Break out your ugliest Christmas sweater and your coziest blanket, because Christmas is coming to the Hallmark Channel on Oct. 20. This year, the network’s Countdown to Christmas lineup features 40 new movies (just shy of 2022’s total of 43) starring actors like Lacey Chabert, Scott Wolf, and Hunter King. Among the highlights are A Merry Scottish Christmas, which features a Party of Five reunion between Chabert and Wolf, and A Biltmore Christmas, starring Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha.
The new holiday flicks will air across Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, but the company’s streamer Hallmark Movies Now will also have a few festive treats for fans. The fun kicks off with Checkin’ It Twice starring When Calls the Heart’s Kevin McGarry on Friday, Oct. 20 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on the Hallmark Channel. New movie premieres will continue to roll out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 8 p.m. through Dec. 17.
Meanwhile, Hallmark Movie Now subscribers will get early access to two new movie premieres one week before their linear debut, as well as two original films: An Ice Palace Romance and Rescuing Christmas. Hallmark movie superfans can also enjoy extended versions of two of last season’s hits on the app: A Holiday Spectacular and Three Wise Men and a Baby. This on top of the extensive library of new and classic movies available to stream in the leadup to Christmas.
As if that wasn’t enough holiday merriment to get excited about, Hallmark is also promising lots of Easter eggs in this year’s movies. Think references and winks to veteran holiday movie actors’ past roles hidden for Hallmark devotees to find.
Ready to find out more about the yuletide movie magic coming your way this holiday season? Read on for the complete list of Christmas movies airing on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in 2023.
Hallmark’s Complete 2023 Countdown to Christmas Lineup
Friday, Oct. 20: Checkin’ It Twice
Stars: Kim Matula, Kevin McGarry
Synopsis: A hockey player is traded to a small-town team where he falls for a real estate agent.
Saturday, Oct. 21: Where Are You, Christmas?
Stars: Lyndsy Fonseca, Michael Rady, Jim O’Heir, and Julie Warner
Synopsis: A woman wishes for a year without Christmas and wakes up in a world of black and white.
Sunday, Oct. 22: Under the Christmas Sky
Stars: Jessica Parker Kennedy, Ryan Paevey
Synopsis: An astrophysicist's dreams of heading to space are dashed, but a little Christmas magic may put her on a new path when she volunteers at a planetarium around the holidays.
Thursday, Oct. 26: Ms. Christmas Comes to Town (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Erica Durance, Brennan Elliott, Barbara Niven
Synopsis: After receiving a terminal diagnosis, a shopping TV host embarks on a journey to spread Christmas magic.
Friday, Oct. 27: Christmas by Design
Stars: Rebecca Dalton, Jonathan Keltz
Synopsis: A fashion designer is accepted into a challenge to create a holiday-themed collection.
Saturday, Oct. 28: Mystic Christmas
Stars: Jessy Schram, Chandler Massey, Patti Murin, William R. Moses
Synopsis: Juniper reconnects with a pizza shop owner when she travels to Mystic, Connecticut, during the holidays.
Sunday, Oct. 29: Joyeux Noel
Stars: Jaicy Elliot, Brant Daugherty
Synopsis: A copy editor heads to France to uncover the mystery behind a romantic Christmas painting.
Thursday, Nov. 2: My Christmas Guide (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Amber Marshall, Ben Mehl
Synopsis: After losing his eyesight, a college professor adopts a seeing-eye dog and ends up falling for the pup’s trainer.
Friday, Nov. 3: Flipping for Christmas
Stars: Ashley Newbrough, Marcus Rosner
Synopsis: A realtor’s decision to help her sister fix up her recently inherited home in time for Christmas leads to her budding heads with their co-beneficiary.
Saturday, Nov. 4: “Never Been Chris’d”
Stars: Janel Parrish, Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes, Tyler Hynes
Synopsis: Best friends Naomi and Liz return home for the holidays and find themselves in a love triangle with their shared high school crush.
Sunday, Nov. 5: The Santa Summit
Stars: Hunter King, Benjamin Hollingsworth
Synopsis: Three best friends have an adventurous night at the Santa Summit, a festival full of people dressed like Santa.
Thursday, Nov. 9: Mystery on Mistletoe Lane (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Erica Cerra, Victor Webster
Synopsis: A single mom and her kids discover a Christmas mystery in their new home.
Friday, Nov. 10: Everything Christmas
Stars: Katherine Barrell, Cindy Busby, Corey Sevier, Matt Wells
Synopsis: A holiday-themed road trip brings together two friends and two strangers as they experience the magic of small-town Christmases.
Saturday, Nov. 11: Christmas Island
Stars: Rachel Skarsten, Andrew Walker
Synopsis: A woman teams up with an air traffic controller after her private flight to Christmas Island is grounded.
Sunday, Nov. 12: A Heidelberg Holiday
Stars: Ginna Claire Mason, Frédéric Brossier
Synopsis: Heidi Heidelberg is given an opportunity to sell her handmade glass ornaments at the Heidelberg Christmas Market in Germany, where she meets Lukas, a local artist who helps her reconnect with her roots.
Thursday, Nov. 16: A World Record Christmas (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Nikki DeLoach, Lucas Bryant, Aias Dalman
Synopsis: Charlie, a young boy with autism, is encouraged by his parents to go after his dream of stacking the most Jenga blocks during Christmas.
Friday, Nov. 17: Navigating Christmas
Stars: Chelsea Hobbs, Stephen Huszar
Synopsis: A divorced mom and her son’s Christmas visit to a small island takes an interesting turn when they end up running a lighthouse with its cute, but grumpy owner.
Saturday, Nov. 18: A Merry Scottish Christmas
Stars: Lacey Chabert, Scott Wolf
Synopsis: Estranged siblings Lindsay and Brad travel to Scotland to reunite with their mother during Christmas.
Sunday, Nov. 19: Holiday Hotline
Stars: Emily Tennant, Niall Matter
Synopsis: While working at a cooking hotline, a woman connects with a single dad she has unknowingly met in real life.
Wednesday, Nov. 22: A Season for Family
Stars: Brendan Penny, Stacey Farber, Benjamin Jacobson, Azriel Dalman
Synopsis: A woman’s son only has one wish this Christmas: to meet his brother, who was adopted by another family.
Thursday, Nov. 23: Catch Me If You Claus – premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Italia Ricci, Luke Macfarlane
Synopsis: An aspiring news anchor’s chance for her big break is jeopardized when a man claiming to be Santa’s son takes her on a wild night of adventures.
Friday, Nov. 24: Letters to Santa – premieres at 6 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Katie Leclerc, Rafael de la Fuente
Synopsis: Two young siblings use a magic pen to wish for the one thing they want for Christmas: their parents to reunite.
Friday, Nov. 24: Holiday Road – premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Sara Canning, Warren Christie
Synopsis: Inspired by true events, this movie follows nine people who decide to rent a van to drive to Denver after getting stranded at the airport due to bad weather. As they work together to make it home for the holidays, the group ends up bonding in unexpected ways.
Saturday, Nov. 25: Christmas in Notting Hill – premieres at 6 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Sarah Ramos, William Moseley
Synopsis: A famed soccer star returns home to Notting Hill for Christmas, and finds himself falling for a visiting American who has no idea that he’s famous.
Saturday, Nov. 25: Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up – premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Lacey Chabert, Wes Brown, Stephen Tobolowsky, Melissa Peterman, Ellen Travolta, Seth Morris, Jennifer Aspen
Synopsis: A sequel to last year’s Haul Out the Holly, Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up finds Evergreen’s holiday-loving neighbors excited to discover Christmas royalty is moving to their street.
Sunday, Nov. 26: Our Christmas Mural – premieres at 6 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Alex Paxton-Beesley, Dan Jeannotte
Synopsis: A single mom returns home for Christmas, where she wins a mural contest and ends up partnering with a local teacher to create an ode to the holidays in art form.
Sunday, Nov. 26: A Biltmore Christmas – premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Stars: Bethany Joy Lenz, Kristoffer Polaha, Jonathan Frakes, Robert Picardo
Synopsis: A screenwriter named Lucy is hired to pen the remake of the beloved holiday classic His Merry Wife!, which was filmed in 1947 at the Biltmore House. But when Lucy’s version deviates from the happy ending the studio sends her to the Biltmore Estate for inspiration — what she finds is a magic hourglass that transports her to the set of the original movie.
Thursday, Nov. 30: Time for Her to Come Home for Christmas (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Shenae Grimes-Beech, Chris Carmack, Grace Leer
Synopsis: Facing her first Christmas without her mother, a woman leads her small-town choir and connects with a man returning home after serving in the military.
Friday, Dec. 1: My Norwegian Holiday
Stars: Rhiannon Fish, David Elsendoorn
Synopsis: While grieving the loss of her grandmother, JJ (Fish) meets a Norwegian man named Henrik who invites her to Norway to learn more about his country’s Christmas traditions for her dissertation.
Saturday, Dec. 2: A Not So Royal Christmas
Stars: Brooke D’Orsay, Will Kemp
Synopsis: A tabloid journalist Charlotte tries to land an interview with a reclusive count, but ends up interviewing the castle’s groundskeeper instead.
Sunday, Dec. 3: Christmas with a Kiss
Stars: Mishael Morgan, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Jaime M. Callica
Synopsis: An unexpected romance blossoms when a woman returns home to help set up her family’s Christmas Carnival.
Friday, Dec. 8: Magic in Mistletoe
Stars: Lyndie Greenwood, Paul Campbell
Synopsis: A reclusive author returns to his hometown for an annual Christmas festival in celebration of his books. But due to recent comments he made on social media, a publicist named April joins him and ends up helping him rediscover the magic of the holidays.
Saturday, Dec. 9: Christmas on Cherry Lane
Stars: Catherine Bell, Jonathan Bennett, John Brotherton, Erin Cahill, James Denton, Vincent Rodriguez III
Synopsis: Three couples at different stages of their lives celebrate the holidays. (Features a Good Witch reunion between Bell and Denton!)
Sunday, Dec. 10: Round and Round
Stars: Vic Michaelis, Bryan Greenberg, Rick Hoffman
Synopsis: On the night of her parents’ Hanukkah party, Rachel gets stuck in a time loop that only the “nice” boy her grandma is trying to set her up with can help her out of.
Thursday, Dec. 14: Heaven Down Here (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Krystal Joy Brown, Tina Lifford, Juan Riedinger, Richard Harmon, Phylicia Rashad
Synopsis: Inspired by country star Mickey Guyton’s song of the same name, which is featured in the film, Heaven Down Here follows four disparate people who get stranded at a local diner on Christmas Eve — and discover they may be the answer to each other’s prayers.
Friday, Dec. 15: The Secret Gift of Christmas
Stars: Meghan Ory, Christopher Russell
Synopsis: A personal shopper helps a newly widowed man reconnect with his daughter during Christmas.
Saturday, Dec. 16: Sealed with a List
Stars: Katie Findlay, Evan Roderick
Synopsis: After years of abandoning resolutions, Carley decides to finally work her way through her list with the help of a coworker.
Sunday, Dec. 17: Friends & Family Christmas
Stars: Humberly González, Ali Liebert
Synopsis: Two women are set up by their parents during the holidays, and they agree to a fake date in order to make their families happy. However, it doesn’t take long for real sparks to fly between the two.
Thursday, Dec. 21: Miracle in Bethlehem, PA (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Stars: Laura Vandervoort, Benjamin Ayres
Synopsis: When a woman adopts a baby girl right before Christmas, she finds herself stranded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she ends up staying with the local innkeeper’s brother, Joe.
