Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story

Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story combines Christmas in Chicago with the Chicago Bears, a reporter who needs help understanding the world she has been assigned to cover, and a firefighter who becomes her guide to both the team and the city. What interests me most is that the story revolves around a longtime Bears fan celebrating her 500th game, which gives the football premise a multigenerational emotional center rather than making the NFL partnership feel like decoration. I like Hallmark best when the romance sits inside a larger story about belonging and community, so this was an obvious 2026 addition for me.

What If Christmas

What If Christmas immediately caught my attention because I have a soft spot for holiday stories that play with alternate lives. Erin once set aside her dream of fashion design while supporting her husband’s career, only to receive a magical glimpse of the life she might have lived if she had chosen differently. I am always interested in stories that ask whether the life we imagine wanting would actually make us happier, and Christmas is practically built for that kind of reflective “what if?” plot. Tom Cavanagh being involved does not hurt either.

Holiday Unplugged

Holiday Unplugged may have one of the most timely Hallmark premises of the season. After precious family videos are lost, a widowed mother creates a screen-free Christmas while secretly trying to recover them, and the experiment forces the family to reconnect in more old-fashioned ways. As someone who has been deliberately working more low-screen reading, coloring, puzzle, and quiet-time ideas into my own holiday content, I feel like this premise is very much in my lane. I like that the story appears to be about memory and grief as much as romance, which usually gives a Hallmark movie more emotional staying power for me.

The Nights Before Christmas

The Nights Before Christmas is going straight onto my watchlist because Tyler Hynes gets a Christmas Eve time loop. Marty wakes up to discover that December 24 keeps repeating, and at first he enjoys the ridiculous amount of extra time he suddenly has. Then he meets Chloe, only to realize that every reset erases their connection from her perspective. I love a holiday time-loop story when it uses the gimmick to ask something meaningful about attention and how we spend our lives, and the fact that Marty apparently uses some of his endless Christmas Eves to read every book makes this even more appropriate for my list.

Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True

Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True is one of the bigger 2026 Hallmark titles I am curious about because it pairs Lacey Chabert with an actual Walt Disney World Christmas setting. I am expecting this to lean unapologetically into holiday wish fulfillment, which is exactly what I would want from a Hallmark-and-Disney collaboration. This is not the movie I am putting on when I want realism; this is the one for the night when I want Christmas lights, nostalgia, romance, and permission to enjoy something completely designed to make me happy.

A Grand Biltmore Christmas

I already think A Biltmore Christmas is one of Hallmark’s standout modern Christmas movies, so a return to the Biltmore universe was always going to get my attention. A Grand Biltmore Christmas goes further back in time, beginning with a connection at Biltmore in the late nineteenth century before bringing its characters into another time-travel story involving the magical hourglass. This is firmly in my “Hallmark, but make it historical and slightly strange” category, which is apparently a category I needed. I especially like that Hallmark is willing to revisit one of its stronger concepts without simply remaking the same romance.

An Unexpected Christmas

An Unexpected Christmas remains one of my easiest recommendations because the chemistry between Bethany Joy Lenz and Tyler Hynes does so much of the work. The story begins with exes pretending they are still together for one more family Christmas, which is already exactly the sort of terrible fictional decision I enjoy watching other people make. What keeps me coming back, though, is that the breakup actually matters. Their issues feel specific enough that getting back together requires more than standing under mistletoe and looking attractive.

When I want fake dating, second chances, meddling family, and enough emotional honesty to keep the trope from feeling mechanical, this is the one I choose. It is very Hallmark without feeling like somebody assembled it from a Hallmark checklist.

Three Wise Men and a Baby

Three Wise Men and a Baby is still one of the movies I recommend to people who insist Hallmark Christmas movies are never genuinely funny. Three very different adult brothers suddenly have to care for a baby together, and the romantic storylines take a back seat to sibling dynamics, old family wounds, and the spectacle of grown men having absolutely no idea what they are doing.

That is precisely why it works for me. The brothers feel like the center rather than an obstacle between romantic scenes, and the comedy comes from their personalities instead of characters behaving stupidly merely because the script needs a joke. When I want a Hallmark Christmas movie that my husband might actually sit through without looking at me accusingly, this is one of the first choices I make.

A Biltmore Christmas

A Biltmore Christmas earned its place on this update because I somehow did not include it in the original post, despite it becoming one of Hallmark’s most memorable recent holiday movies. Bethany Joy Lenz plays a screenwriter working on a remake of a classic Christmas film who travels to the Biltmore Estate for research and accidentally ends up on the original film set in 1947. From there, we get time travel, Golden Age Hollywood atmosphere, gorgeous surroundings, and a romance that feels much more cinematic than the average small-town-cookie-contest plot.

This is one I would recommend even to people who have started feeling burned out on the Hallmark formula. It still gives you the emotional reassurance you expect, but the filmmaking, historical setting, and time-travel concept make it feel special. The bookish part of me also loves that the heroine is a writer trying to understand an old story properly.

The Santa Summit

The Santa Summit is another movie I should have had on this list sooner. Three teacher friends attend a massive Santa-themed holiday event, and what follows is part romantic scavenger hunt, part friendship story, and part sea of people wandering around dressed as Santa Claus. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous, but it commits to the idea with so much energy that the whole thing becomes genuinely fun.

What I especially like is the emphasis on female friendship. The romance is there, but the evening is also about three women getting out of their routines, reconnecting with themselves, and showing up for one another. If you want Hallmark with more comedy and less “save the family Christmas-tree farm by Friday,” this is a great change of pace.

The Nine Lives of Christmas

The Nine Lives of Christmas is old-school Hallmark comfort at this point. A commitment-shy firefighter reluctantly takes in a stray cat, meets a veterinary student, and discovers that perhaps companionship is not the terrifying burden he has convinced himself it is. There are cats, Christmas, romance, and Brandon Routh being gradually emotionally reorganized by a tabby.

I understand why this one keeps appearing among longtime Hallmark favorites. It is simple without feeling empty, and the chemistry has enough warmth to make it rewatchable. Sometimes I do not want a clever structural twist. Sometimes I want a cat to fix someone’s love life.

Let It Snow

Let It Snow follows an ambitious executive sent to evaluate a family-run ski lodge her company plans to modernize, and it remains one of my favorite examples of Hallmark’s “person discovers that the life plan may be the problem” formula. The lodge feels properly cozy, the Christmas traditions are part of the story, and the shift in the heroine’s priorities happens gradually enough that I buy it.

This is a comfort rewatch for me because the setting does so much of the emotional work. If I am going to watch someone reconsider corporate ambition over Christmas, I would like them to do it beside a roaring fire at an absurdly charming snowy resort.

Christmas Under Wraps

Christmas Under Wraps gives us a doctor whose carefully planned career takes an unexpected detour through a remote Alaskan town, where absolutely nobody seems interested in behaving like a normal person and there may be something suspiciously Santa-adjacent happening in the background. It is silly in a way I find extremely comforting.

This is one of those Hallmark movies where the town itself becomes part of the appeal. I do not need to believe I would personally relocate there. I only need to believe I would enjoy visiting for eighty-four minutes with cocoa.

The Christmas Card

The Christmas Card is one of the older Hallmark Christmas movies that still carries a surprisingly devoted following, and I understand why. A soldier visits the hometown of a woman who once sent him a Christmas card through a military outreach program, and the relationship that develops pulls him gradually into her family and community.

This is much more earnest than some of the newer Hallmark movies, but that sincerity is exactly what I like about it. There is no winking at the genre. It simply wants to tell a heartfelt story about home, belonging, and finding somewhere you want to stay. Every time I revisit it, I remember why the older movies still have a particular emotional texture of their own.

Christmas Waltz

Christmas Waltz begins with a canceled wedding and a woman deciding to continue the ballroom dance lessons she had already booked. That choice brings her closer to her instructor while also forcing her to figure out who she is when the future she planned disappears.

I return to this one because the dance lessons give the romance a natural way to develop. There is physical chemistry, yes, but there is also trust, repetition, vulnerability, and the pleasure of watching someone regain confidence through learning something difficult. It is one of my favorite choices when I want a romance-forward Hallmark night.

Crown for Christmas

Crown for Christmas is the Hallmark equivalent of saying, “I know this is a fairy tale; please continue.” An American woman takes a temporary job as governess to a young princess and naturally begins falling for the girl’s widowed royal father while navigating palace expectations.

Do I believe any of this could happen? Absolutely not. Is belief remotely required? Also no. When I want gowns, castles, royal Christmas decorations, and a guaranteed romantic ending, this scratches exactly the itch it is supposed to scratch.

A Timeless Christmas

A Timeless Christmas sends a wealthy inventor from 1903 into the present, where his old home has become a museum and his life is being interpreted as history. That is already enough of a premise to make this stand out from the usual Hallmark lineup, and I enjoy watching the character discover both the modern world and what became of the legacy he assumed he understood.

This is another one where I appreciate Hallmark allowing itself a little genre play. Give me Christmas romance with time travel and I am much more likely to remember it six months later.

Christmas by Starlight

Christmas by Starlight is another fan favorite I wanted to bring into the refreshed post. Annie is trying to save her family’s café, which puts her in the orbit of William, whose family’s company is threatening the business. The arrangement that follows gives Kimberley Sustad and Paul Campbell plenty of room for banter, and their chemistry is the main reason this works as well as it does.

This is one of my hidden-gem recommendations for people who care more about witty dialogue than spectacular Christmas scenery. Hallmark romances live or die on whether I believe the leads actually enjoy talking to one another, and here I do.

Trading Christmas

Trading Christmas comes from Debbie Macomber’s holiday fiction and uses a house swap to create two intertwined romances. A widowed mother trades her Washington home with a Boston professor so she can surprise her daughter, while the people around them complicate those carefully made plans almost immediately.

I have always liked this movie because it feels more grounded than many of Hallmark’s bigger fantasy setups. The characters are older, the relationships have a little more lived-in texture, and the house-swap premise gives you two Christmas worlds in one story. This is exactly the sort of adaptation I would pair with the book on a slow December weekend.

The Christmas Train

The Christmas Train is based on David Baldacci’s novel and follows a journalist traveling across the country by train at Christmas, only to discover that an old love is among his fellow passengers. I already loved the train setting in the original version of this post because trains make holiday stories instantly feel more old-fashioned and romantic, even when everybody involved has modern emotional baggage.

This one is especially fun for readers because the novel gives the story more room to wander through its ensemble of passengers, while the Hallmark adaptation gives you the visual pleasure of a Christmas train full of strangers gradually forming its own temporary community. I am a very easy audience for “people trapped together while traveling at Christmas,” apparently.

Christmas Town

Christmas Town is adapted from Donna VanLiere’s novel The Christmas Town and follows a woman whose journey toward a new job detours through a community that offers her a sense of belonging she did not expect. The story also gives adoption and foster care more emotional weight than we often get in a standard holiday romance.

This is the kind of book-to-screen Christmas story I like because the romance is not the only thing changing the protagonist’s life. Home, family, and community matter just as much, which makes the happy ending feel broader than simply pairing two people off.

Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe

Obviously, I cannot have a bookish Hallmark Christmas section without mentioning Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe. The movie is based on Melissa de la Cruz’s novel of the same name, which itself plays with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Here Darcy is a successful woman returning home for Christmas who reconnects with an old rival while the two work together on a charity event.

This is not an Austen adaptation in the strict sense, and I would not go into it expecting Elizabeth and Darcy in modern Christmas sweaters. What makes it fun for me is seeing how recognizable pieces of a classic can be rearranged into the Hallmark formula. As someone who spends a lot of time talking about Austen around here, I find this almost comically tailored to my interests.

Christmas List

Christmas List is based on Ella Fairlie’s novel The Christmas Bucket List and follows a woman determined to create the perfect storybook Christmas from a carefully planned list of traditions. Naturally, the plan immediately begins going wrong, because no Christmas movie has ever allowed a woman with a checklist to simply complete the checklist in peace.

The reader in me likes the underlying idea because it is really about the difference between constructing the life you think should make you happy and noticing what is actually happening around you. That is a theme Hallmark returns to constantly, but the bucket-list framing makes it especially cozy.

The Christmas Cottage

The Christmas Cottage revolves around a cottage where local legend says couples who stay during Christmas are destined to fall in love. Naturally, an ex-couple ends up there together, which gives us snow, forced proximity, shared history, and exactly the level of magical folklore I am willing to accept before asking questions.

I like this one when I want the entire world of the movie to feel small. A cabin, a fire, an old relationship, and nowhere particularly urgent to go can be more effective than filling every scene with Christmas events.

Snow Bride

Snow Bride gives us a gossip reporter chasing a story about a prominent family, only to become stranded at their snowy mountain estate and gradually develop actual feelings for the people she originally planned to report on. The premise is built on deception, which can be annoying when the eventual reveal is obviously waiting around the corner, but this movie gives the heroine enough self-awareness that I still enjoy it.

I also think this is one of those older Hallmark titles that deserves to stay in the conversation. It has the big snowy-house fantasy, family dynamics, and enough humor to keep the inevitable misunderstanding from becoming exhausting.

Christmas at the Plaza

Christmas at the Plaza follows a historian hired to research and curate a Christmas exhibit at New York’s Plaza Hotel, where she begins working with the hotel’s decorator. This is one I keep because the setting is doing exactly what a Christmas movie setting should do: making me want to put on a coat and immediately go somewhere with an enormous tree.

I also like the historian heroine because the plot allows Christmas tradition itself to become part of the romance. The whole thing feels slightly more grown-up and less frantic than some of the small-town festival movies.

One Royal Holiday

One Royal Holiday strands royalty in a small New England town during a snowstorm, which is already such concentrated Hallmark logic that resisting it would be pointless. A local family takes them in, and traditions, inn life, and romance begin softening the divide between royal formality and ordinary Christmas.

I enjoy this one because it knows exactly what fantasy it is selling. If you want snowy New England plus royalty without going all the way to a palace setting, this is the compromise.

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

Lights, Camera, Christmas! is Hallmark turning the camera on its own formula. A boutique owner becomes the costume designer for a Christmas movie filming in her town, and her relationship with the leading man grows while she rediscovers a creative part of herself.

The movie-within-a-movie setup is what keeps this fun for me. It can poke gently at Hallmark conventions while still sincerely delivering them, and I appreciate any holiday movie self-aware enough to know exactly what viewers came for.

Road to Christmas

Road to Christmas pairs a highly organized television producer with the son of a beloved holiday-show host as they attempt to reunite his brothers for a Christmas broadcast. The road-trip structure gives the characters more space to talk and creates enough movement that the family reconciliation and romance do not feel as if they are fighting for the same plot space.

This is one of my “solid comfort movie” picks rather than something I would call wildly original, and sometimes that is exactly what I need. I want likable people, mild obstacles, family repair, and a nice ending.

Write Before Christmas

Write Before Christmas begins when a woman sends handwritten notes of gratitude to several people who have shaped her life, and those letters ripple outward through multiple interconnected stories. I love the concept because the film is not built exclusively around one central romance.

The letter-writing angle is also wonderfully bookish and makes me want to do something after the credits rather than simply move on to the next movie. Every time I watch a story about handwritten letters, I briefly become convinced I am going to revive correspondence as a lifestyle.

Christmas at Pemberley Manor

Christmas at Pemberley Manor earns a place here partly because I am powerless against an Austen reference. An event planner is tasked with organizing a Christmas festival at a historic estate owned by a businessman considering selling it, creating the expected clash between preservation, practicality, and romance.

This is very loosely Austen-adjacent rather than an adaptation I would use to teach Pride and Prejudice, but that is fine. I am here for the manor, the name, and the festive attempt to borrow a little Austen atmosphere.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year has remained a longtime fan favorite because Henry Winkler arrives for Christmas with a charming stranger and proceeds to disrupt his niece’s carefully controlled life. The movie has the sort of warm family comedy that makes older Hallmark titles feel different from the increasingly polished newer productions.

I like it because the romance grows inside a larger story about opening your home and loosening your grip on the version of Christmas you thought you needed. Henry Winkler being delightful is also a fairly strong argument.

The Christmas House

The Christmas House centers on two adult brothers returning home while their parents resurrect an extravagant family Christmas tradition. Multiple relationships and family concerns unfold at once, including adoption and the question of how a family changes while still remaining connected.

I originally included this because I liked seeing Hallmark widen the kinds of couples and families allowed at the center of its Christmas stories. It still gives you the decorating, sentimental speeches, and seasonal warmth, but there is more going on than whether one central couple will kiss.

A Veteran’s Christmas

A Veteran’s Christmas follows a former military K-9 officer whose travel plans strand her in a small town, where the local judge and community gradually become part of her transition into civilian life. I like the quieter tone of this one because it gives the heroine’s sense of dislocation room to matter.

The romance does not have to manufacture a giant problem because the emotional transition is already enough. When I want one of the softer, more grounded Hallmark Christmas movies, this is still a good choice.

A Christmas Detour

A Christmas Detour strands an extremely organized bride-to-be with a cynical fellow traveler after a storm disrupts their Christmas travel plans. I like it because the detour does what a good romantic-comedy detour should do: force the heroine to reconsider not just the man beside her, but the future she had convinced herself she wanted.

There is bickering, travel chaos, and a secondary older couple who give the story another perspective on relationships. It remains a dependable “snowstorm ruins the plan and improves the life” movie.

A Wish for Christmas

A Wish for Christmas gives its people-pleasing heroine a magical burst of courage that allows her to finally speak up. The premise is simple, but I have a soft spot for Christmas magic that changes the character rather than merely changing her romantic circumstances.

It is also one of those Hallmark movies that feels unexpectedly relatable if you have ever replayed a conversation later and invented the much better response you should have given at the time.

Christmas in Vienna

Christmas in Vienna sends a violinist who has lost some of her creative spark to one of the prettiest possible Hallmark settings. Between the music, markets, lights, and romance with a diplomat and single father, the movie feels like a Christmas vacation I can take without locating my passport.

I keep this one largely for atmosphere, and I mean that as praise. Sometimes the location is the fantasy.