‘Tis the season for holiday rom-coms! Many indulgent Christmas-set romance flicks become a staple of DVRs every holiday season and they often star popular celebrities who have their own accomplished list of credits. Several of these projects have even borrowed fan-favorite Tree Hill residents to lead, including the likes of Jana Kramer, Bethany Joy Lenz and Chad Michael Murray.
This year’s original holiday movie lineup also features new projects from all three One Tree Hill alums.
“It was so much fun to do. It was awesome to be able to be an executive producer on it and really like, get my hands on it,” the “I Got the Boy” songstress exclusively told Us Weekly of her Lifetime romance The Holiday Fix Up in November 2021. “We were really able to, like, make it as organic as we can, but still using the formula that everyone loves for those Lifetime movies.”
Over the years, several of their OTH costars, including Hilarie Burton, Stephen Colletti and more have also tried their hand at costarring in Christmas movies. Back in 2018, the Rural Diaries author recruited a slew of her former costars for Lifetime’s A Christmas Contract.
“Hilarity ensues and we fall in love,” Burton told the Hollywood Reporter in November 2018. “That’s what happens at the holidays. You fall in love. … We racked up as many One Tree Hill kids as we could down there.”
The film — which also features Robert Buckley, Danneel Ackles, Antwon Tanner, Tyler Hilton and Elizabeth Harnois — follows Burton’s character, Jolie, as she makes a fake-dating deal with her best friend’s brother Jack (Buckley) in exchange for crucial business help.
“The producer, Daniel Lewis, and I had worked together years ago on Christmas on the Bayou with Tyler Hilton and we really hit it off,” she recalled to the magazine. “He’s become a close friend of mine and he had texted me when I was pregnant with my daughter and asked me to come down to Louisiana and do a different movie. I said, ‘Let me have my baby and then give me three months and I’ll come back to work for you.’ And he held me to it. … Robert Buckley and I had been trying to do a Christmas movie together for five years. There was a different production in Vancouver years ago where he was on hiatus from iZombie and he was gonna work for less money. We were trying to get around the Canadian tax incentive and that studio just would not break the rules. It’s almost better that it worked out this way because not only did Robert and I finally get to work together, but we got to bring all of our friends along, as well.”
One year later, several of the former WB stars teamed up once again for Lifetime’s A Christmas Wish.
“We got to do a One Tree Hill reunion last year for The Christmas Contract, so this year we had an even bigger cast, so we got to pull in more of our friends,” Burton told Us in October 2019. “Colin Fickes had played Jimmy Edwards on One Tree Hill and I think he was a really underutilized character and he ended up coming back and making a significant impact on the show. Colin is a wonderful actor and when we were trying to figure out who would play Tyler Hilton‘s brother — they have the same crystal blue eyes! Colin is such a pro and is also such a joy, so it was really great to bring him in.”
She added at the time: “It really becomes an exercise in figuring out which of your friends is available and is right for the part and we’re just so lucky that when we call, people love the genre. It’s fun, so it’s an easy thing to call and ask someone to do.”
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Scroll below for a complete guide of the holiday movies led by OTH favorites:
