Hallmark News: Countdown to Christmas 2026 Start Date, Disney World, Biltmore and 6 New Movies
There is no such thing as an emergency podcast when you cover Hallmark movies. This week got close.
Megan was traveling the day all of this news dropped, frantically texting Wendy from the road while Wendy tried to figure out where any of it was even coming from. Hallmark Channel turned 25, and the network celebrated by telling us almost everything about Christmas.
Between a sold-out birthday event at 92NY on Tuesday, August 4 and a virtual Television Critics Association panel on Wednesday, August 5, we got a Countdown to Christmas start date, three premiere dates, three brand-new movies, two Halloween movies and a new Hallmark+ series.
Here is all of it.
Listen to our full breakdown on this week’s episode of Hallmark Headlines.
First, Hallmark Turned 25
Our favorite Hallmark PR guy Pete summed it up best on his stories. Hallmark is officially too old to date Leonardo DiCaprio.
The network threw a two day party in New York City. Tuesday was a sold-out fan event at 92NY with panels moderated by Breanne Heldman of PEOPLE, and yes, you could buy tickets to attend online too. The timing worked out beautifully for Hallmark, since the stars had just wrapped a ten stop Stars on Stage tour. Get everyone in one place, throw a birthday party.
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
Wednesday was a sunset cruise on the Hudson with 22 stars, the PR team, executives and creatives on board.
A few details we loved:
The macaron cart at the boarding gate read “macarons are always a good idea,” which is a very sneaky cross promo for Paris is Always a Good Idea. Well played.
The tote bags included items from the Lacey Chabert collection.
The writers were invited. Julie Sherman Wolfe, Nina Weinman and Tracy Andreen were all there. They are not in the press photos, which is a shame, because we went looking. We had a Julie Sherman Wolfe-free Countdown to Christmas in 2025 and we are missing her voice on the network. Her IMDb is quiet right now, so we are hoping she is attached to something in this batch.
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
The fashion. Victor Webster turned up with longer hair and a very salt-and-pepper full beard, and our Facebook group had thoughts. BJ Britt’s smile is desktop-background material. Jonathan Bennett wore a sleeveless sweater with a second sweater over his shoulders, which was a choice we support.
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
There were no When Calls the Heart stars on the list, and no Paul Campbell. We do not read anything into it. Kevin McGarry is in a Christmas movie this year, everyone is working, schedules are schedules.
Countdown to Christmas 2026 Starts Saturday, October 17
Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story premieres Saturday, October 17 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel, streaming next day on Hallmark+. That makes it the opening weekend movie for the 17th annual Countdown to Christmas.
We were both shocked. The Chiefs movie aired in late November 2024 and the Bills movie landed November 22, 2025, so a mid-October slot for this franchise was not what we expected. But sure. Come out swinging.
For reference, A Royal Montana Christmas opened the season last year. That movie was fine, and it did have the steamiest kiss of 2025, which Megan has not forgotten.
What about Friday, October 16? Sleepy Kitty Paw is guessing Mistletoe Murders season 3, possibly with eight episodes instead of six, and we think that tracks. The working theory is one Mistletoe Murders episode every Friday, movies on Saturdays and Sundays, and a bigger block over Merry Thanksgiving weekend. In past seasons we got two episodes per Friday, so one a week would be a gentler pace.
None of that is confirmed. No date, no episode count. We are guessing out loud and telling you we are guessing.
Hallmark Has Three Tentpole Movies This Year
Here is the thing that jumped out once all three dates landed.
Bears on October 17. Disney World on November 28. Biltmore on December 5. Three collaboration movies, spaced deliberately across the whole season.
We think that spacing is on purpose, and we appreciate it. One of the fairest criticisms of the Chiefs movie year was that Hallmark promoted that one title and everything else flew under the radar. Some genuinely great movies got lost. Spreading the big three out gives the rest of the slate room to breathe.
The Full Bears Cast
Hallmark made this announcement a little late, because eagle-eyed TikTokers scooped the cast first and the network was more or less forced into a social post about it.
Which raises a small gripe. We understand Hallmark loves an official announcement, but let the stars post from set. People love behind the scenes content, and that momentum is free.
Lyndsy Fonseca and Robert Buckley star. Also in the cast: Marsha Mason, a four-time Academy Award nominee, plus Barbara Alyn Woods and Khary Payton.
Marsha Mason is the recognizable-face situation for a lot of us. Grace and Frankie is where Megan knows her from. Khary Payton is a Walking Dead actor with an enormous voice acting resume, and he is a genuinely unusual name for a Hallmark movie. Barbara Alyn Woods played a mom on One Tree Hill alongside Robert Buckley, which the One Tree Hill people will care about more than we do.
The Bears contingent: Head Coach Ben Johnson, tight ends Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet, alumni Mike Singletary, Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Dan Hampton, Connie Payton, and Staley Da Bear.
Also cameoing: Tamera Mowry-Housley and Marilu Henner.
Small opinion. We wish Hallmark would stop announcing the cameos. Half the fun is spotting someone mid-movie and yelling “what are YOU doing here?” at the television.
And there is an ornament. A Chicago Bears Santa ornament arrives this fall at Hallmark.com and regional Gold Crown stores, which means anyone with a Bears fan in the family knows what they are buying.
Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True Premieres November 28
Saturday, November 28 at 8/7c. Thanksgiving weekend, which surprised exactly nobody.
This is the first ever partnership between Hallmark Media and Walt Disney World Resort, so we are getting an actual Disney movie rather than a Disney-adjacent one. Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle star.
The supporting cast is full of Disney easter eggs. Christy Carlson Romano voiced Kim Possible. Richard Kind is in Only Murders in the Building, and he is also the voice of Bing Bong in Inside Out, a fact that still emotionally wrecks us. Also cast: Bryce Durfee, Taegen Burns and Asher Alexander.
And one more cameo announcement, because Hallmark cannot help itself: Patrick Renna, the redhead from The Sandlot, who has been having a real moment lately.
Listener note: there is a Hallmark and Disney panel at D23 on August 16. No press photos have come out yet, so that panel feels like a good bet for a first look or a poster.
Megan’s prediction: the Tyler Hynes movie also lands on Merry Thanksgiving weekend.
A Grand Biltmore Christmas Premieres December 5
Saturday, December 5 at 8/7c. Holland Roden and Niall Matter star, Jonathan Frakes returns, and Andie MacDowell joins the cast.
December 5 is late in the season for a movie this big, and we both noticed. But The Santa Class premiered very late last year and turned out to be a banger, so the date does not tell you much.
Wendy has mixed feelings, and they are fair ones. She loved the first movie so much that she is not sure this one can hold up.
Here is what gives us hope. Keith Nielsen costumed the original and this sequel, and he feels strongly about this movie. Whatever else happens, it is going to be gorgeous.
Three More Christmas Movies
These three came out of the 92NY event and the TCA panel. No premiere dates yet.
Untitled Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams Movie
Our two faves reunite after To Barcelona, With Love and To Barcelona, Forever. This is a brand new story rather than an extension of those.
Sleepy Kitty Paw is calling it I’ll Be Home for Christmas. That title has not come from Hallmark, so treat it as unconfirmed.
Directed by friend of the show Crystal Lowe, and we are loving how much she is working right now. Go, Crystal, go.
Then there is the full circle moment. Sarah Wilson Thacker is shadowing Lowe through Hallmark’s Make Her Mark Women’s Directing Program. Crystal Lowe came out of that same program, and now she is the one mentoring. We love that this program keeps quietly running in the background.
The plot: Cassidy (Ashley Williams) is a no-nonsense Chicago lawyer stranded on Christmas Eve while trying to reach her father in Nashville. Jo (Alison Sweeney) is a sunny fellow traveler who ropes in her truck driver brother Chase to drive them to another airport.
Steve Lund plays Chase. You know him from the Hearts Around the Table movies.
Our real takeaway: Ashley Williams as a no-nonsense lawyer is against type, Alison Sweeney as the sunny one is also against type, and it is like the two of them body swapped for this movie. Fun.
Mistletoe and Mimosas (working title)
Tamera Mowry-Housley and Kristoffer Polaha together for the first time. Mowry-Housley also executive produces.
Wendy’s immediate objection: please change this title. The alliteration is not it.
Megan’s immediate reaction: finally. We have been saying give Tamera Mowry-Housley a better movie for ages, and this is that. She is co-starring with Polaha, and the script is by Russell Hainline, who wrote Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper!, The Santa Summit, The Santa Class, Hot Frosty, and co-wrote Three Wisest Men. The man is a star.
The plot: Claire inherits her Uncle Lou’s Christmas-themed bar, The Tipsy Reindeer, in upstate New York. It comes with debt and a trendy rival club called Algorithm. Zach (Polaha) manages Algorithm and wants to buy her out. They settle it with a 12 Days of Christmas-inspired competition.
A club called Algorithm is very funny. It is giving Das Sound Machine from Pitch Perfect 2. And if there is a Christmas-themed bar, we would like a Dasher cameo, please.
Single at the Wedding (working title)
Jonathan Bennett and Italia Ricci star as two single friends dodging their families’ matchmaking at a last-minute Christmas wedding. Production wrapped in July.
Here is the detail we are excited about. Hallmark’s own synopsis describes both characters as having struck out “after failing to meet the right man.” Make ofthat what you will. We are thrilled.
No additional casting has been announced yet.
One more thought. When we first talked about this movie on a previous Hallmark Headlines, Wendy pointed out there is nothing Christmas in the title, which now has us wondering whether it gets renamed before the full lineup drops. Our suggestions: Single at the Christmas Wedding. Alone Under the Mistletoe. Hallmark, our rates are reasonable.
Two Halloween Movies Come First
Before any of the Christmas stuff, we get Halloween. The final two movies in Hallmark’s eight-movie Fall into Love event are Halloween movies, and both titles have changed since they were first announced.
A Knight to Remember, Saturday, October 3
Julie Gonzalo and James Trevena star, with Chris McNally, who is also Julie Gonzalo’s real-life partner.
The plot: a museum conservator restores a statue of a medieval knight. One kiss brings him to life, and she has to walk him through modern Chicago, pumpkin spice lattes, a Halloween Medieval Fayre, and an FBI investigation run by her ex-husband.
This synopsis is giving Encino Man, and we mean that affectionately.
James Trevena was in Lost in Paradise earlier this year as one of the pilots, so this is a significantly bigger role for him. He is also turning up in A Grand Biltmore Christmas, which means he is having a moment and grabbing that Hallmark bag with both hands. Good for him.
The Spirit of Halloween, Saturday, October 10
Meghan Ory and Kevin McGarry star in a Halloween take on A Christmas Carol, which is speaking our love language. Bridal designer Everly Stone gets visited by three spirits after her late mentor turns up with a warning. Lachlan Quarmby plays the Ghost of Halloween Future.
We have done plenty of A Christmas Carol retellings, but very few Halloween movies, so this should feel fresh.
For the record, Megan hates Halloween. She hates dressing up and she does not like scary things. Which makes Hallmark Halloween movies perfect, because there is no participation required and the whole thing is light and frothy. All Out Halloween remains a favorite.
Hallmark+ Greenlights Change of Heart
A new original scripted series is coming to Hallmark+ in 2027. Production starts later this year. Hallmark is leaning hard into these streaming exclusives and we are not complaining.
Jonny Umansky created the series. Erin Gibson, who executive produced season two of The Chicken Sisters, is showrunner and executive producer.
The premise: a jaded divorce attorney named Charlie Wyatt has a life-changing heart transplant and ends up doing the opposite of the day job, fighting for love in all its forms.
No cast yet, which leaves room for speculation. We both think Charlie is going to be a woman, since a male-led Hallmark series would be unusual. Unless it is Tyler Hynes, obviously.
We are also not sure what “fighting for love in all its forms” means in practice. Are we getting courtroom scenes? Probably not.
Megan’s read is that this fills the space left by The Chicken Sisters rather than The Way Home. Different vibe, same slot in the schedule.
Tell us in the comments who you would cast as Charlie Wyatt.
And a reminder, because someone in our Facebook group brought it up again this week: you can get Hallmark+ free with a library card through Hoopla’s BingePass. We have been saying this for two years.
Countdown to Christmas 2026: What We Know So Far
Six titles confirmed from this week’s announcements:
| Movie | Premiere Date |
|---|---|
| Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story | Saturday, October 17 |
| Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True | Saturday, November 28 |
| A Grand Biltmore Christmas | Saturday, December 5 |
| Mistletoe and Mimosas (wt) | TBA |
| Single at the Wedding (wt) | TBA |
| Untitled Alison Sweeney / Ashley Williams movie | TBA |
Add the four titles from Hallmark’s Christmas in July promo and we are up to ten. Hallmark premiered 24 original movies during Countdown to Christmas 2025, so there is a lot still to come.
What we are waiting on: the full lineup, which usually lands in mid-September. Whether we get any new series we do not know about yet. Whether there is a reality series in the mix, which we doubt.
Wendy would be perfectly happy with just Mistletoe Murders. Last year we also got Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas, which was excellent. If the theory holds and it really is two movies plus one Mistletoe Murders episode per week, that is a manageable season for everyone involved, including us.
Countdown to Christmas 2026: Full Schedule and Premiere Dates
