AARP Hearing Center
Holiday season? It's more like Hallmark season for the legions of fans of feel-good rom-coms and heartwarming family fare that lights up November and December like a TV advent calendar. And this year’s season — the 15th anniversary of Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” — is the network’s biggest celebration yet.
In addition to 31 new movies on Hallmark Channel and nine new films for Hallmark Mystery’s “Miracles of Christmas,” seven more original movies will drop on the new Hallmark+ streaming service. That’s 47 new movies between now and December 25. Even Santa can’t compete with that kind of productivity.
Much More Than Rom-Coms in the Snow
But it’s not all just traditional falling-in-love-in-a-cute-Vermont-town movie fare (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Hallmark has officially partnered with the NFL to produce Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, a football-set rom-com that includes cameos by real players.
For Only Murders in the Building fans, Hallmark+ will feature a new limited series, Mistletoe Murders, based on a popular Audible original of the same name. The second, Holidazed, feels like an HBO series that focuses on six diverse families living in the same cul-de-sac.
And maybe catchiest of all, Hallmark presents Finding Mr. Christmas (October 31), a new eight-episode reality series that follows 10 promising "Hallmark hunks" who live together and compete against one another for the lead role in an upcoming original holiday movie.
Where to start? We’ve picked out 10 of the best new original movies to get you in the spirit. So put some logs on the fire, get your hot cocoa ready and cuddle up in your favorite blanket, because you aren’t going to want to leave the couch this holiday season.
Holiday Mismatch
Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick — known for playing Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda on Sabrina the Teenage Witch — are back onscreen together again in Holiday Mismatch. Free-spirited Kath (Rhea) and uptight Barbara (Broderick) are surprised to find they’ve accidentally set up their adult children in an online dating app after sparring with each other at a Christmas committee meeting. As they team up to stop romance from blooming, they find they might have more in common than just their kids beginning to fall for each other.
Watch It: Holiday Mismatch premieres November 3, 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel
Three Wiser Men and a Boy
The much-anticipated sequel to 2022’s Three Wise Men and a Baby is out this year, picking up five years after the first film. Andrew Walker, Tyler Hynes and Paul Campbell are back playing brothers who have gotten themselves into another situation that requires their unique brand of teamwork. They’ll also have to tackle meeting their mom’s new boyfriend.
Watch it: Three Wiser Men and a Boy premieres November 23, 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel
More From AARP
7 Reasons to Do All Your Holiday Shopping in October
Why early-bird deal hunters get the wormsCharles Dickens’ Great-Great-Grandson Brings ‘A Christmas Carol’ to Life
Gerald Charles Dickens takes one-man show to 12 states
What to Watch on TV and at the Movies This Week
See Oscar-bound 'Conclave' and docs about Springsteen and Martha StewartRecommended for You