Niall Matter, Rachel Boston and More Stars Confess Their Favorite Hallmark Movie Trope

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Niall Matter, Rachel Boston and More Stars Confess Their Favorite Hallmark Movie Trope

There are a few elements that Hallmark Channel viewers can count on when they snuggle in to watch a holiday film — and the actors and actresses have come to expect the classic moments too. While celebrating 2022’s Countdown to Christmas launch at Radio City Music Hall in New York City last month, Us Weekly caught up with several of the network’s stars, including Niall Matter, Nikki DeLoach, Paul Campbell, Jonathan Bennett and Rachel Boston, and asked their favorite “trope” from the Christmas movies. Options included — but weren’t limited to — a near-miss kiss (the main characters get interrupted right before locking lips) a Santa in disguise (the main character doesn’t realize they are interacting with St. Nick), hot chocolate, tree lightings and snow. “We do about six near-miss kisses in The Holiday Sitter,” Bennett exclusively told Us Weekly. “We give everyone everything they want. And what's so special about The Holiday Sitter is that yes, an LGBTQ+-led movie, but it's not for just LGBTQ+ people. The Holiday Sitter is a movie for everyone just like Hallmark Channel is for everyone. And Christmas is for everyone.” The Mean Girls actor stars alongside George Krissa in his 2022 movie, which premieres on December 11 — and features the network’s first leading gay couple in a Christmas movie ever. “The Holiday Sitter was inspired by one of my favorite holiday movies, which is Uncle Buck. So I jokingly call it the gay Uncle Buck. it's about my character, Sam, who comes home for the holidays to watch his niece and nephew and falls in love with the hot, hunky carpenter who's building the addition on the house,” he explained. Boston, for her part, also loves the infamous close-call lip lock. “The near-miss kiss is always fantastic. I got to fall off a ladder and into Wes Brown’s arms,” the actress told Us of her 2019 movie, Check Inn to Christmas. “That’s always fun. That’s a good thing to do at Christmas to gently slip and be caught up a lovely Christmas man.” This year, Boston appears in A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe alongside Victor Webster. “It’s so fun,” she began. “It is a story of love but it's also just finding your values and what you believe in this holiday season. But it's a comedy and they really let us take it — Hallmark just gave us the reins to take it as far as we could.” Scroll through for more from your favorite Hallmark Channel stars:

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Aimee Teegarden

“I feel like it's the non-trope trope for the non-watchers — all of the Christmas films are always shot, like, in the summer and it's a billion degrees,” the Friday Night Lights alum said. “And it's like, ‘Can we get another scarf on her or another jacket?’ And then it’s just sweat coming down everywhere.”

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Brant Daugherty

“I’ve never encountered a Santa in disguise — that’s gotta be my favorite one now,” he joked. “My other answer has got to be the near-miss kiss. It always comes in right at the end of act six. Whenever I read one of these I'm like, ‘How are they going to do it from this one?’ Yeah. And it's always a little different.’ It's fun.”

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Nikki DeLoach

“I love the endings. The snow, you know, the running, the racing right after the almost-last movie moment," the actress said. "I think that is quintessential Hallmark. That Hallmark ending with the kiss and the snow and the happy ending. We always work toward that and we get there in different ways. But that is that's the moment where the magic is.”

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Jonathan Bennett and George Krissa

“My favorite would probably be the near-miss kiss because it just makes it so much more satisfying when it happens,” Krissa, who costars with Bennett in The Holiday Sitter, told Us.

Bennett added: “We do about six near-miss kisses in The Holiday Sitter. We give everyone everything they want. And what's so special about The Holiday Sitter is that yes, an LGBTQ+-led movie, but it's not for just LGBTQ+ people. The Holiday Sitter is a movie for everyone just like Hallmark Channel is for everyone. And Christmas is for everyone.”

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Paul Campbell

“I like the kiss at the end,” the Three Wise Men and a Baby actor said before he quipped: “And wait until you see the kisses that we have at the end of our movie. We’ve got three guys with three kisses. Buckle up, America!”

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Taylor Cole

“I feel like it's a contest!” the actress said. “I mean, I've been in eating contests, I've been in a Scarecrow stuffing contest. I've been in every kind of contest. I’m a competitive person at heart, so yeah, the contest is always a favorite.”

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Rachel Boston

“The near-miss kiss is always fantastic. I got to fall off a ladder and into Wes Brown’s arms,” the A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe star told Us, referring to 2019’s Check Inn to Christmas. “That’s always fun. That’s a good thing to do at Christmas —to gently slip and be caught up a lovely Christmas man.”

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Jaicy Elliot and Ryan Rottman

While Rottman said for him it’s “always the near-miss kiss,” the Grey’s Anatomy actress loves a meet-cute.

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Clare Bowen

“I mean, on set, the snow is just — I just came back from Vancouver and it was really confusing because it was kind of hot, but it was snowing,” the Nashville alum said. “And it was glorious. I just love that. It's much better now that they don't use asbestos. I feel like that's a good thing. I got a mouthful of the foamy stuff that they had going out of the street, it wasn't terrible. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it looks really pretty. So hey, ‘What are you gonna do?’ It works.”

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Alison Sweeney

“I love the ice skating. So Luke MacFarlane plays my love interest — so good, so handsome. We did, of course, the classic Christmas ice skating, like, klutzy character that has to fall and it was so fun and funny and he was so good helping me through it,” the A Magical Christmas Village star said.

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Niall Matter

“Oh, my gosh. It's got to be the hot cocoa lines,” the When I Think of Christmas star said with a laugh.

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Ryan Paevey

“I think probably the near-miss kiss. I’ve been a Santa in disguise — put on a fat suit and a jacket and all this other stuff like that. I think the near-miss kiss is much more comfortable than sweating in a suit,” the actor said before joking, “I’ve missed a few in my life. … Haven’t we all?”

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Brennan Elliott

“To me, I don't know how they [always] do it on Hallmark, but there's something about finding a perspective — what's important in life. That could be family, that can be being all about your work and making money and then you realize that isn't the most important,” the Gift of Peace actor said. “So whatever brings you back to a grounded perspective of what's important. They do that really well. And it's very subtle, and it's in every one of their movies and I think that trope or whatever you want to turn it is really something that not only they do well but something I truly believe is important and this movie is all about what's important in life.”

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Eve Plumb

“Hot chocolate!” the A Holiday Spectacular actress declared.