kevin Bacon, is played by James Gunn's favorite band Old 97's. Gunn wrote the lyrics to the opening song, "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)". "Here It Is Christmastime" is an existing Old 97's song rerecorded with Bacon for the end of the special.
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