It’s been a stressful year, but at least you can count on Hollywood to come through with the holiday cheer. After all, what’s more relaxing than watching an overworked woman fall in love with a Christmas tree farmer? So decompress with All the Jingle Ladies, our guide to the best holiday movies.
Lacey Chabert played Regina George’s loyal follower Gretchen Weiners in Mean Girls, one of those rare movies that’s become more than just entertainment—it’s a stitch in pop culture’s very fabric. The Tina Fey–crafted film is quoted constantly and referenced religiously; it has a signature song and color. There’s even a day named after it.
But with all that hysteria, Mean Girls still isn’t the project Chabert is asked about the most. Rather, she says, the people who watch her Hallmark Christmas movies are the most passionate. “The fans of the Hallmark movies are incredibly loyal and devoted, and it’s actually enabled me to connect more with them and the people that enjoy the movies,” she says. “They’re so vocal on social media, and I don’t think I’d experienced that to the level I experience now.”
“Loyal and devoted” is a bit of an understatement. Hallmark has turned its holiday-movie-making business into a full-on cultural phenomenon. A whopping 72 million people tuned into Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas lineup in 2017, according to figures provided by the network. Hallmark also brought in the highest ratings on TV for households and women ages 18–49 and 25–54 during the week of November 20, 2017, largely because of its Christmas content. These holiday movies are so popular, in fact, that Hallmark upped its premiere count to 40 movies in 2020. People truly can’t get enough of them.
Nor can the actresses who appear in the films. When I spoke to Chabert in 2018, she was about to start work on her 16th Hallmark movie (over half are holiday themed), and she’s not alone. Here’s a list of the actresses who have appeared in the most Hallmark holiday movies:
Lacey Chabert
Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas (2020), Christmas Waltz (2020), Christmas in Rome (2019), Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe (2018), The Sweetest Christmas (2017), A Wish for Christmas (2016), A Christmas Melody (2015), Family for Christmas (2015), A Royal Christmas (2014), Matchmaker Santa (2012)
Danica McKellar
Christmas She Wrote (2020), Christmas at Dollywood (2019), Christmas at Grand Valley (2018), Coming Home for Christmas (2017), My Christmas Dream (2016), Crown for Christmas (2015)
Alicia Witt
Christmas Tree Lane (2020), Our Christmas Love Song (2019), Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane (2018), The Mistletoe Inn (2017), Christmas List (2016), I’m Not Ready for Christmas (2015), Christmas at Cartwright’s (2014), A Very Merry Mix-Up (2013)
Holly Robinson Peete
Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing (2020), The Christmas Doctor (2020), A Family Christmas Gift (2019), Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy (2019), Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa (2018), Christmas in Evergreen (2017), Angel of Christmas (2015), Most Wonderful Movies of Christmas Preview Show (2017)
Candace Cameron Bure
If I Only Had Christmas (2020), Christmas Town (2019), A Shoe Addict’s Christmas (2018), Switched for Christmas (2017), Journey Back to Christmas (2016), A Christmas Detour (2015), Christmas Under Wraps (2014), Moonlight & Mistletoe (2008)
Lacey Chabert in A Christmas Melody (2015)
But why? Why are the actresses so devoted to the network? “Hallmark has really become like family,” Chabert says. “I really respect the programming. I feel really blessed to be a part of it. I’m really proud of the content, so it’s become a very close relationship. The values that are represented in their films are very much intrinsically who they are as a company.”
