Hallmark Releasing Its 1st Gay-Led Holiday Film—Will 2022 Have More?
The Hallmark Channel is getting into the gay Christmas business.
As a part of its Countdown to Christmas event, Hallmark Channel has announced its first Christmas movie that focuses on a gay romance.
The Holiday Sitter will be released on December 11 on The Hallmark Channel and will star Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bennett, George Krissa, and Chelsea Hobbs.
The official logline for the movie reads: “Sam is a workaholic bachelor who babysits his niece and nephew before the holidays when his sister and her husband have to go out of town. Completely out of his element, he recruits help from their handsome neighbor Jason and finds himself in an unexpected romance.”
Bennett is returning to Hallmark after he appeared in the network’s first Christmas movie featuring a queer character, 2020’s The Christmas House. In that movie, he played Brandon Mitchell, one of two grown sons who have come back home for the holidays. He makes the trip with his husband Jake, played by Brad Harder, and the pair wait to hear about the possible adoption of their first child.
It’s only September, but with Hallmark announcing its slate of holiday movies, and other platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Lifetime having also announced holiday movies and specials, so far, The Holiday Sitter is the only one to focus on gay characters.
Starting in 2020, Christmas was for the gays. After years of being ignored in holiday movies, a deluge of queer holiday stories was released. In 2020 queer holiday movies like Dashing in December, The Christmas Setup (Lifetime’s first holiday film to focus on an LGBTQ+ romance), The Christmas House, Happiest Season, and The New York Christmas Wedding all came out.
The following year saw LGBTQ+ Christmas movies including A Jenkins Family Christmas, Christmas on the Farm, Christmas at the Ranch, Single All the Way, The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls, and Under the Christmas Tree came out.
Hopefully, this year will see more LGBTQ+ holiday films, they just haven’t been announced yet.
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