Photos and screengrabs: Crown Media

Candace Cameron Bure returned to her Hallmark home for Christmas again this year—this time around she leads “Christmas Town” with Tim Rozon, which tells the story about a woman who leaves everything behind in Boston to embark on a new chapter in her life, career…and family?

This was a sweet story with a little bit of mystery and a whole lot of love. After a very uptown wardrobe for 2018’s “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas”, Bure rocked more of a casual and cozy winter look that was curated by costume designer, Vladimir Markovic.

Photos and screengrabs: Crown Media

Elizabeth Mitchell leads her first Hallmark holiday movie this year, alongside Cameron Mathison, in “The Christmas Club”. This heart-warming film tells the story of two strangers who are brought together during the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ after helping a woman who lost her Christmas savings. Maybe a little bit of Christmas magic is all they need.

Nola Chaters was the costume designer and shared the details of what Mitchell wore in the movie as her character, Olivia. During the most pivotal part of the movie we see Olivia wearing a cute short double-breasted grey coat by Club Monaco.

Hinske behind the scenes of THE CHRISTMAS CLUB! | Photo: Barbara Hinske

Guess what this week is? I’ll tell you — it’s premiere week for Hallmark Channel’s The Christmas Club starring Cameron Mathison and Elizabeth Mitchell. This heart-warming story about a random act of kindness and the irresistible pull of love was based off the novella by best-selling author Barbara Hinske, and this month has been a treat in getting an in-depth look behind the writing of the story thanks to an exclusive Q&A with Hinske and a guest blog where she explained how a homily lead her on this journey.

In her second guest blog, Hinske shares some tidbits about what it was like when she went to the set of the Hallmark Channel original movie and watched her novella come to life on the small screen!

The Christmas Club: Behind the Scenes

The Christmas Club, my Christmas novella, was purchased by Crown Media and made into a 2019 Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. I’ve written about what a dream come true that was here. As if having my story made into a Hallmark Christmas movie wasn’t enough, my husband and I got to spend a week on location during filming. That was an experience I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. In addition to every single cast and crew member being extremely professional, warm, welcoming, and downright kind, here are my “best of” moments:

Photos: Barbara Hinske/Crown Media

The Christmas Club, starring Cameron Mathison and Elizabeth Mitchell, is one of the 40 original holiday movies premiering during Hallmark’s iconic Christmas programming event during ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ and it’s based off of a novella by author Barbara Hinske.

This touching story tells the tale of two strangers who show a random act of kindness to a woman who loses her Christmas savings, and as fate would have it, find the love they were both missing.

Earlier this week, I featured a Q&A I conducted with Hinske to celebrate The Christmas Club [read it here!], which premieres on November 27th on the Hallmark Channel, and Hinske has also stepped in to share a couple of guest blogs that I will feature now and next week.  Check out the first post below!

 Photos via BarbaraHinske.com

There are 40 original movies slated for Hallmark’s iconic Christmas programming event this year, and one in particular is sure to warm your heart this holiday season! The Christmas Club, starring Camerson Mathison and Elizabeth Mitchell, tells the inspiring story of random acts of kindness, friendship and love — and it’s set to premiere during the 10th Anniversary of Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas lineup. Lolly Christmas chatted with Barbara Hinske, the author of the novella on which the film is based, about the writing process and being on the festive set as her imagination came to life — read what she had to say below!

Can you tell me more about The Christmas Club?
An elderly woman slips on the ice and her hard-earned Christmas Club money is lost to the wind. Two strangers come to her aid and a series of pay-it-forward, random acts of kindness is set in motion.

What inspired the story?
A sermon I heard many years ago contained the story of a stranger helping someone recover money that had blown out of their hands and centered on the theme of doing kind things for people in nice ways. Anonymous kindness is sometimes the nicest approach and that idea stuck with me because I — like many of us — love to be acknowledged for doing something generous. I expanded and fictionalized this story but kept the main theme intact.

Photos and screengrabs: Crown Media

As one of the Hallmark original new Christmas movies I was most looking forward to, “Write Before Christmas” starring Torrey DeVitto and Chad Michael Murray, did not disappoint! In the film, Jessica (DeVitto) sends Christmas cards to five people who have greatly impacted her life–one of which, gets received by the son (Murray) of her former teacher.

The story was great, the chemistry was bliss and the clothes were fabulous!

Valerie Halverson, the Costume Designer for the film, dressed Torrey in this Banana Republic ‘Melton’ Car Coat. Not only does she wear it for the official key art, her character also wears this look in the film with a plaid scarf.

Photos: Crown Media

Kellie Pickler returned to the Hallmark Channel this holiday season with Tyler Hynes in “The Mistletoe Secret”, a sweet festive story set in a small town and wrapped in a little mystery. In the movie, Kellie plays Aria Eubank whose hometown is selected for feature story by travel writer, Sterling Masters (Christopher Russell), but little does she know that the voice behind her favorite adventurer is not quite who she thinks.

Aria sticks to cute and cozy winter wear in this film, but that didn’t stop her from having quite the show-stopping moment for a holiday party or two! Check out some of the fashion highlights below.

Images: Crown Media/Net-A-Porter

If you’ve been binge-watching Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel, you may have noticed the 7 Night Thanksgiving Movie Event promo with Candace Cameron Bure, which means you probably fell in love with the totally festive plaid skirt she was wearing the commercial–right? Right!

I know this to be true because my inbox has been flooded with emails from Festive Fashion lovers who wanted the scoop on the designer! If you too are on the hunt, you can rest easy…I have it for you.

(L-R) Murray, Ricci and Turner. | Photos: Crown Media

When the Hallmark holiday movie lineup was announced back in September, you may remember seeing the title “Alice in Christmasland” included… and then it moved around the schedule before finally disappearing altogether. Well–it’s back, and with a little bit of a title change!

Chad Michael Murray announced in an Instagram post this morning that he began production on Alice in Winterland alongside Italia Ricci (Rome in Love) and Jack Turner (One Winter Weekend, One Winter Proposal, One Winter Wedding).

There is still a little bit to learn about this particular film project because, we don’t know the plot, if it’s staying on Hallmark Channel or heading to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries–or if it’s slated to premiere this holiday season or next year. In fact, the script might have even been reworked to premiere during the Winterfest 2020 lineup, which kicks off in January, considering the title change.

In the meantime, make sure you tune in for Murray’s film, Write Before Christmas when it premieres on Hallmark Channel on Sunday, November 17th.  If Alice in Winterland should premiere this holiday season, it would mean that Murray is the third actor to star in two holiday movies for Hallmark this season following Andrew Walker (Merry & Bright, Christmas On My Mind) and Michael Rady (Two Turtle Doves, A New Year’s Resolution).

Update 11/20/19: This movie has been confirmed for the Winterfest 2020 lineup with yet another title change! The current working title is Winter Inn Love.

I vote Alice Inn Winterland as the final title but, that’s just me.

Stay merry!

Screngrabs: Crown Media

Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, which is pretty much kicks off the holiday season for many households and, to make the occasion extra-joyous, each year Hallmark celebrates with a full week of movie premieres! Cozying up to a festive movie with family is such a nice way to ring in the season.

Candace Cameron Bure will host Hallmark Channel’s 7 Night Thanksgiving Movie Event, a week-long celebration that begins on Monday, November 25th with the premiere of “A Christmas Duet” before concluding on December 1st with the premiere of Bure’s film, “Christmas Town”.