How Hallmark's 2023 Christmas Movies Almost Missed Their Deadline

As they do every year, Hallmark announced on September 19, 2023 that they would be releasing 42 brand-new Christmas movies, starting on October 20 and running through December. Many of the movies had yet to be filmed at the time of the announcement. Thankfully, Hallmark films their Christmas movies all year, so they had some already done. In an interview with Variety, Lisa Daly, EVP of programming at Hallmark, explained how they were able to keep on track despite the delays.

"Christmas is a year-round business at Hallmark, so we were able to mitigate early in the year understanding that the strikes were unfortunately imminent. We're grateful to meet all our goals for a full, all-new holiday slate and to bring our viewers the content they love most to celebrate the season."

Hallmark Channel was also able to finish filming their "Countdown to Christmas" movie roster due to some exceptions made by SAG-AFTRA. Further in their favor was the fact that Hallmark employs many Canadian actors, most of whom are under different contracts not associated with SAG-AFTRA, so they were able to continue working through the strike.