It’s a Hallmark Channel Christmas! Meet the stars taking center stage during the network’s holiday season.

’Tis the season for Hallmark! As the weather gets colder and the holiday decorations start going up, it’s the perfect time to cozy up by the fireplace with a merry collection of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies to watch. This season, a slate of 47 original movies and four festive-themed TV shows dominate the Hallmark schedule — in this case, more really is better.

From familiar holiday motifs to formulaic storylines, Hallmark continues to lean into why audiences keep coming back for more while expanding the scope of its storytelling and diversifying its narrative approach to its holiday films. Even as the network aims to broaden its talent pool, Hallmark still relies on its go-to stars, such as Lacey Chabert, Nikki DeLoach, Paul Campbell and Andrew Walker, to provide stability and drive audience engagement.

“They know that they have a place here and that they’re going to get a Christmas movie,” Hallmark programming exec Lisa Hamilton Daly said of the network’s core favorites on the Hallmark Mysteries & More podcast in March.

With Hallmark’s holiday programming in full swing, meet eight of the network’s biggest draws.

Lacey Chabert

Hallmark holiday tally: One movie

Where you can watch her: Hallmark Channel’s The Christmas Quest (premieres Dec. 1)

Chabert still wears the crown as “the Queen of Hallmark,” but this year the network fixture stars in just one original holiday film — the upcoming Icelandic adventure romance The Christmas Quest, opposite Kristoffer Polaha.

The 42-year-old actress, who headlined two high-profile Hallmark titles last season (and still holds the network record for most holiday movies, with 16), ventured outside her usual haunts, starring in the Netflix original holiday film Hot Frosty, which centers around a widow who falls in love with a snowman. Earlier this fall, Chabert hosted the feel-good unscripted show Celebrations With Lacey Chabert for Hallmark+, the rebranded streaming service for Hallmark.

Sarah Drew

Hallmark holiday tally: One TV series

Where you can watch her: Hallmark+’s Mistletoe Murders (new episodes through Dec. 5)

The Grey’s Anatomy alum has gone back and forth between Hallmark and Lifetime during the yuletide season, and this year is no different. Drew co-wrote A Carpenter Christmas Romance for Lifetime, an unofficial follow-up to 2023’s racy romance featuring the first sex scene in a holiday film for the network.

For Hallmark this season, Drew leads the six-episode detective series Mistletoe Murders, where she plays a year-round Christmas gift shop owner with a secret who gets caught up in a string of local murders.

Donna Kelce

Hallmark holiday tally: Two movies

Where you can watch her: Hallmark Channel’s Christmas on Call (premieres Nov. 22) and Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (premieres Nov. 30)

Mama Kelce isn’t your typical Hallmark star, but the fact that she makes sizable appearances in not one but two movies warrants a shout-out. She revealed earlier this year that her younger son, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, wasn’t aware of her two Hallmark gigs.

“I don’t even think he knew I was doing it,” Kelce told People in September. “He was like, ‘Really, mom?’ “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I just dipped my toe in it.’”

Both of her Hallmark roles have connections to Travis and to Jason Kelce, her older son, who retired from the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. In Christmas on Call, which takes place in Philadelphia, Kelce plays an employee at a Philly cheesesteak shop. In Holiday Touchdown, she portrays a small-town Kansas City diner owner named — you guessed it — Donna.

Erin Krakow

Hallmark holiday tally: One movie

Where you can watch her: Hallmark Channel’s Santa Tell Me (reairs Nov. 24)

When Calls the Heart’s leading lady is a staple in Hallmark movie offerings. Krakow’s contribution this year is an onscreen reunion with her former When Calls the Heart co-star and love interest Daniel Lissing in Santa Tell Me.

In the film, she plays a woman who receives a letter from Santa informing her that she will find the love of her life, a guy named Nick, by Christmas Eve. But these things never play out the way you expect them to, as Krakow’s character discovers.

Krakow credited Hallmark for bringing her and Lissing back together, telling Swoon, “They thought that it would be really fun for us to reunite on a more contemporary project.”

Jonathan Bennett

Hallmark holiday tally: One movie, one TV series

Where you can watch him: Hallmark+’s Finding Mr. Christmas (new episodes through Dec. 19) and Hallmark+’s Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane (premieres Dec. 5)

The word “busy” doesn’t do justice to describe the past several months Bennett has had with Hallmark. After wrapping up its first male-centric movie trilogy, The Groomsmen, the Mean Girls star transitioned to hosting (and executive producing) Hallmark’s first reality competition show, Finding Mr. Christmas, which pits 10 ordinary Joes against each other for the chance to be named the next “Hallmark hunk.”

He also reprises his role from 2023’s Christmas on Cherry Lane in one of three follow-up films, Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane, as he continues to push for more LGBTQ visibility at Hallmark.

Wes Brown

Hallmark holiday tally: One movie (and a brief cameo in another), one TV series

Where you can watch him: Hallmark Channel’s Deck the Walls (premieres Nov. 29) and Hallmark+’s Ready, Set, Glow! (premieres Dec. 12)

Since joining the network in 2011, Brown has starred in at least one Hallmark original nearly every year, bringing his résumé to an impressive 20 credits, including the Haul Out the Holly franchise.

The 42-year-old actor, whose past roles include arcs on True Blood, Hart of Dixie and Once Upon a Time, can be seen as a contractor who is begrudgingly reunited with his childhood adversary in Deck the Walls, as well as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo appearance in Holiday Touchdown.

Brown also tests out his hosting chops in the three-episode unscripted series Ready, Set, Glow!, which showcases the most impressive light displays around the country.

Tyler Hynes

Hallmark holiday tally: Two movies

Where you can watch him: Hallmark Channel’s Three Wiser Men and a Boy (premieres Nov. 23) and Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (premieres Nov. 30)

Featured as one of Yahoo Entertainment’s 2023 Hallmark all-stars, Hynes returns to the list — and the 38-year-old actor is busier than ever. He headlines two of the network’s Christmas tentpoles, Three Wiser Men and a Boy, the anticipated sequel to 2022’s most-watched original cable movie, and Holiday Touchdown, where he plays the Kansas City Chiefs’ director of fan engagement tasked with finding the Fan of the Year and hobnobs with head coach Andy Reid and several Chiefs players. (No Travis, unfortunately.)

His continued ascension among the Hallmark ranks since first joining the family in 2018 isn’t lost on Hynes.

“I’m clear on the reasons why I’m doing what I’m doing, so that I might add something to the conversation and not just rest on my laurels,” he tells Yahoo Entertainment. “Or at least give my best, so that if I miss, at least I know I did what I could. I’m going to try to keep pushing in that direction as much as I can.”

Andrew Walker

Hallmark holiday tally: Two movies

Where you can watch him: Hallmark Channel’s Jingle Bell Run (reairs Nov. 22) and Three Wiser Men and a Boy (premieres Nov. 23)

Like Chabert and Hynes, Walker is a regular presence on Hallmark — and a repeat Hallmark all-star. At any given time of year, but especially during the network’s signature “Countdown to Christmas” programming event, the Canadian actor is more than likely gracing the small screen.

You’ll see him in two Christmastime tales this festive season: the family-centric Three Wiser Men and a Boy, where he reprises his role as a firefighter turned father, and the reality TV competition-inspired Jingle Bell Run, in which he plays an ex-hockey player.

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