’Tis the season for Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas! The network is celebrating 12 years of their Christmas programming with their biggest plan yet: 41 original premieres. The full rollout will include holiday programming kicking off Friday, October 22, with Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ Miracles of Christmas.
For the first time, the company’s streaming service, Hallmark Movies Now or “Movies and Mistletoe,” will also debut two original Christmas movies.
Candace Cameron Bure, also known as the queen of Hallmark, recently teased to Us Weekly exclusively that her partner in her 2021 movie is one she’s been hoping to work with — and now it’s been revealed it’s actually someone she’s worked with before!
“I’m not going to tell you who it is, but I’m getting [my dream Hallmark costar] for my Christmas movie this year,” she told Us in August.
The actress, 45, will star alongside John Brotherton — her Fuller House costar! — in The Christmas Contest. The Washington native, 41, starred as Matt Harmon, DJ’s love interest, in the Netflix series.
The holiday film, which has yet to receive a premiere date, will follow exes Lara and Ben as they compete in a Christmas contest to win money for charity. “The city watches them battle and choose what is more important, victory or love,” the synopsis reads. Barbara Niven, best known for her role on Chesapeake Shores, also stars.
The Christmas Contest isn’t the only reunion fans will see on Hallmark this season.
The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls will bring back the Mitchell brothers to see who can create the best Christmas house. Robert Buckley, Ana Ayora, Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder return. The Christmas House, which aired in November 2020, was the first Hallmark movie to prominently feature a same-sex couple.
Brandon Routh, Kimberley Sustad and Gregory Harrison will reunite this year as well in The Nine Kittens of Christmas, reprising their roles from the 2014 hit, The Nine Lives of Christmas.
Other familiar Hallmark faces set to return this season include Holly Robinson Peete, Danica McKellar, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Janel Parrish, Lea Thompson, Ryan Paevey, Alison Sweeney and real life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams.
Unless noted otherwise, Hallmark Channel movies begin at 8 p.m. ET while Hallmark Movies & Mysteries films kick off at 10 p.m. ET.
Scroll down for the full schedule:
