Hallmark is launching its Countdown to Christmas showcase of holiday movies this Thursday, October 16. Yes, this seems very early. We haven’t even taken down Halloween decorations yet (or, in my case, put them up). But can we honestly say that life doesn’t need a little merriment right this very moment?
The best case I can make for watching Hallmark holiday movies (in October or beyond) is this: for two hours you will watch a movie where people fall in love and share lots and lots of community activities, hot chocolate flows like a river, and the holiday decorations are truly aspirational. You could find worse ways to spend that time.
Keep in mind, I have not seen any of the 34 new movies for 2026 so these recommendations are based on the cast, the premise, and the release date. (In my opinion, Hallmark tends to release their strongest movies around mid-November/early December so they can be rerun as much as possible.) Conversely, I have viewed the selections from prior years so those are based on first-hand opinion.
Here then is your Hallmark Christmas Movie guide, past and present. So, prep the hot cocoa and grab some candy canes, holiday joy is incoming!
7 Hallmark 2026
Movies to Watch
A Season of Promises (November 8). The logline sounds familiar; two estranged sisters reunite when their widower father ends up in the hospital and then join forces to find him a love connection in time for the holidays. This one has promise given the cast includes Brooke D’Orsay, Ali Liebert and James Denton, and the three have pulled off a lot of Hallmark movies between them.
My Christmas Cowboy (November 13). I’m rooting for this one because of the stars, Luke Macfarlane (a versatile Hallmark star) and Amy Acker (who did an exceptional turn on the TV show Angel). Acker is a small-town news producer who lost the newscaster job of her dreams to former crush and now Hollywood celebrity host Macfarlane. When Macfarlane returns home for the holidays, the pair confront their past and maybe future. (Somehow there’s a Reindeer Roundup holiday event and Acker has to teach Macfarlane how to ride a horse. Obvious point reductions for all this, but if anyone can pull it off these two can.)
The Nights Before Christmas (November 14). This one sounds like Groundhog Day meets Christmas Eve with Tyler Hynes and Laci J. Mailey trapped inside the holiday loop. Hallmark borrowed this theme from Round and Round (see Streaming Options), so we already know it’s a fun premise. Hynes costarred in the popular “Three Wise Men and a Baby” series, plus “An Unexpected Christmas,” and he’s one of the channel’s strongest comedic actors.
Mistletoe and Mimosas (November 15). Tamera Mowry-Housley inherits her uncle’s debt-ridden bar, The Tipsy Reindeer, and struggles to salvage his legacy. Kristoffer Polaha is a local businessman who wants to buy the bar for his existing chain of establishments. They take part in a 12 Days of Christmas themed challenge with the Tipsy Reindeer’s future at stake. Both of these actors have long and proven track records with Hallmark, and who can’t appreciate the “Tipsy Reindeer’ as a winning bar name.
Double Booked for the Holidays (November 22). Rachael Leigh Cook plays identical sisters who fall for Owain Yeoman and Stephen Hagan, though the men don’t realize they are dating sisters. Not sure how that happened and somehow this all takes place in Wales when they spend the holidays running an AirBnb/bookshop. But I’m gonna bet on Cook here, who had Christmas charisma to spare in 2020’s “Cross Country Christmas,” and two Cooks make this worth a try.
Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True (November 28). Current reigning Hallmark Queen Lacey Chabert takes her family to Disney World and discovers that the hotel guest in the room next door to hers (Travis Van Winkle) happens to be a man she shared a terrible first date with. The happiest place on Earth meets the most wonderful time of the year and it should at least be a jolly viewing experience.
A Grand Biltmore Christmas (December 5). This is the second movie centered on a mysterious hourglass at the Biltmore Hotel that shuttles people from the present to the past. This time around, we begin in 1895 when teens Elizabeth and Michael meet cute before Michael vanishes. Twenty years later, Michael reappears, reveals himself as a time traveler and the two are somehow accidentally whisked off to present day. Will Elizabeth stay or go back to 1915? Hallmark has cast a lot of talent in this movie, including Andie MacDowell, Niall Matter, Jonathan Frakes, and Holland Roden. Plus, it’s hard to go wrong with a time travel premise.
5 Vintage Hallmark Movies
to Watch
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008). Two words: Henry Winkler. Here he plays matchmaker when he befriends free-spirited chef Morgan (Warren Christie), who’s stranded at the airport, and convinces his no-nonsense niece Jen (Brooke Burns) to house Morgan until the man’s flight is rescheduled. The smart script is both funny and sweet, and really shines when Winkler and Morgan go to extremes to bring the Christmas spirit to Jen and her son.
A Very Merry Mix-Up (2013). Alicia Witt stars as an antique store owner who travels ahead of her workaholic fiancé to meet his parents for the first time and share the holidays. In the airport’s lost luggage claim area, her cell phone is destroyed by a well-meaning coffee spiller (Mark Wiebe) who shares the same last name as her fiancé and mistakenly believes she is engaged to his estranged brother, who is himself delayed in getting home. Without a way to contact her fiancé and clear up the mishap, she spends a few days with the wrong family, falls in love with the coffee spiller, and then has a difficult reckoning when the misunderstanding is cleared up and she’s left with a fiancé and future in-laws who are no longer the right match. The script is tight, the characters are three dimensional, and the ending is practically lyrical.
Round and Round (2023). This one revolves around Hanukkah where Rachel (Vic Michaelis) keeps reliving the same day (and meet-cute with Bryan Greenberg’s Zach) over and over again until she figures out why; and it turns out to be a nice surprise twist. The script is genuinely funny and the actors make you care.
Christmas Under Wraps (2014). Before Candace Cameron Bure defected to Great American Family, she was a Hallmark holiday queen and this was one of her best. She plays a big city doctor who winds up in small town, Alaska, while waiting for a Boston internship to materialize. Of course, she inadvertently falls for a local (David O’Donnell). It’s a familiar trope but works well here because this particular small town has a magical secret that ripples through every scene.
Christmas at Dollywood (2019). Dolly Parton herself makes a brief cameo in this story set in the icon’s theme park when an event planner (Danica McKellar) falls for a Dollywood employee (Niall Matter). McKeller and Matter are both Hallmark mainstays, and Dolly is a national treasure.
