Hallmark Channel alone is airing 22 original movies this holiday season.<\/b>
\nNEW YORK \u2014 Have you heard the one about the girl who didn\u2019t care about Christmas but found herself in a small town for the holidays surrounded by decorations, cookies and carolers, and found a new boyfriend and her Christmas spirit by Dec. 25? Hallmark Channel has, and they\u2019re airing 22 original movies this year built around plots similar to that. The premise may vary, but the themes are the same and Hallmark is very OK with that.
\u201cYes, you can pretty much guarantee that when you meet our two leads in the first 10 minutes of a Hallmark movie, it\u2019s guaranteed that they will end up together,\u201d said Michelle Vicary, the executive vice president of programming and network publicity for Crown Media and Family Networks.
While regular network primetime programming tends to take a hiatus during the holiday season, it\u2019s Hallmark Channel\u2019s time to shine. Their holiday movies are so popular, they began airing Christmas movies on Oct. 26 and wrap up on Jan. 1.
\u201cWhen viewers kept telling us by virtue of the ratings that they wanted more [Christmas], it was a natural to extend the time that we were programming for them,\u201d said Vicary.
Hallmark sells shirts that say, \u201cAll I want to do is drink hot cocoa and watch Hallmark Channel.\u201d This year there\u2019s also an app called Countdown to Christmas to keep track of the programming on Hallmark Channel and its sister channel, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries (which offers more spiritual fare.) There\u2019s an option to set alerts on your phone and add the movie start times to your calendar. On launch day, it had 140,000 downloads.
Toni Braxton (center) and Gloria Reuben (right) pictured in a scene from \u201cEvery Day is Christmas.\u201d| Bettina Strauss\/Lifetime via AP
This year, Hallmark Channel has films starring LeAnn Rimes, Kellie Pickler and Patti LaBelle, but the network also features recurring actresses, dubbed the \u201cChristmas queens\u201d internally by Hallmark, who front a new movie a season on the network: Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar and Lori Loughlin.
Bure reigns supreme. \u201cFor the last three years she has had the No. 1 Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel with very, very stiff competition from Chabert and Loughlin,\u201d said Vicary.
Bure said the reaction to her Hallmark Christmas movies encourages her to keep making them but also find interesting ways to tell stories that fit the formula.
\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal to decide which movie to do,\u201d she said. \u201cThe competitive side of me says, \u2018Hey, I want to keep topping those charts and helping the company improve and helping my numbers,’\u201d she said. This year\u2019s film, \u201cA Shoe Addict\u2019s Christmas,\u201d is based on a novel by best-selling author Beth Harbison.
Loughlin, who developed her own film for Hallmark this year, admits to also trying to push the envelope a little bit.
\u201cThey definitely have a formula and you do have to follow it. If you don\u2019t, they reign you back in. As actors we want a little bit of drama so you try to put some highs and lows in there, but you can\u2019t argue with [Hallmark]. Their format is 100 percent working.\u201d
The biggest motivation for returning to Hallmark year after year is the fans, said Bure. She recalled a letter from an older man whose wife had passed away after more than 50 years of marriage. She loved Christmas and would decorate for the season early, and particularly loved Bure\u2019s Christmas movies. He forced himself to not only keep up his wife\u2019s tradition of decorating but also sat down to watch Bure\u2019s movie that year because it\u2019s what they would have done as a couple, and it made him feel closer to her.
\u201cIt\u2019s more than ratings. It\u2019s more than a cheesy holiday spirit. There\u2019s a deep meaning behind (these movies) for some people. I love all of them, and that\u2019s why I keep doing them.\u201d
Kurt Russell in a scene from \u201cThe Christmas Chronicles,\u201d currently streaming on Netflix.| Michael Gibson\/Netflix via AP
Chabert, who is also known for roles in \u201cParty of Five\u201d and \u201cMean Girls,\u201d says she considers it \u201can honor\u201d to keep making Christmas movies for Hallmark.
\u201cI\u2019ve been in this business a long time but the fans of Hallmark are some of the most devoted and some of the most kind,\u201d she said.
She also says the movies speak to important themes: \u201cDisconnecting from the world, spending time with family, and just being in touch with what\u2019s most important and I think that\u2019s always a good reminder.\u201d
McKellar agrees: \u201cI really believe these movies encourage connection,\u201d she said, joking that she can\u2019t count the number of times she\u2019s said \u201cfamily traditions\u201d in her films, adding that\u2019s the point. \u201cIt\u2019s not about ratings. It\u2019s about sticking to a set of values that the brand holds dear.\u201d
She\u2019s especially excited about her offering this year, \u201cChristmas at Grand Valley,\u201d because it reunites her with her former \u201cThe Wonder Years\u201d co-star, Dan Lauria, who plays her dad in the movie.
Hallmark Channel isn\u2019t the only network airing holiday fare. Lifetime does it too and begins airing mostly holiday programming after Nov. 21. Films this year include \u201cEvery Day is Christmas\u201d starring Toni Braxton. They also have their own crop of \u201cgo to\u201d talent including Tatyana Ali of \u201cThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air\u201d and Melissa Joan Hart of \u201cSabrina the Teenage Witch.\u201d Tia Mowry-Hardrict of \u201cSister Sister\u201d has the distinction of appearing on both Hallmark Channel and Lifetime with new movies this season. She stars in Lifetime\u2019s \u201cMy Christmas Inn\u201d and \u201cA Gingerbread Romance\u201d on Hallmark Channel.
\u201cThere\u2019s certain talent that our audience really connects with around the holidays,\u201d said Meghan Hooper, a senior vice president at Lifetime. \u201cWe like bringing back some of the same performers like Tatyana Ali that they grew up with \u2018Fresh Prince,\u2019 they now see her on our air year after year. It\u2019s leaning into that comfort and nostalgia.\u201d
Hart\u2019s \u201cA Very Nutty Christmas\u201d debuts on Lifetime Nov. 30. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make Christmas movies just my thing,\u201d said Hart. \u201cBut it\u2019s the only place where TV movies still thrive,\u201d she said.
\u201cJust having something to watch that\u2019s uplifting and light and romantic,\u201d she added, \u201cI think it\u2019s something really missing in theaters and mainstream television these days.\u201d
Netflix has also followed suit with its own original holiday movies. Last year it offered \u201cA Christmas Prince\u201d starring Rose McIver and this year there\u2019s a sequel, \u201cA Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding.\u201d They\u2019ve also added new movies starring Kurt Russell, Kat Graham and Vanessa Hudgens.<\/p>\n