Hallmark Supersizes Christmas: 34 New Movies Kick Off Countdown to Christmas 2026, From a Bears Love Story to Disney World

LOS ANGELES

Christmas starts early on Hallmark Channel, and this year it starts bigger than ever. Just Jared reported on October 16 that Hallmark has published the full schedule for its 2026 Countdown to Christmas, and TV Guide confirmed the headline numbers in its own calendar of the event: 34 new original movies, premiering over 10 weeks from Friday, October 16 through Sunday, December 20. That is the 17th edition of Countdown to Christmas, according to TV Guide, and it is not a modest expansion. Movieguide, in its report on the lineup, put the comparison plainly: the 34-movie slate is 10 premieres higher than the 24 Hallmark offered in 2025.

For viewers, the practical shape of the season is simple, and that simplicity is part of why it works. New movies arrive every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, generally at 8 p.m. ET/PT, according to both TV Guide and Movieguide, and each premiere streams the next day on Hallmark+. Around those premieres, Hallmark is programming holiday movies around the clock. Clear the Friday-night slot, in other words, and Hallmark will handle the rest of the weekend. It is a viewing habit the network has spent 17 years building, and this year it is feeding that habit with more new material than it has ever offered at once.

Opening weekend: a setup, a Bears story and a very married Christmas

The season opens Friday, October 16 with a title that could double as a description of the genre itself. TV Guide and Movieguide both listed the opener as 'Tis the Season for Setups, starring Amanda Schull, Victor Webster and Barbara Niven. Saturday brings the first of the season's event movies, and Sunday closes the opening weekend with Mr. & Mrs. Christmas, starring Brendan Penny and Pascale Hutton, according to the schedules published by TV Guide and WDW News Today.

That Saturday premiere is the one Hallmark is clearly leading with. Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story airs October 17 and, according to Movieguide, extends Hallmark's partnership with the NFL with a Chicago-set story starring Lyndsy Fonseca, Robert Buckley, Marsha Mason, Barbara Alyn Woods and Khary Payton. Movieguide reported that the story follows a reporter profiling a devoted Bears fan who is approaching her 500th game, and that the fan's firefighter grandson becomes part of the story. Chicago Bears players, alumni and head coach Ben Johnson are set to make cameos, according to Movieguide, but the premise it described puts family memory and community first and the scoreboard second. That is the Hallmark formula working exactly as intended: football brings the audience in the door, and the family story is what the movie is actually about.

It is also a savvy piece of scheduling. Opening weekend needs a reason for casual viewers — the ones who do not mark Hallmark premieres on a calendar in September — to sample the season early rather than drifting in sometime after Thanksgiving. A Bears movie on a Saturday night in mid-October gives sports households a doorway into a lineup they might otherwise treat as somebody else's tradition. If even a fraction of them stay for the Sunday movie, Hallmark has won the weekend.

The Disney World movie Hallmark saved for Thanksgiving weekend

The season's other big anchor arrives at the opposite end of the calendar, in the slot Hallmark treats as prime real estate. Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True premieres Saturday, November 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, during Thanksgiving weekend, according to TV Guide, Movieguide and WDW News Today, and streams the next day on Hallmark+. TV Guide described it as one of the slate's three tentpole movies, alongside the Bears film and A Grand Biltmore Christmas, the sequel to the 2023 film A Biltmore Christmas that follows on December 5.

What sets the Disney World film apart is where it was made. Multiple outlets, including WDW Magic in its report on the premiere date, described it as the first Hallmark original Christmas movie filmed on location at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Lacey Chabert, one of the network's most familiar holiday faces, stars with Travis Van Winkle, Richard Kind, Christy Carlson Romano, Bryce Durfee and Taegen Burns, according to Movieguide and TV Guide. WDW Magic reported that Chabert plays Lindsey, who brings her extended family to Walt Disney World for the holidays and finds herself staying next door to Philip, played by Van Winkle, a man she once had a first date with that went badly. A wish at the Cinderella Fountain, WDW Magic reported, starts pushing the story somewhere neither of them expected.

Hallmark is leaning into a relationship that long predates this movie. Coverage of the film's Disney Springs pop-up shop noted that Hallmark and Disney have partnered on cards and ornaments for nearly a century — a 95-year relationship the film itself was framed around when it was announced — and that the collaboration includes Hallmark products returning to Disney Parks. Whether or not you care about the merchandise, the symbolism is hard to miss: two of the most dependable feel-good brands in American entertainment have decided their audiences are, to a very large degree, the same families.

More than movies, and more movies than ever

The slate is not only films. TV Guide reported that the season also brings the third-season premiere of the mystery series Mistletoe Murders, headlined by Sarah Drew, on November 5, breaking the Friday-to-Sunday movie pattern for a Thursday premiere. WDW News Today's full schedule listed the same date for the series return, with Sarah Drew and Peter Mooney starring. Thanksgiving week itself is stacked: Christmas Delivered arrives November 26, followed by two premieres on November 27 and two more on November 28, including the Disney World film in the Saturday night anchor spot, according to the schedule published by WDW News Today.

Why supersize it? Movieguide quoted Hallmark Media's head of programming, Michelle Vicary, thanking fans for the event's longevity, and noted how far the franchise has come: what began with four original movies in its first year has grown into 10 weeks of round-the-clock holiday programming. The jump from 24 premieres to 34 in a single year suggests a network that sees its signature season not as a legacy obligation but as its strongest competitive ground. In a television business where almost every other programmer is cutting back on made-for-TV movies, Hallmark is doing the opposite, and doing it loudly.

There is a risk in that, of course. Thirty-four premieres is a lot of tinsel to spread without it thinning out, and longtime viewers will be the first to say whether this year's class holds up against their personal favorites from seasons past. But as a viewer guide, the advice is straightforward. Start Friday with the opener, do not miss the Bears movie on Saturday, mark November 28 for Disney World, and let the Friday-through-Sunday rhythm carry you to December 20. Hallmark has built the biggest version of its favorite season yet. All you have to supply is the couch.