All 24 Hallmark Holiday 2025 Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best
All the movies part of Hallmark’s annual “Countdown to Christmas” in 2025 have premiered, and every year, there are some that stand out more than others.
This year’s offerings include another team-up with the NFL for Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story as well as one with the Grand Ole Opry for A Grand Ole Opry Christmas. Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes, and Andrew Walker are back to make the Brenner boys’ movies into a trilogy, this time with Three Wisest Men. Walker also stars in She’s Making a List with Lacey Chabert, their first together in seven years. And Hynes has another film this year as well, Christmas Above the Clouds, his and Erin Krakow‘s first together since 2021. Thanksgiving weekend — Friday, November 28, Saturday, November 29, and Sunday, November 30 — featured double features each night (at 6/5c and 8/7c).
Below, we’ve ranking the movies, from worst to best. Let us know what tops your list in the comments section. (Note: This list only includes new movies, not Mistletoe Murders, airing its first season on Hallmark for the first time and its second after, or the Cherry Lane films, which were previously released on Hallmark+.)
24. A Royal Montana Christmas
Fiona Gubelmann plays a princess of a Hallmark country who decides to spend the holidays on vacation at a ranch she visited as child, while Warren Christie plays the son of the family that owns said ranch. They, of course, fall in love after a mishap of a meet cute. While there’s nothing special about this film and how they end up together, what is refreshing is that she tells him she’s a princess and it’s not a big deal that leads to an automatic split.
23. A Make or Break Holiday
The movie certainly starts out showing some promise. Liv (Hunter King) and Daniel’s (Evan Roderick) meet cute at a holiday party may be sweeter than the sugar cookies they both like. They even kiss under mistletoe. But then the film fast-forwards through their relationship, including them buying a house together, to get to the Christmas they’re hosting their families and everything falls apart. It doesn’t take long for them to decide to take a break, not tell their families, and then hijinks to ensue because, of course, the hotel reservations fall through and everyone’s staying at their place. Cue siblings trying to play matchmaker and the truth coming out at the worst possible moment, when Liv is forced to open Daniel’s gift, which is an engagement ring, and the family’s planning a wedding before he even asks or she even replies. The problem with this one is the montage at the beginning skips through everything that would show us why we should want them to be together, and instead, the majority of the movie tells us why they shouldn’t be.
22. A Christmas Angel Match
Meghan Ory and Benjamin Ayres star as Christmas Angels whose job it is to bring together soulmates. It’s easy to see where this is going when they’re assigned to match the same pair and both go about their job in a different way. The story is, of course, watching them fall in love while they’re trying to create a match for others, with them being the soulmate match that mattered. It’s a sweet ending, but not the most unique Hallmark film.
21. The Snow Must Go On
This film gives us pretty much exactly what we expect from a Hallmark movie, and that’s not a bad thing — it just doesn’t stand out among the rest of this year’s offerings. Corey Cott stars as Isaiah, who has been struggling to get back on Broadway and spends the holidays with his sister and her daughter. Heather Hemmens plays Lilly-Anne, the school’s guidance counselor, and while the two do grow closer in all the typical ways and the stars are fine together, the romance isn’t the selling point. Rather, we care more about Isaiah and his niece and the musical.
20. An Alpine Holiday
This is another Hallmark movie where the romance takes a backseat in a sense. In this case, it’s to the sisters’ relationship, with Ashley Williams‘ Faith and Laci J. Mailey‘s Kelly growing closer once again due to the trip they take recreating their grandmother’s time in the French Alps with her husband. That’s sweet, and yes, we do care about their romantic relationships, but it’s much more about the two women both as individuals and together. That’s not a bad thing — Williams and Mailey are believable as sisters — but it doesn’t deliver enough to make it higher on this list.
19. Single on the 25th
There’s nothing bad about this film, but there’s nothing particularly memorable about it either. Lyndsy Fonseca and Daniel Lissing are good together, as a woman who’s stuck spending Christmas alone after her family cancels their plans and her neighbor who helps her still enjoy the festive season, but it’s just not as magical, compared to the other offerings this year.
18. Three Wisest Men
Maybe it’s because we expected more from Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes, and Andrew Walker, together again as the Brenner brothers, but the third film in this series doesn’t entirely live up to expectations, especially when compared to other Hallmark offerings thus far this year. It’s always great when the three brothers are together, but returns like Ali Liebert’s feel a bit forced and we’d rather forget about the bird storyline. But leaning into the movie trilogy of it with Kimberley Sustad‘s return when the brothers ended up in the hospital is fun.
17. Tidings for the Season
Perhaps the biggest problem of this movie is that the romance between Tamera Mowry-Housley‘s Lucy and B.J. Britt‘s Adam is only the third best relationship of the main three of the show. Instead, it’s 10-year-old Robbie’s (Elijah-Justus Lewis) scenes with his mom Lucy and his idol, news anchor Adam, that stand out, especially as we see how the kid affects the latter’s coverage on-air.
16. Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story
Friends work together to solve a mystery that brings together another couple. Stop us if you’ve heard that one before in a Hallmark film starring Holland Roden. (You have: Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas, with Tyler Hynes, which does a much better job with that concept.) Roden and Matthew Daddario are fine together onscreen here, as the two figure out who helped her family more than 60 years ago and has been sending Christmas gifts to her Uncle Tommy (Joe Pantoliano) every year. It’s the typical friends-to-lovers romance, with everyone bugging Daddario’s Gabe about pining for her. It’s the cliché story and the cameos are a bit too in your face (Andrew Walker as the bartender, Hynes and Hunter King from A Chiefs Love Story) to be any higher on the list.
15. The Christmas Cup
This is a fun one, with Rhiannon Fish and Ben Rosenbaum a great pair as Staff Sergeant Kelly Brandt, home for the holidays and awaiting news of a major career move, and Fire Captain Quinn Stokley, who end up working together to get her team ready for the Christmas Cup competition. It’s just different enough to not be the typical Hallmark fare — the network does tend to bring out solid stories when there are competitions like this involved — and worth checking out.
14. A Suite Holiday Romance
It’s never a good idea to assume something about someone else, as Sabrina (Jessy Schram) and Ian (Dominic Sherwood) learn in this holiday movie. She thinks he’s a member of the British aristocracy, he thinks she’s a wealthy guest at the hotel in which they’re both staying. It’s fun watching them get to know each other while knowing how wrong they are about one another, and we, of course, root for them to get together. But it’s the romance in the past — though not just then — that Sabrina hears about as a ghostwriter that’s really engaging and that of Ian’s friend and boss that are the real selling points.
13. Melt My Heart This Christmas
This one gets points for being a bit more original than the typical Hallmark film, with Laura Vandervoort playing Holly, a glassblower trying to break into the industry at the Fern Grove Fair, and Stephen Huszar‘s Jack the one who oversees the entries and rejects her. While working as an assistant to a legendary glassblower, Bianca (Jennifer Wigmore), Holly also displays her own creations under a pseudonym. The truth, of course, comes out in the worst way, feelings are hurt, and it all works out in the end. It’s a solid movie with a decent build-up and romance, and the Holly and Bianca dynamic stands out.
12. Christmas at the Catnip Café
Cute cats can go a long way with Hallmark movies; just look at The Nine Lives of Christmas (and its sequel, referenced in this film with Kimberley Sustad’s cameo). But that’s not all this film has going for it. Paul Campbell’s Ben and Erin Cahill‘s Olivia are good together, from their initial conflict — they both own half a cat café and she wants to sell but he doesn’t — to them working together to build up its profits. And while the ending is inevitable and of course she ends up adopting a cat and staying, it doesn’t feel forced or rushed. Plus, a kiss before the end of a movie is usually a good thing, as it is here.
11. Oy to the World
The story itself may not be anything unique or special — childhood rivals come back together and must work together on a joint holiday project for Hanukkah and Christmas — but Brooke D’Orsay and Jake Epstein are good together and there’s an ease with their characters that makes their scenes together enjoyable. Add in their fathers easily working together and their mothers scheming, plus his grandmother just being who she is, and these are two families we wouldn’t mind revisiting.
10. She's Making a List
There’s one obvious draw for this film: Lacey Chabert and Andrew Walker together again. The chemistry is still there, with this movie featuring a unique concept that will make for an enjoyable rewatch going forward. Her character, Isabel, is a member of the Naughty or Nice Group, which evaluates kids for those lists for Santa, and his, Jason, is the father of one of those children. What ensues are fun scenes as she tries to hide who she is (while posing in various jobs, then dating him), and we like that his daughter isn’t immediately on board with him dating someone new after her mom died (instead, she warms up to Isabel). All in all, it’s a solid film.
9. The More the Merrier
This almost feels like if Hallmark decided to do a medical drama series because we wouldn’t mind continuing to follow this hospital staff — beyond just Alice (Rachel Boston) and Brian (Brendan Penny) — after this film. It’s one of those where the romance doesn’t dominate, though we still want to see them get together, and instead multiple stories interconnected (in this case, three women going into labor) are just as important. There’s a fun meet-cute and banter as well as an ease between Boston and Penny, and the film does a great job of developing the community of the hospital by keeping it the main location.
8. Christmas on Duty
Janel Parrish and Parker Young‘s characters are rivals in the military, reuniting after some conflict during training over a job. When their rivalry causes quite the scene (and ruins the cake) at an event, they’re assigned to Christmas Duty together and ultimately team up to make sure that the families on base get the presents for the kids when a storm delays deliveries. That means driving around together, getting to know one another, and bonding. The use of tactical planning to get some of the presents is a bit much, as is how much their fathers hate each other until the end when it devolves into a snowball fight of the dads vs. their kids. But Peter Jacobson as Parrish’s character’s father is a standout, as is him trying to get into the Christmas spirit after their non-traditional traditions.
7. A Grand Ole Opry Christmas
A sweet friends-to-lovers romance without any additional love interests and a movie that puts a twist on time travel? Sign us up. This one doesn’t disappoint, even leaning into the Grand Ole Opry of it. Nikki Deloach and Kristoffer Polaha play best friends who both travel back in time, to when her character, Gentry, can learn what led to the end of her father’s legendary music duo. The focus is on the relationships that matter — Gentry and her father’s, as she gets to know him in the past, and Gentry and Mac’s as the two pose as a married couple in 1995 and eventually get together. We know that after Mac accidentally returns to the present and can’t get back to the past that Gentry will follow, but that doesn’t take away from the reveal or the heartfelt reunion.
6. A Newport Christmas
This film, starring Ginna Claire Mason and Wes Brown, gives serious Kate & Leopold vibes by the end, which is a one of its best parts. Their characters, Ella and Nick, meet when she time travels from 1905 to 2025 and ends up on his (formerly her) boat. But even as they fall in love, they know she must go back to her time because her legacy begins being erased — and she’s said to marry someone else, who, too, shows up in 2025. But he’s not willing to go back, and so that leaves his identity free for Nick to assume when he follows Ella back to the past. Any time a movie can put a twist of any sort on time travel is a plus.
5. Christmas Above the Clouds
The A Christmas Carol homage is strong in this one, and that’s putting it mildly. Erin Krakow plays workaholic CEO Ella Neezer, with her “bah humbug” attitude stemming from the end of her relationship with her ex (Tyler Hynes), and what do you know it, they’re both on the same flight over Christmas. Only Ella’s joined by three ghosts of her past, present, and future. Some of the twists on the classic story for the modern/plane setting work, while others are a bit much, but all in all, it’s an enjoyable movie, and Krakow and Hynes are great together.
4. Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper
This is one of Hallmark’s strongest offerings this year, and Kimberley Sustad and Robert Buckley‘s chemistry from their first scene together is a big reason. The story is a standout as well, with Buckley’s weatherman, the titular Ted Cooper, back in his hometown for the holidays and for work. The asides of his injuries, with Brendan Penny a coworker cataloguing the bets, is just the right side of humorous. Sustad plays Dr. Hope Miller, whom Ted had a crush on in high school and who treats him after one such injury. The inevitable misunderstanding isn’t the worst — he loses his phone, and she thinks he’s seeing someone else — and it’s not even painful to sit through the brief split before their reconciliation in the final moments.
3. The Christmas Baby
Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas ends on a high note this year, with the last movie to air in 2025 a sweet story about a married couple (Ali Liebert‘s Erin and Katherine Barrell‘s Kelly) who don’t think kids are in their future until a baby is left at Erin’s workplace with a note for them. There’s quite a bit to love about this one: LGBTQ+ representation, a solid marriage with Erin and Kelly talking through their issues in mature ways, the fact that the couple takes time to make their decision about becoming parents versus both rushing into it (and that there is paperwork to contend with), and a great supporting cast of characters (from their families to their friends to the neighbor who, of course, goes from being annoyed to helping out). Even the explanation of who the baby’s mother is and why she chooses Erin and Kelly is fleshed out. In other words, it’s just what we want from a holiday movie.
2. A Keller Christmas Vacation
If we’re being honest, movies in which there are multiple main love stories which we’re supposed to care about can be a hit or a miss. After all, what usually ends up happening is one gets more screen time than the others or one just falls way short than the rest. That’s not the case with this film, starring Jonathan Bennett, Brandon Routh, and Eden Sher as siblings who join their parents (Nigel Whitmey and Laurel Lefkow) on a Christmas cruise. (The siblings’ relationships are especially a highlight.) While Routh and Sher’s characters find love on the cruise, Bennett’s is at a crossroads in his relationship, due to his boyfriend (Anand Desai-Barochia) not saying yes to his proposal ahead of the vacation. But that ties into the secret that the siblings’ parents are keeping from them, something that, yes, is used as a wedge to drive them apart, but is, at the same time, understandable — there’s no “bad” guy here. Yes, that does seem to be resolved relatively quickly, but it’s the nature of a Hallmark Christmas movie because you need to see that moment onscreen. It’s a touching story about love, family, and Christmas, and it all comes together in a film that’s instantly rewatchable.
1. We Met in December
This is easily one of Hallmark’s best movies in recent years. Annie (Autumn Reeser) and Dave (Niall Matter) unwillingly end up in a Hallmark twist on Serendipity. The two spend a sweet night of meaningful conversation and even, as it’s revealed late in the movie, a kiss, only to completely miss one another on the flight home to Chicago they’d planned to be taking together (he overslept). What follows is the two trying so hard to find one another in smart ways — Googling (names and careers are too common) and following the paths that they’d told one another they’d be taking for the holidays — only to just keep missing each other. And the best part? How he immediately makes sure to get her number once they do finally meet up. Reeser and Matter are both endearing in their roles, and their chemistry is fantastic. All in all, it’s a film we’ll definitely be rewatching sooner rather than later.
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