Walt Disney World has announced a new Christmas movie filmed in the parks & resorts that’ll debut on the Hallmark Channel in 2026! Here’s the full announcement followed by our commentary on this holiday television special (the first big one in a long time) set at WDW.
Big news from Hallmark and The Most Magical Place On Earth! In 2026, Walt Disney World and the Hallmark Channel are teaming up to debut an all-new, original holiday movie called “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True.”
Starring Lacey Chabert, Travis Van Winkle, Richard Kind, Christy Carlson Romano, Bryce Dufee, Taegen Burns, and Asher Alexander, with Patrick Renna in a cameo role, “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” is soon-to-be classic Christmas romance. The WDW movie is set to premiere during Hallmark Channel’s 17th annual Countdown to Christmas in 2026 and will shoot on location at Walt Disney World in Florida. Ryan Landels has written the script and is set to direct.
In between your yearly December sips of warm hot chocolate and waves of joyous Christmas caroling, “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” will surround you in the typical holiday spirit that you’ve come to expect from Hallmark Channel over the years. This collaboration between the Hallmark Channel and Walt Disney World marks the first time ever that these holiday powerhouses will team up for a new, original movie.
“The partnership between Hallmark and Disney dates back decades, when a shared Kansas City connection and friendship between Hallmark’s founder, J.C. Hall, and Walt Disney himself led to our first-ever licensed products, including the very first greeting card featuring Mickey Mouse,” said Darren Abbott, Chief Brand Officer, Hallmark. “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship beyond the products we create together and onto the screen with this heartwarming and joyful Christmas movie that embodies the very best of both brands.”
Did you hear the news? #WaltDisneyWorld magic meets @Hallmark holiday joy in an all-new movie coming in 2026! 🎬✨ pic.twitter.com/2jkWKzFJbn
— Walt Disney World (@WaltDisneyWorld) December 7, 2025
Following a special appearance from Chabert direct from Magic Kingdom during Hallmark Channel’s broadcast of “The Hallmark Christmas Experience: A Hometown Holiday,” the new film is officially set to debut for Christmas 2026. With this, Hallmark announced that “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” will be shooting on location at Walt Disney World during production, marking an exciting moment as the resort prepares to welcome the crew to The Most Magical Place On Earth.
“Storytelling is at the heart of both Disney and Hallmark, and that magic shines even brighter during the holidays,” said Sally Conner, VP Global Content. “We’re thrilled that Walt Disney World will serve as the immersive setting for a Hallmark holiday movie highlighting the cheerful festivities of the season. Across our theme parks, resorts, and beyond, countless unique stories unfold and new memories are made every day with our guests. This film is a wonderful way to share that joy and pixie dust with fans everywhere.”
In “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True,” Lindsey (Chabert) and her extended family head to Walt Disney World to spend a magical Christmas together. But the dream of a jolly holiday gets dashed when Lindsey discovers her room is next door to Philip (Van Winkle), a disastrous first date she recently had, who’s also there on a family trip.
As Lindsey and Philip’s paths cross throughout their stay, the frost starts to thaw as they learn they’re not so different from each other after all. Thanks to the magic of Walt Disney World, the holiday wish Lindsey made in Cinderella fountain just might turn their rivalry into romance.
Our Commentary
This is fantastic news. It honestly made our week, and I kind of wish I were kidding, but I’m completely serious. It was also one of the rare pieces of Walt Disney World news that Sarah “broke” to me.
We watch a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies. I’m not even going to pretend it’s against my will, as is the case with HGTV shows. I’ve learned way too much about open concept design, none of it by choice. I also cringe at some of the “upgrades,” which are about as bland as it gets—and the popularity of which explain why Walt Disney World interior design was so basic and boring for a stretch. But I digress.
In the case of Hallmark Christmas movies, they are a guilty pleasure through and through that I actually enjoy. We have favorite settings, series, and actors—although I know very few of them by name, but rather, what they’re from (e.g. Mean Girls, Full House, etc) or A-list actors they resemble. Now that I think about it, my knowledge of Hallmark movies is shockingly superficial for how much I watch them. But that’s sort of the nature of the beast—they’re mindless fun.
The ending of every single one is predictable from about the 10-minute mark. here’s almost always a small town character (and setting) in a relationship with a big city character who isn’t right for them, or a big city character rediscovering their roots in a small town. Sometimes there are cats and/or castles. I really like these ones.
Every single Hallmark movie (all of them!) has horrible pacing. They take a lot of time to get to the point (like the DTB of made for TV movies, you might say), and then it’s all wrapped up neatly in the last 60 seconds.
Take a bathroom break or look down at your phone at the wrong moment and you quite literally could miss the ending. I’m not even kidding about all of this. It’s baffling, but I assume there’s some analytics reason for this storytelling structure.
Anyway, I assume we’re getting this announcement now not just to build hype, but because filming for the 2026 Christmas special is about to start this month. Walt Disney World likely knows that cat is getting out of the bag one way or another with the breathless blogging coverage of everything, so they might as well get ahead of it and make an official announcement.
It’s my understanding that Hallmark movies wouldn’t normally film this early; most shoot over the summer to take advantage of longer days and are filmed fairly quickly by movie standards. They probably benefit from the formulaic style, limited budgets, and few (if any) reshoots. I’d hazard a guess that some could film as late as September and still make a Christmas release.
Of course, the difference here is that Walt Disney World gets decorated for and celebrates Christmas in November, and that is not enough turnaround time for a same-year release. Especially for a movie like this, which sounds like it’ll have a significant portion taking place in a resort hotel. Aside from EPCOT, hotels are usually the last areas of Walt Disney World to get decorated for the holidays.
It’ll be interesting to see at which resort the Hallmark special is set. Immediate odds-on favorites based on the whole Hallmark vibe are Grand Floridian or Wilderness Lodge. I could see it going either way, with Grand Floridian’s recent reimagining giving it the edge as a hotel Disney wants to highlight. On the other hand, Wilderness Lodge is incredibly on-brand for Hallmark. Now watch, it’ll actually be Old Key West or somewhere totally random where the logistics just happen to work out best.
I assume at least some amount of filming will start almost immediately. I’d expect it to pause for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, before resuming again in January 2026. Perhaps later. They could theoretically do a few weeks of filming now with Christmas decorations, and then more during a slower stretch for footage that’s not seasonal. (Hotel rooms and hallways are the same year-round, as is much of Walt Disney World.) Not that it really matters—just thinking aloud as I try to fulfill my life’s (new) dream of being an extra in a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Most Hallmark Christmas movies seem fairly low budget, but there are always a few blockbusters per season. If you watch the credits, those are usually co-produced by a tourism bureau (e.g. Visit Norway), which helps explain the prominence of the locale. We fully expect “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” to be a very similar story.
This is marketing for Walt Disney World, and between that and the fact that this movie will have wider appeal, we’d expect a far bigger budget and production quality than almost every other Hallmark movie ever. This is probably why it features Hallmark’s heavy-hitter in Chabert and an otherwise strong cast by Hallmark standards. Not that it really matters. Schmaltz and sentimentality aren’t expensive in the first place.
Honestly, I hope they don’t overproduce “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True.” Part of the secret sauce of Hallmark Channel movies is that they have this b-movie quality to them. They are cozy, for lack of a better term. Part of why many fans have stopped watching the ABC Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is because it’s whatever the exact opposite of that is. It feels overly-commercial. (A bit ironic since over-commercializing holidays is like Hallmark’s whole thing!)
My hope is that “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” threads the needle and ends up becoming a guilty-pleasure cult classic. It doesn’t need to be good-good or so-bad-it’s-good. The movie just needs to have just the right amount of cheesiness, Hallmark sentimentality, and Christmas at Walt Disney World window-dressing. This generation really needs what mine had back in the day with the Top 10 TV Shows Set at Walt Disney World and Top 10 Walt Disney World TV Specials. It’d be nice if “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True” becomes a new entry on that second list!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie set at Walt Disney World? Looking forward to “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True”? Any predictions about the resort at which it’s set or anything else about the film? What’s your favorite Walt Disney World television special? Anything that didn’t make this list that you’d recommend? Do you agree or disagree with our picks? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!