12 Heartwarming Hallmark Holiday Films + What Actors Can Learn From Embracing the Cheese

Hallmark holiday movie storylines usually depict “a recently dumped, high-powered female executive from the city finds new love, purpose, and appreciation for Christmas in a small town with the help of a handsome local fellow,” as per a robust meta-analysis by the New York Times. The 2024 Hallmark movie lineup is a bit more diverse, featuring a few non-Christmas holidays, LGBT+ relationships, and ensemble casts that go beyond the network’s “white heterosexual couples wearing red and green” focus of Christmases past.

To give you an idea of how the Hallmark formula plays out, we applied it to “Let it Snow,” a 2013 Hallmark film starring Candace Cameron Bure (aka DJ Tanner from “Full House”) as protagonist Stephanie Beck; Alan Thicke (who portrayed the father of Bure’s real-life brother Kirk Cameron’s character on “Growing Pains”) as her father, Ted Beck; and Jesse Hutch as her love interest, Brady Lewis.

Here’s the recipe for a delicious Hallmark Christmas performance:

List of ingredients

Career woman: a work-obsessed woman who finds climbing the corporate ladder to be much more important than, oh I don’t know, let’s say: family, Christmas, even love itself. 

• Stephanie, an executive at Falcon Resort in Arizona, doesn’t let such silly things as the holidays or relationships get in the way of her career.

Small-town setting: usually a bucolic town filled with folks who are perhaps a bit overzealous about celebrating the holidays.

• Snow Valley Lodge is a rustic resort in Maine that Ted, the Falcon Resorts owner (and Stephanie’s father) wants to renovate. He sends Stephanie to the lodge to determine how to turn its old-school charm into a modernized moneymaker. 

Love interest: a salt-of-the-earth dude who espouses traditional values and is part of a Christmas-loving community.

• Brady, the heir to Snow Valley Lodge, is family-oriented and actually kinda cute underneath all that flannel.

Sage support: a wise figure—whether a prescient bakery owner, a precocious child, or sometimes Santa himself—who comes on the scene to teach the protagonist about life and love.

• Resort guest Angeline’s wisdom belies her young age, allowing her to introduce Stephanie to holiday magic. At one point she even exclaims, “Christmas is a gift of love that binds us all together!”

Holiday ritual: a parade, bake-off, feast, or some other event that teaches the lead about the importance of connection and tradition.

• The Feast of St. Thomas is an annual tradition at Snow Valley Lodge that entails single women throwing their shoes at the wall so that they dream, not of sugarplums dancing through their heads, but of their future husbands.

The recipe: how to mix up Hallmark magic

1. Begin with city slicker preparation. Start with the protagonist in her natural big-city habitat, ensuring that she demonstrates visible disdain for holiday celebrations, personal relationships, and anything interfering with career advancement.

• We meet Stephanie in Arizona, where she’s intent on growing in her career at Falcon Resorts.

2. Sprinkle in travel. The protagonist initially dislikes her new surroundings, finding that it lacks the high-speed internet, entertainment options, and coffee chains she’s accustomed to.

• Upon being sent to Snow Valley Lodge, Stephanie reacts as though she was accidentally dropped into the dreary environs of Stephen King’s Maine. She’s visibly cold (both physically and emotionally) and uncomfortable, with a one-track business mind.

3. Heat it up. The protagonist softens, opening her heart to all things warm and fuzzy. She’ll engage—however reluctantly—in a few holiday traditions, grow closer with the quirky Christmas-loving locals, and perhaps even kiss the love interest.

• Stephanie grows to enjoy the lodge’s traditions, even taking part in the St. Thomas shoe-throwing tradition and writing a letter to Santa (which soon becomes very important). She and Brady share several romantic moments, including a surprisingly adorable ice fishing first date.

4. Add conflict (season to taste). Full crisis mode! Whether it’s an endangered holiday parade or a “there’s no time to explain!” misunderstanding with the love interest, everything seems to fall apart. 

• The Christmas cookie starts to crumble when Stephanie must decide between her father’s plans for renovating the lodge and her newfound appreciation for all things quaint and charming. 

5. Fold in a heaping dose of Christmas cheer. Whether it’s literal Santa-adjacent magic or the figurative magic of true love and the holiday spirit, the protagonist finally understands what really matters.

• While Ted is initially closed off to his daughter’s love for the lodge and its traditions, he later reads her letter to Santa and is moved by her true holiday wish: She wants Ted to spend Christmas with her and for them to become a true family.

6. Garnish with resolution. Everything gets wrapped up in a giant shiny bow, with the protagonist usually moving to the small town and partnering up with her love interest. 

• The spirit of Christmas infects even the previously impenetrable Ted, who shows up to Snow Valley Lodge dressed as Santa to spread Christmas cheer—and agrees to Stephanie and Brady’s modified vision for the lodge. The couple confess their love for each other and whaddaya know? It starts to snow.

Tips for a delicious performance

To ensure your Hallmark holiday movie performance tastes just right:

Highlight the transformation. Make your character’s metamorphosis visible through gradual changes: Exchange their business suits for winter gear (or layperson clothing for royal gowns, modern-day outfits for medieval attire, and so on—whatever the film calls for); get your hands on all the tinsel, ornaments, and snow you can; and soften your body language and facial expressions to show their growing appreciation for provincial life.

• Stephanie’s look and attitude change throughout the course of the film, which Bure sells by showing how much more comfortable her character is wearing warm clothing, engaging in tradition, and welcoming holiday cheer. 

Aim for sincerity. Maintain complete sincerity and earnestness, especially when delivering lines about Christmas magic.

• Bure is wide-eyed and earnest as can be as Stephanie tells her father she “loves Christmas”—and her exuberance upon waking up on Christmas morning is nothing short of infectious.

Bring on the schmaltz. This isn’t the time for nuanced emotional displays; instead, play it big, as though you’re emoting for a theatrical performance. And remember that reconciliation scenes require at least one tearful embrace, so be sure you know how to cry on command. 

• There’s a sentimental sparkle in Bure’s eyes when Stephanie realizes that Santa is actually her prodigal father.

Create chemistry. Viewers watch Hallmark movies for both the comfort and the va-va-voom, so it’s vital that you and your costar have great chemistry. Gaze longingly into snow globes and your scene partner’s eyes, infuse even the cheesiest dialogue with earnest desire, and make sure you really understand your character’s backstory and motivations to get at the heart of why they feel the way they do.

• Bure and Hutch have onscreen chemistry so palpable it makes us forget that their characters went from two people who had never met to full-on confessions of love in just a few weeks. The secret lies in their mutual energy and prolonged eye contact—and of course, the support of the St. Thomas tradition.

1. “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (2008)

Henry Winkler gives a master class in playing the wise old man, and one who doubles as a matchmaker, at that. Note how he never overplays the mystical Christmas guide role, instead keeping it grounded by bringing his own personality to the character.

2. “Trading Christmas” (2011)

If you struggle with handling saccharine rom-com dialogue, check out Faith Ford’s performance, which shows that the secret is to give up the (Christmas) ghost of making it sound natural. Instead, try delivering every last cutesy holiday metaphor like you absolutely mean it—remember, Santa’s always watching!

3. “Let It Snow” (2013)

Bure deftly handles the inevitable moment when her character has to choose between her big-city job and small-town love. She truly makes us believe that running a rustic lodge in freezing weather is way better than a corner office in sunny paradise—and that ice fishing makes for a great first date (seriously).

4. “Christmas Under Wraps” (2014)

Bure again! This time, she shows us how to handle the “big-city doctor stuck in small town” trope. Watch how she gradually softens her body language throughout the film—that’s character development you can see.

5. “A Royal Christmas” (2014)

“Queen of Hallmark Christmas Movies” Lacey Chabert sells falling in love with a secret prince while maintaining a local seamstress business, no problem. But that shouldn’t be surprising, considering she’s starred in dozens (and dozens, and dozens…) of them—proof that finding a niche can lead to consistent work. Now, that’s what we call fetch!

6. “The Nine Lives of Christmas” (2014)

Simultaneously rocking a firefighter’s uniform and exuding cat-dad energy, Brandon Routh plays every scene with the feline Ambrose with total commitment. If you want to learn how to build trust with animal costars, give it a watch!

7. “Northpole” (2014)

Perhaps the toughest challenge in holiday movies is encouraging the audience’s suspension of disbelief. In this film about recovering the (literal) magic of Christmas, Tiffani Thiessen sells the fantasy by playing every scene like hanging out with Santa’s elves is the most normal thing in the world.

8. “Crown for Christmas” (2015)

Danica McKellar deserves, well, a crown for making us believe she’s both qualified to be a governess and the future queen of Winshire (apologies for the spoiler). She plays every scene with total conviction, whether she’s teaching math to a princess or learning proper tea etiquette.

9. “Christmas at Pemberley Manor” (2018)

With every skeptic yet optimistic raised brow and eye roll, Jessica Lowndes transforms from cynic to full-blown believer so naturally that you can’t help but buy every moment. Watch how she handles the inevitable Christmas cookie baking scene—there’s an art to making flour-covered flirting feel fresh.

10. “One Royal Holiday” (2020)

As James, a European prince who gets stranded in small-town America, Aaron Tveit treats his character with as much gravitas as he did Christian for Broadway’s “Moulin Rouge!” He demonstrates that it’s crucial to take your character’s problems seriously…even if it’s just about getting the Christmas lights up in time.

11. “Round and Round” (2023)

Hallmark’s previous attempts to highlight Hanukkah left a bit to be desired (“Hanukkah on Rye” and “Holiday Date,” we’re looking at you), but “Round and Round” is legitimately tov. Vic Michaelis portrays Rachel, a young woman trapped at her parents’ Hanukkah party in a time loop. Luckily, “nice boy” Zach (Bryan Greenberg) is there to help, and their chemistry is nothing short of electric.

12. “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” (2024)

Whether it’s the appeal to Swifties or a value judgment on the narrative itself—the plot follows Kansas City Chiefs superfan Alana (Hunter King), who falls in love with the team’s director of fan engagement, Derrick (Tyler Hynes)—this film quickly became one of Hallmark’s highest-viewed. Its success lies in its actors’ sincerity, showing that you can’t take on one of these roles with ironic distance. Characters truly believe in soulmates and Santa—or in this case, in a superstition that combines sports fandom with Christmas.