Hallmark’s 2025 Countdown To Christmas is nearly over. The sixteenth annual 24/7 celebration of Christmas movies is nearly at a close. However, the underwhelming viewer performance of the romances that celebrate this festive season, combined with fan frustration, has filled social media posts on all platforms.
Here are some of the frustrations fans felt.
Hallmark Premiered Fewer Countdown To Christmas Movies In 2025
In September, when Hallmark released their 2025 Countdown To Christmas movies, viewers were shocked that there were only 24 movies. This underwhelmed fans who expected 40 movies, something the network achieved even during the worldwide pandemic and after the two major strikes.
Granted, Hallmark was a winner in the series category. Both Mistletoe Murders and Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas were fan favorites. Both were well-written, with entertaining and different types of holiday stories. Also, there were many fantastic holiday movies in 2025.
However, most fans shared on socials that they would not consider the 18 one-hour episodes to equate 9 movies. Moreover, this is especially true with Mistletoe Murders, as Season 1 premiered on Hallmark one year ago. Look for more Hallmark “regifting” below.
Miracles Of Christmas Was Missing In 2025
One of the big reasons that there were fewer Countdown To Christmas movies in 2025 was largely because they totally axed Miracles Of Christmas. These movies always premiered on the Hallmark Mystery Channel.
Miracles Of Christmas movies were always more about heavier subjects. Sometimes there was magic. Oftentimes, there was a sort of journey or quest to find something or someone. This is where fans could see the infamous red truck in Godwink movies, the cornucopia of pronouns in the Blake Shelton-produced Time For movies, and tearjerkers like Five More Minutes. While more emotional, these movies had some heft to them that was very satisfying to watch during the emotional holiday season.
However, the network quietly turned Hallmark Mystery into a rerun channel. In June, without any explanation, they stopped premiering there, choosing to premiere mysteries on the Hallmark Channel. After that, Hallmark Mystery reran those same movies along with their evergreen mystery content.
Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, many mysteries and movies did not do well on this channel. The ratings have had low numbers, and it is assumed that the current state of cable was to blame. Furthermore, many viewers have shared that they did not have the Mystery Channel on their cable package and would need to spend more for an upgrade to get that channel and Hallmark Family.
Therefore, when the holiday movies were announced, Hallmark Media did not offer any sort of explanation as to why they nixed the popular Miracles of Christmas movies; it seemed to confirm that Hallmark Mystery is no longer an active channel for the network. They appear to be focusing only on streaming and the OG.
Many Hallmark Fan Favorites Missing From Countdown To Christmas
When Hallmark released their 2025 Countdown To Christmas list with only 24 new movies, a lot of fans were upset their favorites were missing. This includes Bethany Joy Lenz, Alison Sweeney, Brennan Elliott, Rachel Skarsten, Taylor Cole, Victor Webster, Will Kemp, Kevin McGarry, Chris McNally, Kim Matula, Ian Harding, and Aimee Teegarden, to name a few.
Thankfully, Ian Harding will be returning in January 2026 with the Winter Escape movie Lost In Paradise, along with Lacey Chabert. Also, Alison and Victor should be returning in 2026 with the new Murder At The Masquerade: A Hannah Swensen Mystery.
While Hearties will see Chris and Kevin in January on When Calls The Heart Season 13, as well as Bethany Joy Lenz in the upcoming prequel Hope Valley: 1874, it seems a shame that the other stars do not have an upcoming project announced for 2026.
Countdown To Christmas 2025 Did Not Include Hanukkah Movie
For many fans, one of Hallmark’s biggest 2025 Countdown To Christmas fails was the lack of a Hanukkah movie. For many viewers, Round and Round and Hanukkah On Rye are two of the network’s best. While Oy To The World! had a great cast-who doesn’t love Degrassi alum Jake Epstein and Brooke D’Orsay?- and was watchable, it was not a true Hanukkah movie.
It took the network years to finally get it right and they failed in 2025.
One Of Hallmark’s Top Writers Is MIA
Speaking of great Hanukkah movies, where was Julie Sherman Wolfe? She wrote Hanukkah On Rye, and Hanukkah On The Rocks, and the number one 2024 movie, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.
JSW wrote both of the popular Barcelona movies starring Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams that premiered in June. However, in a year where it felt that more thought was put into Nutella and Hawaiian Roll product placements than entertaining scripts, the talented Wolfe did not have a single Countdown To Christmas movie in 2025.
Moreover, in interviews, she seemed quite disappointed that she did not have a holiday movie. To be clear, this talented screenwriter told Suspenders Unbuttoned podcast that she does have some 2026 movies in development. However, it was disappointing that the Dickens Of A Holiday scribe did not have a single 2025 Countdown To Christmas movie.
Hopefully, Michelle Vicary will fix that for 2026.
2025 Countdown To Christmas Included Reality TV
Hallmark premiered reality shows like Jonathan Bennett’s popular Finding Mr. Christmas and Celebrations With Lacey Chabert on the streaming channel in 2024. However, they changed that up with Countdown To Christmas 2025.
Part of the 2025 programming included Johnathan Bennett’s series, as well as Tamara Mowry-Housley’s series Baked With Love: Holiday. Both received very high IMDb ratings. However, many viewers went to social media and were very vocal about their unhappiness.
Hallmark’s Mahogany And Dayspring Missing
Another missing component of the 2024 and 2025 Countdown To Christmas programming was Hallmark Mahogany. Hopefully, the network brings Mahogany back for 2026.
Many fans asked what happened to the DaySpring movies this Christmas. These have been some of the most popular movies in the past few seasons. Some of the faith-based holiday movies included The Gift Of Peace, Miracle In Bethlehem, PA, and Following Yonder Star.
Once again, Hallmark Media has not shared why they chose not to make another movie in this series. It should be noted that the Hallmark parent company still owns DaySpring.
Viewers Tired Of Hallmark+ Reruns
One of the biggest complaints of 2025 was that Hallmark scheduled all of the 2024 Hallmark+ movies, series, and reality. This meant superfans who subscribed to the streaming channel did not get new movies during Christmas In July.
The network aired the Holidazed series, as well as the four Unwrapping Christmas movies. The only new programming was the reality series Christmas At Sea.
In addition, part of the 2025 Countdown To Christmas programming included repeats of last year’s three Cherry Lane movies, and the first season of Mistletoe Murders. Also, the network aired Finding Mr. Christmas Season 1 as part of the 2025 CTC programming.
Loyal fans who spent the money to subscribe to Hallmark+ felt cheated out of new content. It felt a bit like someone took something from your closet and gifted it as a new Christmas present. Very disappointing!
Countdown To Christmas October Premiere Is Too Early!
For years, Hallmark premiered Countdown To Christmas in mid-October because they needed room for all of their movies. For years, people complained it was too early.
Then, this fall, the network debuted Haul Out The Halloween. It premiered on Saturday, October 11. That is 20 days before Halloween. Moreover, they only had six more days to repeat this movie before the 24/7 programming was to start. This was a missed opportunity.
Viewers have been asking for Halloween-themed movies for years. Many have hoped that the network would bring back Good Witch movies. Fall movies are favorites with fans, but the amount of movies made are minimal.
Hallmark should reconsider their CTC start date and lean into Fall movies, including the popular Halloween movies.
‘When Calls The Heart’ Related News Overshadowed Hallmark Christmas
In early December, Hallmark chose to make some announcements concerning When Calls The Heart, interfering with the whole Christmas vibe. Firstly, they announced that Lori Laughlin was returning for Season 14, which will film later in 2026 and premiere in 2027. Along with that news was the news that this series was renewed for Season 14.
Not long afterward, just a few days before the big Finding Mr. Christmas finale, the network announced the production of WCTH spinoff Hope Valley: 1874.
All of this Heartie-related news seemed to take all focus off the Christmas movies, and the headlines focused on Hope Valley.
What the fans really wanted was news of Mistletoe Murders Season 3. Viewers are asking for it. Despite misleading rumors, Hallmark has not renewed this delightful holiday mystery series.
What was also unfortunate was the very quiet premiere of Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas. Just because the executive leading this series is no longer with the network doesn’t mean they should not promote it. The same exec was behind Netflix’s Virgin River, and the streamer has not stopped promoting that series.
Twelve Dates deserved much more attention and hoopla. This was one of the best productions in the history of the network.
Countdown To Christmas 2026 Looks Promising
What has been nice is that Hallmark seems to have tried to fix their recent bad PR moves by announcing a new 2026 Christmas movie in partnership with Disney. This movie stars Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle and is called Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True.
In addition, the network has announced a new time travel movie set at the Biltmore starring Holland Roden, Niall Matter, and Jonathan Frakes. That will begin filming in January.
This was the earliest Hallmark Media had ever announced any Christmas movies, let alone two. This was a smart move after taking the wind out of the 2025 holiday season.
That said, 2026 CTC already looks promising.
What did you think of 2025 Countdown To Christmas? Please share your comment below!
4 responses to “10 Reasons Hallmark’s 2025 Countdown To Christmas Was Surprisingly Disappointing”
I feel like they also keep trying to push some of the male and female leads on us and have left behind some of the favorites. Clearly the actors are still working on some holiday projects on other Networks like Netflix. Steve Byers did one that is on Netflix right now. Bring him back!
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