Hallmark Networks’ December Christmas Movie Preview 

After a whirlwind November, Hallmark Channel (HC) and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (HMM) continues its merriment into December with eight new movie premieres plus the formal holiday debut of their July preview film A Family For Christmas. Here’s a look at what’s coming between now and the end of the year.

Saturday, December 5, 8/7c — Hallmark Hall of Fame’s Just in Time for Christmas (HC)

I was sure HMM claimed these, but maybe I’m misremembering. Eloise Mumford (Christmas With Holly), Michael Stahl-David, William Shatner, and Christopher Lloyd star in a time-travel tale about a young woman who gets a supernatural nudge into the future for a little help when she has to weigh love vs. the opportunity at a dream job.

Sunday, December 6, 8/7c — Karen Kingsbury’s The Bridge (HC)

Katie Findlay (How to Get Away With Murder), Wyatt Nash (Hollywood Heights), Ted McGinley, and Faith Ford star in a story about a longterm friendship between two college friends that evolves while they work at a bookstore and coffee shop. It’s based on the novel by Karen Kingsbury and is the first film, with the second installment planed for next Christmas.

Sunday, December 6, 9/8c — Magic Stocking (HMM)

Jane the Virgin‘s Bridget Regan and Continuum‘s Victor Webster headline a drama about a widowed single mother who is still reeling from her husband’s Christmastime death several years earlier. When she and her daughter (Imogen Tear) buy a holiday stocking, they and a contractor who’s recently returned home begin to unlock their town’s mysteries.

Saturday, December 12, 8/7c — On The Twelfth Day of Christmas (HC)

Brooke Nevin (who works a lot but was scary amazing in a second season episode of Motive with Jason Dohring last season) stars opposite Sanctuary‘s Robin Dunne, who co-wrote the film with Robert Vaughn (responsible for a ton of holiday movies on his own) in a film that mixes the recent journalist-on-a-Christmas-assignment and Secret Santa themes into a love story about a woman’s determination to help an old friend relearn his love for Christmas.

I really enjoyed this one. It starts off with a college-age road trip act of kindness when two classmates who work together, but don’t know each very well, bond over a shared Christmas ride home. Then it picks up years later when their lives have gone different places, but that college Christmas was never forgotten. I have liked Nevin and Dunne from way, way back (we’re talking The 4400 and The Skulls II), so I’m an easy mark, but I loved that the story was tethered by someone doing something really special just because they could. It repeats throughout the holidays.

Sunday, December 13, 9/8c — Debbie Macomber’s Dashing Through The Snow (HMM)

The fifth holiday adaptation of a Debbie Macomber property (after two Mrs. Miracles, Mr. Miracle, and Trading Christmas), this one stars Andrew W. Walker in his second holiday film for Hallmark (after A Bride for Christmas) and Meghan Ory, who we saw last year on the network in The Memory Book opposite Killjoys‘ Luke Macfarlane (he has his own new film below). It’s a caper of sorts about a meet cute that takes a turn when two people stranded at the airport are forced into a road trip that’s complicated by the fact he’s an undercover Fed and she’s his assignment.

Sunday, December 13, 8/7c — Family for Christmas (HC)

Lacey Chabert stars as a career woman who suddenly finds herself in an alternate universe where she’s a suburban mom married to her long ago forfeited sweetheart (Tyron Leitso of last year’s My Boyfriends’ Dogs). It’s directed by Supernatural‘s Amanda Tapping and written by Bryar Freed, who has written the Love Finds You films for UP. It sounds like a cousin to Comfort and Joy, a 2003 film Nancy McKeon did that still rotates on Lifetime.

Saturday, December 19, 8/7c  — A Christmas Melody (HC)

Mariah Carey makes her directorial debut and co-stars in a musical holiday film with Lacey Chabert, Cedar Cove‘s Brennan Elliott, Kathy Najimy, and Broadway find Fina Strazza. The story follows a single mother’s return home at the holidays after closing her business, and her path to finding a new normal for herself and her daughter amid old rivalries and new friendships.

Sunday, December 20, 8/7c — Christmas Land (HC)

Awkward‘s Nikki DeLoach stars as  a New York businesswoman who inherits her beloved late grandmother’s magical Christmas-themed village in the country and strikes up a friendship with the lawyer (Luke MacFarlane) handling the estate. Maureen McCormick co-stars.

Saturday, December 26, 8/7c — When Calls the Heart (HC)

It’s not technically a movie, but Hallmark Channel is offering up a bonus two-hour, holiday-themed episode ahead of the third season.

As a reminder, all of the films that premiered in November will repeat throughout the rest of the year, along with favorites from both networks’ holiday vaults. Click through to Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries for the complete schedules.