‘Tis the Season for Setups: Premiere Date, Cast and Everything We Know
Countdown to Christmas 2026 opens with a matchmaking comedy. ‘Tis the Season for Setups premieres Friday, October 16 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel, kicking off the network’s 17th annual Countdown to Christmas.
Amanda Schull, Victor Webster and Barbara Niven star in a movie where the kids play matchmaker for their own parents and end up caught in the crossfire. (We all know where this is going, right?)
‘Tis the Season for Setups Premiere Date
‘Tis the Season for Setups premieres Friday, October 16, 2026 at 8:00 pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel and streams the next day on Hallmark+.
It’s the first new movie of Countdown to Christmas 2026, which means it sets the tone for a 10-weekend run of 34 original movies. Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story follows the next night.
View the full Countdown to Christmas 2026 Lineup
What Is ‘Tis the Season for Setups About?
Lexi (Schull) is a hyper-organized single mom and party planner who’s hired to run the annual holiday party at a local ski resort. She brings along her free-spirited mother June (Niven) and her teen daughter Piper (Verity Marks), expecting a working Christmas.
What she doesn’t expect is Ridge (Webster), the resort’s ski instructor and the son of lodge owner Dan (John B. Lowe). The two clash immediately. But when they notice a spark between June and Dan, they call a truce and start scheming to get their parents together.
The plan involves a steady stream of festive outings and flimsy excuses. The problem is that June and Dan have plans of their own, and every carefully arranged date keeps turning into a foursome. By the time the Christmas party arrives, all that matchmaking has done something neither Lexi nor Ridge saw coming.
Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, meddling kids, meddling parents and a ski lodge. That’s a lot of trope real estate for one movie, and we think we mean that as a compliment.
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Who Stars in ‘Tis the Season for Setups?
Amanda Schull stars as Lexi. Hallmark fans know her from Love, Once and Always, Project Christmas Wish, One Summer, Marry Go Round and Family Practice Mysteries: Coming Home. Outside Hallmark, she’s best known as Katrina Bennett on Suits and Dr. Cassandra Railly on 12 Monkeys. She was also a San Francisco Ballet dancer before she was an actor, which is how she landed her film debut in Center Stage.
Victor Webster plays Ridge. He’s a Hallmark regular with The Wedding Veil trilogy, Homegrown Christmas, Five Star Christmas, A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe and the Matchmaker Mysteries films behind him. The man has now done matchmaking in both a mystery franchise and a Christmas movie, and we’d like to formally nominate him as Hallmark’s official matchmaker.
Barbara Niven plays June. One of the most familiar faces on the network, Niven starred in Cedar Cove, the Hannah Swensen mysteries alongside Alison Sweeney, The Christmas Contest and Christmas at the Golden Dragon.
Fun note for mystery fans: Webster and Niven have appeared together in several installments of the Hannah Swensen mystery series.
Rounding out the cast are Verity Marks as Piper and John B. Lowe as Dan.
Why We’re Watching
The opening-night slot matters. Not everyone is ready for a Christmas movie two weeks before Halloween, so it’s important that these first movies out of the gate set the tone. That this movie is followed by the Bears movie is a sign that we are not pretending this first weekend doesn’t exist.
Two couples instead of one. Most Hallmark movies give you one romance. This one runs a midlife love story alongside the younger one, which is a structure Hallmark has been leaning into more lately. More June and Dan, please.
Schull and Webster haven’t worked together before. Both have long Hallmark résumés, but this is a new pairing, so the chemistry is a real question mark. (Given that Webster is known as Wowie Zowie Webster around these parts, we’re anticipating this to rank well on the smooch-o-meter.
Our Review Is Coming
We’ll be reviewing ‘Tis the Season for Setups on the Girls Gone Hallmark podcast right after it premieres, and we’ll add the episode to this post. Subscribe so you don’t miss our first impressions of the season.
‘Tis the Season for Setups FAQ
When does ‘Tis the Season for Setups premiere? Friday, October 16, 2026 at 8:00 pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.
Is it the first Countdown to Christmas movie of 2026? Yes. It opens Hallmark Channel’s 17th annual Countdown to Christmas.
Who stars in it? Amanda Schull, Victor Webster and Barbara Niven, with Verity Marks and John B. Lowe.
Where can I watch it? It premieres on Hallmark Channel and streams the next day on Hallmark+. Without cable, Frndly TV and YouTube TV carry Hallmark Channel.
What is it about? A party planner and a ski instructor can’t stand each other, until they team up to set up their single parents.
Is there a sequel or is it part of a series? No, it’s a standalone movie.
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