Inside Hallmark Channel’s 25th Birthday: Two Days, 22 Stars and a Sunset Sail
Hallmark Channel turned 25 this week.
If you have been watching since the early days, sit with that for a second. The network launched in August 2001, which means a whole generation of us has grown up with these movies playing in the background of our Decembers.
So Hallmark threw a party. Two days in New York City, 22 of their biggest stars, a room full of actual fans, and (in a move we did not see coming) their writers.
Here is how it went.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Tuesday, August 4: A Sold Out Fan Event at 92NY
It started at 92NY with an event called Hallmark Channel’s 25th Birthday: A Quarter Century of Feel-Good Television. It sold out.
Attendees got three full panels of stars talking about their careers, telling behind the scenes stories, and reflecting on what the past 25 years have meant to them. Breanne Heldman, Executive Editor of TV, Events and Picks at PEOPLE, moderated.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Can we point at the fan part for a second?
Plenty of networks mark a milestone with a press junket and a nice dinner. Hallmark sold tickets and put the people who built this thing in the audience. That choice says a lot.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
That one is our favorite of the whole batch. It is the entire appeal of this network in a single frame.
The night also delivered real news. Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams announced from that stage that they are reuniting for a new Countdown to Christmas movie, starring in it and executive producing together, following To Barcelona, With Love and To Barcelona, Forever.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Wednesday, August 5: A Sunset Sail on the Hudson
Wednesday was the actual birthday, and Hallmark took it to the water.
Stars, producers, executives and press boarded Classic Harbor Lines’ Manhattan III for a two hour cruise down the Hudson. There were passed hors d’oeuvres. There were signature cocktails. And partway through, singer songwriter Áine Deane performed “This is the Moment,” an original song Hallmark commissioned as its official birthday anthem.
They wrote themselves a song. We love it here.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
When the boat docked, guests walked off into macarons, gift bags stocked with The Lacey Chabert collection (available at Hallmark stores and online), and a four piece New Orleans jazz band waiting on the pier.
Every event we attend from here on out is going to feel a little flat.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Every Star who Showed Up
All 22 of them!
Alison Sweeney, Andie MacDowell, Andrew Walker, Ashley Williams, Autumn Reeser, Barbara Niven, Benjamin Ayres, B.J. Britt, Erin Cahill, Heather Hemmens, Holly Robinson Peete, Jonathan Bennett, Kimberley Sustad, Lacey Chabert, Marilu Henner, Niall Matter, Nikki DeLoach, Rachel Boston, Scott Michael Foster, Tyler Hynes, Victor Webster and Wes Brown.
That is a lot of small town Christmas romances carried across the finish line by one guest list.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Hallmark Invited the Writers, and We Have Feelings
The guest list went past the on camera talent. Hallmark also brought in the producers, directors and writers who built the library.
Producers: Andrew Gernhard, Brad Krevoy, Charles Cooper, David Wulf, Joel Rice, Michael Goldstein and Tim Johnson
Directors: Clare Niederpruem, Dustin Rikert, Maclain Nelson, Peter Benson and Ron Oliver
Writers: Julie Sherman Wolfe, Nina Weinman and Tracy Andreen
If you listen to the podcast, you know we ask “okay, but who wrote this one?” roughly every other episode. Writers almost never get named in a press release. Seeing Julie Sherman Wolfe, Nina Weinman and Tracy Andreen listed by name, at the party, in print, got us a little emotional. Good on Hallmark.
Executives on hand included Darren Abbott (President, Hallmark Media and Hallmark Chief Brand Officer), Michelle Vicary (Head of Programming), Annie Howell (Chief Communications Officer), Ed Georger (EVP, Ad Sales), Jon Sichel, Stacey Howe, Kristy Lewis, Hilary Silverboard, Samantha DiPippo, Randy Pope, Marybeth Sprows and Danielle Mullin.
Credit: Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
A Quick Note on Who Was Not There
You noticed. We noticed.
The When Calls the Heart group sat this one out. No Erin Krakow, no Chris McNally, no Pascale Hutton. Paul Campbell wasn’t there either.
We are not reading anything into it, and we would gently suggest you do the same. Some schedules lined up and plenty of others did not, which is how every event on earth works. It did make the weekend feel like one particular corner of the Hallmark family rather than the full roster.
While everyone was in town, Hallmark announced a lot. Countdown to Christmas 2026 starts Saturday, October 17, plus premiere dates for the Disney World movie and A Grand Biltmore Christmas, three more Christmas movies, two Halloween premieres and a new Hallmark+ series.
Twenty Five Years In
A quarter century is a long run for anything on television. It is a genuinely wild one for a network built on the idea that people want to feel good.
Hallmark spent two days in New York putting its stars, its crews and its fans in the same rooms, and then sailed them all down the Hudson while somebody sang an original song about the moment. Happy birthday, Hallmark Channel.
Now tell us in the comments: if you had one seat at that 92NY panel, which star are you sitting closest to?
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