We’re not sure what was more unbelievable when brothers Joyce and Rollie Hall got into the stationery business more than a century ago—that their company would later run one of the most-watched TV channels in the US, or that it would be responsible for so many Christmas movies starring DJ from Full House. Either way, the company’s origins were so humble that they could’ve inspired…their own Hallmark Channel movie.

Fade in: In the 1910s, in Kansas City, Missouri, a Methodist minister’s sons began selling greeting cards that became especially popular among World War I servicemen and families. In the ensuing decades, the Hall brothers invented modern wrapping paper, struck partnerships with Disney and artist Norman Rockwell, and hosted some radio shows before wading deeper into showbiz.

“Dear Fellows: We’re going to try our hand at television,” Joyce Hall wrote to his sales team in 1951, according to the New Yorker. Hallmark sponsored the world’s first written-for-TV opera that year and never looked back:

• After sponsoring other people’s productions for a few decades, Hallmark formed an entertainment arm in 1991 and later bought a stake in the religious cable network Odyssey.
• Hallmark absorbed Odyssey in 2001 and renamed it the Hallmark Channel, a new frontier for church-friendly family dramas.
• Upon the smash success of its 2006 flick The Christmas Card, Hallmark went full Yuletide mode and launched its annual “Countdown to Christmas” event in 2009.
• Its 2014 movie Christmas Under Wraps, starring former Full House star Candace Cameron Bure, was another “breakthrough” for the Hallmark Channel, former CEO Bill Abbott told the New Yorker in 2019. The company continued to cast former teen icons, including 2000s heartthrobs Chad Michael Murray and Jesse Metcalfe, to draw in younger viewers.

Now…Hallmark’s catalog of 300+ Christmas movies gives it an edge as cable TV in general declines—the Hallmark Channel was the most-watched entertainment cable network in the US in 2024. This quarter, it’s poised to be the most popular one among US women for the 12th straight year. But viewership is still eroding: 36 million people watched a Hallmark movie during the holidays last year, compared to 80+ million viewers in 2021, according to Nielsen data.

Hallmark’s formula: Serve up familiar, family-friendly, politics-free fun, according to Abbott, though most of Hallmark’s characters have historically been straight, white, and Christian. In 2020, Abbott stepped down after pulling a commercial that featured a lesbian couple. Following that PR crisis, the Hallmark Channel sought to diversify its programming, debuting its first Christmas rom-com with gay lead characters in 2022. That year, Bure left Hallmark for Great American Family, a smaller network that she said would “keep traditional marriage at the core,” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Magazine.—ML

What’s dressed in red, was a home delivery pioneer, and wants to bring holiday magic to your household this season? Netflix, of course. The streaming giant has bulked up its library with Christmas content to make sure jingle bells don’t drown out that “tudum” sound.

Snowball effect: Netflix released its first fully festive original movie, A Christmas Prince, in 2017. Now, it has dozens of holiday movies, including two additional Christmas Prince installments.

• Last year’s hit rom-com, Hot Frosty, was Netflix’s No.1 movie for a spell.
• And this year, several newcomers (My Secret Santa, Jingle Bell Heist, and Champagne Problems) have been shoulder-to-shoulder with nonseasonal content at the top of the Netflix leaderboard.
• The streamer also has plenty of holiday specials and several themed virtual fireplaces to warm up your home, figuratively speaking.

Sharing Hallmark’s crown: In addition to streaming its own movies, Netflix also partners with Hallmark for some content. Last year, Netflix added 10 Hallmark productions to its holiday lineup, and this year, the two signed a multiyear licensing agreement.

It’s not just Netflix. The Great American Family network (formerly known as GAC Family) has found similar inspiration, scooping up Hallmark veterans like Candace Cameron Bure and Lori Loughlin to star in holiday fare. This year’s “Great American Christmas” programming kicked off in October and will run through January 1.—BC

Since it churns out an average of 40 tinsel-covered movies every year, Hallmark has turned the production of Christmas flicks into a science. The formula? Combine a ~$2 million budget, a predictable plotline, and a portfolio of greeting-card-looking actors into a beloved classic.

The story. You probably could have guessed, but almost all of Hallmark’s holiday movies are about Christmas. (In one film, characters celebrate Christmas and Kwanzaa.) The network didn’t make its first Hanukkah movie until 2019, and it wasn’t until 2023’s Round and Round that most Hallmark-heads would say the channel made a good Hanukkah movie. Additionally, a 2023 analysis of Hallmark movies by the New York Times found that:

• 40% of films since 2017 begin with a woman traveling to a small town.
• 20% of the men in the movies are single fathers, a statistic much higher than the actual number of single dads in the US.

The actors. Hallmark usually casts leading roles from within its own ecosystem, meaning you see a lot of familiar faces trying to save the local inn or host a royal ball. The most iconic Christmas queen is Lacey Chabert, who has starred in over 40 made-for-TV holiday movies for the channel. Other recognizable names include Aaron Tveit and Tamera Mowry-Housley.

It’s a relatively stable gig for actors in a wildly unstable industry. Most Hallmark movies take just 15 days each to film in the summer, have light subject matter, and can easily net $150,000 for even the less-famous lead actors.—MM

That bustling Manhattan street where the washed-up mall Santa serendipitously meets his soulmate who then saves him from himself is probably in British Columbia. Over half of Hallmark’s holiday movies are produced in Canada, including several of the 24 cinematic masterpieces it is putting out this season.

Canuck Christmas

Aside from its wintry weather and status as a spruce superpower, America’s Northern neighbor has every other ingredient for cooking up holiday cinemagic on the cheap. There are varied settings for mimicking stateside locales and a deep bench of film and production talent. Several local production companies supply Hallmark with filmmaking support.

But the country’s generous production tax benefits are the real stocking-stuffer for the Christmas movie industrial complex:

• Canada’s national government offers a tax rebate of up to 25% for wages paid to local talent.
• British Columbia, a particularly popular holiday filming location, offers an additional 40% tax credit, which stacks on top of the federal incentives.

The Canadian Christmas dollars come with a big caveat: They can be claimed in full only if the faces gracing living room TV screens around the holidays belong to Canadian passport-holders. Ryan Gosling has so far appeared in zero Hallmark holiday movies, but the Montreal-born A Bride for Christmas headliner, Andrew Walker, has starred in more than 10.

Canada doesn’t have a monopoly on Christmas movies…with upstate New York and Connecticut also serving as popular holiday filming hubs. Connecticut now promotes holiday movie tourism with its Christmas Movie Trail, which tips off visitors about the Hallmark holiday flicks that were shot there.—SK

Three Christmas Movies and a Lie

From the people that bring you Three Headlines And A Lie…it’s time for Three Christmas Movies And A Lie. Three of these are real Christmas movies and one is not. Can you spot the one we made up?

The Christmas Train: A journalist takes a train ride from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles to get inspiration for a story about his late father and encounters all kinds of characters.

The Knight Before Christmas: A medieval English knight is transported to modern-day Ohio, where he meets and declares his love for a high-school teacher on Christmas Day.

The Christmas Bride: When the young king of Maldovia must take a queen before Dec. 25, he sneaks off to America, where he meets Bridget, a cynical seamstress ready to fall in love.

A Royal Corgi Christmas: A prince named Edmond gives his mother a corgi named Mistletoe and hires an American dog trainer named Cecily. Edmond and Cecily bond over the corgi and fall in love.

We made up The Christmas Bride, but are willing to write it for the right price.

Holiday movie trivia

Match the holiday movie to one of its stars. Yes, Die Hard is a holiday movie.

Movies

1. Die Hard
2. Elf
3. Bad Santa
4. Scrooged
5. A Charlie Brown Christmas
6. The Family Man
7. Love, Actually
8. Krampus
9. The Ref
10. Fred Claus

Stars

Denis Leary

Bernie Mac

Bruce Willis

Toni Collette

Zooey Deschanel

Emma Thompson

Snoopy

Bill Murray

Paul Giamatti

Nicolas Cage

1. Die Hard —> Bruce Willis
2. Elf —> Zooey Deschanel
3. Bad Santa —> Bernie Mac
4. Scrooged —> Bill Murray
5. A Charlie Brown Christmas —> Snoopy
6. The Family Man —> Nicolas Cage
7. Love Actually —> Emma Thompson
8. Krampus —> Toni Collette
9. The Ref —> Denis Leary
10. Fred Claus —> Paul Giamatti