'Tis the season for more TV Christmas movies than ever

NEW YORK (AP):

Have you heard the one about the girl who didn't care about Christmas but found herself in a small town for the holidays surrounded by decorations, cookies and carollers, and found a new boyfriend and her Christmas spirit by December 25? Hallmark Channel has, and they're airing 22 original movies built around plots similar to that. The themes are the same and Hallmark is very OK with that.

While regular network prime time programming tends to take a hiatus during the holiday season, it's Hallmark Channel's time to shine. Their holiday movies are so popular they begin airing Christmas movies on October 26, and wrap up on January 1.

"When viewers kept telling us by virtue of the ratings that they wanted more (Christmas), it was a natural to extend the time that we were programming for them," said Michelle Vicary, the executive vice-president of programming and network publicity for Crown Media and Family Networks.

HALLMARK SHIRTS

Hallmark sells shirts that say, 'All I want to do is drink hot cocoa and watch Hallmark Channel.' This year, there's also an app called Countdown to Christmas to keep track of the programming on Hallmark Channel and its sister channel, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, which offers more spiritual fare. There's an option to set alerts on your phone and add the movie start times to your calendar.

This year, Hallmark Channel has films starring LeAnn Rimes, Kellie Pickler and Patti LaBelle, but the network also features recurring actresses, dubbed the 'Christmas queens' internally by Hallmark, who front a new movie a season on the network - Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar and Lori Loughlin.

Bure reigns supreme. "For the last three years she has had the No. 1 Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel with very, very stiff competition from Chabert and Loughlin," says Vicary.

This year's film starring Bure is A Shoe Addict's Christmas, based on a novel by best-selling author Beth Harbison.

The biggest motivation for returning to Hallmark year after year is the fans, said Bure. She recalled a letter from an older man whose wife had passed away after more than 50 years of marriage. She loved Christmas and would decorate for the season early, and particularly loved Bure's Christmas movies. He forced himself to not only keep up his wife's tradition of decorating but also sat down to watch Bure's movie that year because it's what they would have done as a couple, and it made him feel closer to her.

DEEP MEANING

"It's more than ratings. It's more than a cheesy holiday spirit. There's a deep meaning behind [these movies] for some people. I love all of them, and that's why I keep doing them."

Hallmark Channel isn't the only network airing holiday fare. Lifetime does it too, and begins airing mostly holiday programming after November 21. They also have their own crop of go-to talent, including Tatyana Ali of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Netflix has also followed suit with its own original holiday movies. Last year, it offered A Christmas Prince starring Rose McIver and this year there's a sequel, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. They've also added new movies starring Kurt Russell, Kat Graham and Vanessa Hudgens.