Get your mistletoe ready!
BY AIMEE BUTLER, IMAGE BY HALLMARK
It’s not Christmas without a Hallmark movie. What could get you more in the mood for the festive season than a sweet, romantic, cosy story with a happy ending?
This year, there is a notable new arrival lined up for the channel that is certain to delight the queer community.
The Christmas Baby is a sapphic festive flick set to be released on 21 December as part of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas 2025. The story follows two women who unexpectedly find themselves caring for an abandoned baby just before Christmas.
On the plot, Hallmark said, “When a baby boy shows up on their doorstep days before Christmas with a note written specially for them, Erin and Kelly must learn how to navigate their new relationship and career dynamics while unexpectedly caring for a newborn.”
“As the couple spends more time with the baby as a temporary solution until he can be placed permanently or they can find his mother, they begin to realise that they want to adopt him themselves and go about navigating the complicated world of fostering to adopt, all while their business is booming at the busiest time of the year, Christmas.”
Kat Barrell, who plays Kelly, posted on Instagram that she is “SO proud of this momentous movie”, and Ali Leibert, who plays Erin, posted that LGBTQIA+ fans “are gonna love this one”.
Hallmark’s role in increasing queer representation in festive films should also be noted. In 2022, The Holiday Sitter, the channel’s first Christmas film, which focused on gay main characters, was released. Mean Girls star, Jonathan Bennett, who played Sam in the movie, commented that it was “an honour to kind of forge this movement in the holiday movie space” and it is an important reminder that “Christmas is for everybody”.
Some of Hallmark’s other queer Christmas releases include the series Christmas On Cherry Lane, and Friends & Family Christmas, also starring Ali.
Hopefully, The Christmas Baby is just the beginning of many more queer Christmas stories being told by the iconic channel in the future.
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