Countdown to Christmas 2026 opens with a cozy matchmaking comedy that knows exactly what it’s doing, even when its characters don’t.
If there’s one thing the holidays are truly about, it’s connection. Connection with the new, connection with the old, and connection with yourself. Yes, there’s love and family, but I honestly believe connection sits at the heart of those too. The people who make the holidays feel like something are the ones who show up for us, and finding who those people are is the whole point.
‘Tis the Season for Setups understands that, and it’s what makes the movie work even when it’s playing it safe.
Amanda Schull, Victor Webster, John B. Lowe, and Barbara Niven star in this movie, which kicks off Countdown to Christmas 2026. It’s a softball opener for the season — one that’s comforting and catchy, but playing it safe. Hallmark leans on well-established Countdown to Christmas favorites here, lets the story be about connection and family, and throws in a good ski trip for good measure.
That’s a deliberate choice, and I’m not sure it’s a bad one. Opening night of Countdown to Christmas is about setting a tone, not making a statement. You want the first movie of the season to feel like a Christmas cookie you’ve eaten before. It tells the audience: you know where you are, you’re safe, and the next 34 movies will be here when you need them.
The setup (pun Intended)
Here’s the gist. Lexi (Schull) is a hyper-organized single mom and party planner. She brings her free-spirited mother, June (Niven), and her teenage daughter, Piper (Verity Marks), to a ski resort where she’s been hired to organize the annual holiday party.
When she arrives, she immediately butts heads with Ridge (Webster), the ski instructor and son of the lodge’s owner, Dan (John B. Lowe). But despite not getting along, Lexi and Ridge notice a spark between June and Dan and decide to set them up.
They create a whole bunch of festive excursions and excuses to get June and Dan in the same room, but thanks to the older couple’s creative machinations, these outings keep turning into outings for four. In the days leading up to the Christmas party, Lexi and Ridge’s matchmaking brings them closer together, and their merry schemes end in surprising results.
There’s a structural joke here that I think is the movie’s actual heart. The kids think they’re the ones doing the matchmaking. But June and Dan keep turning every “date” into a foursome, which means the parents are also playing matchmaker. After all we do learn that June and Dan reconnected over a year ago and have been together ever since.
Everyone is trying to set everyone else up, and everybody’s plotting works on each other. That’s the setup, and it’s one of the smarter versions of this story Hallmark has done, because it lets four people be the leads instead of two.
The generations matter
What I really like is how much the movie uses its three generations. Lexi is a single mom who has made her whole life organized because she has to be. Piper is a teenager who is watching her mother’s example closely, even when she pretends not to be. And June is a woman who got to a certain age and decided to stop waiting for things to happen to her.
That’s what makes the matchmaking feel earned rather than just cute. Lexi and Ridge aren’t trying to arrange a romance because they think it would be nice. They’re trying to arrange it because they’ve each watched a parent decide to be alone for so long that they’ve started to wonder whether that loneliness was ever actually a choice.
That’s a more interesting reason to be nervous than the usual one. Lexi doesn’t just like Ridge. She’s worried that if she finds love, she’s going to get distracted from the workaholic type-A planned life that she’s set out for herself. Opening her heart – even though that was part of the purpose of the trip – to a life beyond work scares her and Ridge making it so easy terrifies her. Lexi is also terrified of the disconnect that she feels with her daughter and wants to reestablish that.
Ridge is worried that if his father finds love that means he’s going to have to step up to the plate and really focus on his families business. He’s not going to be able to put things to the side – instead he’s going to have to manage himself. His father is not going to be around to micromanage and for Ridge – that seems to be something that he wants, but something that also terrifies him.
There is definitely more feelings there, but the movie understands that’s what’s underneath. It trusts us to notice it without announcing it, which is the best thing I can say about any Hallmark movie.
Schull and Webster are pros at this
Amanda Schull and Victor Webster are two of Hallmark’s most reliable leads, and they know how to carry this material. Schull plays organized as a personality rather than a flaw – which I love and hate. Lexi defines herself by her work. She’s not shrill or annoying, but having control over work is what balances her, because she seems to feel like her life is something that has been out of control. Her real growth isn’t learning to relax and open her heart. It’s learning about connection and what it means to the people around her. it’s learning that caring about the people around her isn’t the same as being in charge of them.
Webster’s, Ridge is the chill ski instructor who has never made a plan in his life, and his challenge is similar. He’s not a person who hasn’t tried in life, as a matter of fact he tries all the time. It’s just that he’s comfortable with things that have not always gone well because he’s always had a soft place to land on the mountain. He’s been comfortable his whole life, and he hasn’t had to be responsible to anyone but himself. Learning to make room for someone else’s needs is a real character arc for him too, not just for Lexi.
It’s crazy to think that they are exactly the same while being so different. The movie makes a point of showing it – while also establishing how they balance each other ut.
Both of them are also genuinely funny, which matters in a movie like this. Their bickering has actual rhythm, and they seem to enjoy each other, which makes it easy for us to enjoy them.
And Niven and Lowe are lovely as the parents. They’re also clearly in on the joke: they know what their kids are doing, and they’ve decided to beat them at it, and their matchmaking machinations are a delight.
The ski resort is its own character
The setting is a real gift. A ski lodge at Christmas is already basically a Hallmark movie on its own: snow, cocoa, decorations everywhere, a big fireplace, and a staff that seems to have memorized everyone’s names.
But the resort also gives the movie something to do. Lexi is here for a job, so she has a reason to be in every room and around every person, and the resort becomes a contained world where everyone keeps running into each other. It makes the plot feel less like coincidence and more like geography. Everyone lives and works in the same place, so the eventual connection doesn’t feel forced, but somehow feels natural and contained.
It is a choice, but it is a choices that makes the setup feel less engineered, because the movie is asking us to believe in proximity rather than fate, and proximity is what actually drives most real relationships.
What it’s actually about
The matchmaking is the plot, but the movie is really about four people who all love each other enough to try to run each other’s lives. Lexi needs to plan the future. Ridge needs to stop drifting through it. June needs someone to tell her it’s okay to want something. Dan needs someone to tell him it’s okay to want it back.
The setup is that they all think they’re helping the other person. The surprise is that they all needed someone else to want the same things they did, because wanting things alone is scary, and wanting them together is what makes a family.
That’s a genuinely nice idea to hang a Christmas movie on.
Where it leaves us
Is this a movie that will change your life? No. It’s a movie that will feel good while you watch it, and then it will feel like you’ve spent two hours with four people who were nice to each other. That’s what a season opener is for.
It will remind you of connection and what it can mean to you and to others. It will remind you to take in the moments.
But I also don’t want to sell it short. It’s more thoughtful than it looks, and it understands that the best Hallmark movies are about emotional mechanics, not just romantic ones. The matchmaking is the vehicle. The destination is four people realizing they’ve been each other’s family the whole time.
That’s a good place for Countdown to Christmas to start. The season has officially arrived.
