The Hallmark Christmas Movie World Has Its Own A-List — Here’s Who’s On It

Ever noticed that Hallmark has a rotation of what feels like six or seven actors? To be fair, the network employs many more than that, but the same 15 or so do appear in movie after movie — especially during the holiday season. The Hallmark Christmas movie actors seem familiar because, well, they are. Not only are many of them stars from our childhoods, like Full House's Candace Cameron Bure or Lacey Chabert from Mean Girls, but most of them come back for new movies on the network almost every year — if not multiple times a year.

Frequent Hallmark leading man Kristoffer Polaha told The Hollywood Reporter that he believes Hallmark values loyalty, which is why they keep reaching for the same stable of actors. Polaha, who has been in four Hallmark holiday movies, added that he keeps returning to the network because he knows he's making content that his family can enjoy. "It's fun to sit with my seven-year-old and show him what I do for a living," he said. "My 91-year-old Nana finally thinks I’ve made it in Hollywood because I’m on Hallmark."

For some of the leading ladies of Hallmark, the network's flexibility has been one of the big draws. Chabert told Glamour that Hallmark let her bring her baby to set and travel to shoots with her family. "They've been very supportive," Chabert said. 

Alicia Witt, who has been in seven Hallmark holiday movies, added to Glamour that she likes to balance some of her darker work with the lighter Hallmark fare. "It's fun to come out with a movie where every day you have a happy ending and it's a sweet love story [or] family story," she said. "I just spent the last week ... [with] Christmas lights everywhere and snow and gingerbread cookies and vegan eggnog. There’s very little heaviness on my psyche right now."

It's not hard to see why they keep coming back, and I'm sure this list will just keep on growing, but for now, here are the 15 actors and actresses who make up Hallmark's answer to the A-List.