Hallmark Unwraps Its 2026 Countdown to Christmas Lineup: All 34 New Movies, Stars and Premiere Dates
Hallmark is officially ready to deck the halls and this year, the network is going bigger than ever. Hallmark Channel has announced its full 2026 Countdown to Christmas slate, featuring a record 34 new original movies beginning Friday, October 16 and continuing through Sunday, December 20.
The 17th annual holiday event adds 10 more original movie premieres than Hallmark aired in 2025. Its 10-week schedule will keep Christmas programming running around the clock while introducing new stories centered on romance, family, community and holiday adventure.
This year’s schedule combines familiar Hallmark favorites with some of the network’s most ambitious holiday settings yet. The lineup travels from the world of the Chicago Bears and the magic of Walt Disney World to the historic halls of Biltmore Estate. Along the way, viewers will find stories built around Italian-American Christmas traditions in Boston’s North End, a cozy family inn in Copenhagen, a Welsh bookshop, a Christmas Eve time loop and a holiday road trip through the Midwest.
There is plenty of star power across the slate, including Lacey Chabert, Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker, Nikki DeLoach, Kevin McGarry, Rachel Boston, Paul Campbell, Kimberley Sustad, Niall Matter, Pascale Hutton, Brendan Penny, Alison Sweeney, Jonathan Bennett, Tamera Mowry-Housley and many more.
Unless otherwise noted, all movies premiere at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.
Three major partnerships anchor Hallmark’s biggest lineup yet
Three tentpole movies showcase Hallmark’s ongoing partnerships with the NFL, The Walt Disney Company and Biltmore.
Hallmark opens the season on October 16 with ‘Tis the Season for Setups, starring Amanda Schull, Victor Webster and Barbara Niven. The following night, Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story brings Hallmark’s partnership with the NFL and Skydance Sports to Chicago for its third installment. Lyndsy Fonseca and Robert Buckley lead the film, joined by an extensive roster of Bears players and legends and cameos from several familiar Hallmark faces.
The Hallmark-Disney connection dates to the friendship between Hallmark founder J.C. Hall and Walt Disney, which made Hallmark one of Mickey Mouse’s earliest licensees. That history now reaches the screen with Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, filmed at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and starring Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle. A coordinated collection of cards, ornaments, gift wrap, apparel, home goods and accessories will feature a custom holiday toile design, while a limited-time Disney Springs pop-up is scheduled to open in early October.
After viewers embraced the 2023 movie A Biltmore Christmas, Hallmark returns to America’s Largest Home for an all-new time-travel romance. A Grand Biltmore Christmas was filmed at Biltmore and on its grounds, with part of the story set during the Gilded Age. A companion Hallmark product collection inspired by the movie will be available through Biltmore Estate Shops and Biltmore’s online shop during the holiday season.
Thanksgiving reunions, traditions and holiday magic
Thanksgiving weekend will be especially packed, with seven premieres across four days. Among them is The Christmas Eve Feast, starring Daniella Monet and Kevin McGarry and executive produced by Giada De Laurentiis. The movie follows a New York chef who returns to Boston’s Italian North End to help her family prepare its traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes.
Also arriving that weekend is Return to Santa, which reunites Paul Campbell and Rachel Boston; Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, starring Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle; the Hanukkah time-travel romance Eight Nights for Love, with Hunter King and Dan Jeannotte; and Miles to Christmas, starring Ashley Williams, Steve Lund and Alison Sweeney.
In December, Holland Roden and Niall Matter lead A Grand Biltmore Christmas, joined by Andie MacDowell, James Trevena, Jonathan Frakes, Rachel Boston and Wes Brown. The story begins when Biltmore House first opens to guests on Christmas Eve 1895 before moving between 1915 and the present day.
The season concludes December 20 with Save the Date for Christmas, starring Jonathan Bennett and Italia Ricci as longtime friends who have both been unlucky in love. Susie has given up on dating, while Alec is searching for the right man; a last-minute Christmas wedding forces them to reconsider romance, marriage and the possibility that love may arrive when they least expect it.
Hallmark’s complete 2026 Countdown to Christmas schedule
October
Friday, October 16 — ‘Tis the Season for Setups
Stars: Amanda Schull, Victor Webster and Barbara Niven
A single mom and party planner clashes with a ski instructor while the pair secretly try to spark a romance between their parents—only to find their own matchmaking plans turned back on them.
Saturday, October 17 — Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story
Stars: Lyndsy Fonseca, Robert Buckley, Marsha Mason, Barbara Alyn Woods and Khary Payton
A reporter who knows little about football profiles a Chicago Bears superfan preparing to attend her 500th game—with help from the woman’s firefighter grandson. The movie features cameos from Bears head coach Ben Johnson, quarterback Caleb Williams, several players and alumni, Staley Da Bear, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Marilu Henner and more.
Sunday, October 18 — Mr. & Mrs. Christmas
Stars: Brendan Penny and Pascale Hutton
A single dad and holiday display expert partners with a practical accountant to revive their town’s Christmas market and discovers that new traditions may be exactly what his family needs.
Friday, October 23 — Winter Wonderlanes
Stars: Ashley Newbrough and Franco Lo Presti
A globe-trotting restaurateur returns home to save her late grandfather’s beloved bowling alley and reunites with the local reporter who was once her high school boyfriend.
Saturday, October 24 — Forgotten Holiday
Stars: Janel Parrish and Daniel Lissing
After an accident erases her boyfriend’s memories of their relationship and his love of Christmas, a woman retraces their romance while confronting the fears that made her run from his proposal.
Sunday, October 25 — What If Christmas
Stars: Lori Loughlin and Tom Cavanagh
A woman who gave up her fashion dreams awakens in an alternate reality where she is a famous designer—and must decide whether the life she imagined is truly the life she wants.
Friday, October 30 — Who’s Coming for Christmas?
Stars: Rhiannon Fish, Jake Foy and Mila Morgan
A newcomer plans to fill her late grandmother’s table for eight on Christmas Eve, but bad weather may leave only her, a kind neighbor and his daughter to create their own holiday miracle.
Saturday, October 31 — Adopting St. Nick
Stars: Amy Groening and Michael Rady
A busy single mother, her adopted daughter and a nomadic retirement-community director rally to save a Christmas companionship program—with help from a resident who looks remarkably like Santa.
November
Sunday, November 1 — A Danish Christmas
Stars: Emilie Ullerup and Corey Sevier
A Chicago hotel executive returns to her family’s Copenhagen inn and mistakes a guest for a travel writer, launching an imperfect attempt to create the perfect Danish Christmas.
Friday, November 6 — Merry Memories
Stars: Lindura and Brendan Morgan
A precision-minded accountant and a free-spirited substitute teacher help her nephew make a holiday scrapbook for his deployed mother, creating new memories of their own.
Saturday, November 7 — Holiday Unplugged
Stars: Nikki DeLoach and Juan Pablo Di Pace
When treasured family videos disappear, a widowed mother institutes a screen-free Christmas while secretly searching for the original tapes with help from a former colleague—and new dating-app match.
Sunday, November 8 — A Season of Promises
Stars: Brooke D’Orsay, Ali Liebert and James Denton
Two estranged sisters put aside their differences after their widowed father lands in the hospital, then join forces to help him find companionship for Christmas.
Friday, November 13 — My Christmas Cowboy
Stars: Amy Acker, Luke Macfarlane and Sara Canning
A small-town news producer must teach her former college crush—now a Hollywood personality—how to ride and rope when he is recruited to host her family’s Reindeer Roundup.
Saturday, November 14 — The Nights Before Christmas
Stars: Tyler Hynes and Laci J Mailey
A man trapped in a Christmas Eve time loop uses the repeated day to change his life and win the heart of a journalist who forgets him every morning.
Sunday, November 15 — Mistletoe and Mimosas
Stars: Tamera Mowry-Housley, Kristoffer Polaha and Jennifer Robertson
A business consultant inherits her uncle’s Christmas-themed bar and enters a 12-day holiday competition with the neighboring club’s manager, turning commercial rivalry into undeniable attraction.
Friday, November 20 — Our Holiday Playbook
Stars: Taylor Cole and Charles Michael Davis
A baker recruits her former-boyfriend-turned-teacher for a fake relationship so he can join her family’s intensely competitive Christmas flag-football team.
Saturday, November 21 — Christmas in Blue Dog Valley
Stars: Erin Cahill and Andrew Walker
A Hollywood set veterinarian buys a small-town clinic and works with its former owner’s charming black-sheep son—and a mysterious dog named Blue—to win over the community.
Sunday, November 22 — Double Booked for the Holidays
Stars: Rachael Leigh Cook, Owain Yeoman and Stephen Hagan
Identical twins spend Christmas in a Welsh bookshop town and become entangled in crossed romances involving a friendly barista, a dashing lord and a beloved Regency book series.
Thursday, November 26 — Christmas Delivered
Stars: Autumn Reeser and Wes Brown
A methodical tech expert helps a spontaneous Christmas-tree farmer rescue his troubled delivery app—and discovers she may be ready for a life change.
Friday, November 27 at 6 p.m. — The Christmas Eve Feast
Stars: Daniella Monet and Kevin McGarry
Executive produced by Giada De Laurentiis, the film follows a disillusioned chef who returns to Boston’s North End to help prepare her family’s Feast of the Seven Fishes and meets a photographer documenting holiday traditions.
Watch our LIVE interview with Kevin McGarry where he breaks the news of his new Halloween movie while LIVE on Instagram!
Friday, November 27 at 8 p.m. — Return to Santa
Stars: Paul Campbell and Rachel Boston
When Santa finally finds an adult man’s lost childhood letter, its fantastical wishes begin coming true—leaving him and his newly returned best friend to manage the magical chaos.
Saturday, November 28 at 6 p.m. — The Most Wonderful Secret
Stars: Tammin Sursok and Peter Porte
A burned-out art teacher becomes the recipient of her late teacher’s “Secret Norma” scavenger hunt and works with a handsome neighbor to revive the town’s holiday block party.
Saturday, November 28 at 8 p.m. — Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True
Stars: Lacey Chabert, Travis Van Winkle, Richard Kind, Christy Carlson Romano, Bryce Durfee and Taegen Burns
A family Christmas at Walt Disney World becomes unexpectedly complicated when a woman’s disastrous recent first date turns out to be staying next door.
Sunday, November 29 at 6 p.m. — Eight Nights for Love
Stars: Hunter King and Dan Jeannotte
An antique menorah takes a New York auction-house employee through moments from her past on each night of Hanukkah, helping her recognize long-hidden feelings for her best friend.
Sunday, November 29 at 8 p.m. — Miles to Christmas
Stars: Ashley Williams, Steve Lund and Alison Sweeney
A snowstorm strands a tightly wound traveler, sending her on an 18-wheeler road trip from Chicago to Tennessee with a free-spirited pair of siblings.
December
Friday, December 4 — The Snowflake Effect
Stars: Heather Hemmens and Mark Ghanimé
A corporate attorney accidentally unleashes an antique ornament’s bad luck and teams up with a laid-back shop clerk to track it through Chicago before Christmas Day.
Saturday, December 5 — A Grand Biltmore Christmas
Stars: Holland Roden, Niall Matter, Andie MacDowell, James Trevena, Jonathan Frakes, Rachel Boston and Wes Brown
A woman celebrating Christmas at Biltmore in 1915 reunites with a mysterious young man from her past—then finds herself transported with him into the present day.
Sunday, December 6 — An Angel in My Stocking
Stars: Fiona Gubelmann, Marco Grazzini and Nancy Robertson
Three years after their divorce, former spouses become stranded together in Vermont, where a mysterious traveler claims to be the woman’s lifelong guardian angel.
Friday, December 11 — Christmas in Canterbury
Stars: Jessy Schram and Will Kemp
An optimistic American choir master and her traditionalist British counterpart prepare competing girls’ and boys’ choirs for the chance to perform at Canterbury Cathedral.
Saturday, December 12 — Snow Globe Town
Stars: Kimberley Sustad and Scott Michael Foster
Inspired by Brad Paisley’s song, the romance pairs a woman helping arrange her sister’s proposal with a skeptical journalist researching a town famous for engagements.
Sunday, December 13 — Noelle Nomads
Stars: Benjamin Ayres and Torrey DeVitto
A physician’s planned Hawaiian holiday is derailed at a remote campground, where a free-spirited RV owner introduces him and his daughter to a close-knit group of nomads.
Friday, December 18 — Hearts All Aglow
Stars: Mishael Morgan, B.J. Britt and Holly Robinson Peete
A music historian seeking an interview with a legendary singer and a lawyer trying to recover a treasured piece of family history collide at a chaotic Christmas museum gala.
Saturday, December 19 — Barking All the Way
Stars: Ian Harding and Tori Anderson
A lovable dog—and its mysterious owner—pulls a workaholic realtor back toward her high-school sweetheart and the life she may truly want.
Sunday, December 20 — Save the Date for Christmas
Stars: Jonathan Bennett and Italia Ricci
Two longtime friends, both frustrated by their romantic lives, attend a last-minute family wedding together and try to survive a week of holiday matchmaking.
Two additional holiday premieres
Hallmark is also bringing back Mistletoe Murders for a third season. Sarah Drew and Peter Mooney return as Emily Lane and Detective Sam Wilner, with Catherine Bell and Holly Robinson Peete set to guest star. Season 3 premieres Thursday, November 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
On Saturday, December 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, Jonathan Bennett and Melissa Peterman will co-host The Hallmark Christmas Experience: A Hometown Holiday. The special will feature favorite Hallmark stars and offer an early look at what is coming to the network in 2027.
Which 2026 Countdown to Christmas movie are you most excited to watch? Tell us in the comments and keep checking back with Suspenders Unbuttoned Media for interviews, previews and more holiday coverage throughout the season.
Source note: Schedule, cast, story and event information supplied by Hallmark Media in its September 17, 2026 Countdown to Christmas announcement and final lineup. Premiere information is subject to change.
