9 Hallmark Christmas Movie Wardrobe Secrets (Exclusive)

Hallmark doesn’t have a traditional wardrobe warehouse

While many movie studios have wardrobe warehouses for storage, Nielsen told PEOPLE in December 2024 that even though “everybody thinks there is,” Hallmark doesn’t have one.

That means there’s no place to store wardrobe pieces between projects or pull from for his previous movies, though he does have his own storage unit he can source from when needed.

“I’m sourcing all the time. I do keep basics [from project to project],” Nielsen explained. “I love a great coat, but I can’t really reuse the great coats because they’re so obvious.”

He said he’s tried to “pare down” his personal storage unit to pieces that he knows he’ll be able to reuse, like tuxedos, jeans and neutral outerwear. Everything else, unfortunately, is too specialized to be repurposed in future movies.

Costumes are sometimes reused

Nielsen has managed to recycle a couple of special pieces that weren’t basics.

“There’s a jacket in The Christmas Quest in the tree lot, and it’s actually a ’50s coat that I featured in Holiday Spectacular,” he said. “So it was kind of, like, a cool thing to use it not in a period setting.”

However, that wasn’t the only costume nod from movie to movie. Nielsen also snuck in another subtle hint involving Hallmark mainstay Lyndsy Fonseca. The two worked together on 2021’s Next Stop, Christmas, and Nielsen put her in a J.Crew coat that Meghan Markle made popular (prompting it to sell out immediately, of course).

“The backup coat for the movie was the same colors but a different pattern, so then I used that as an Easter egg when we did Where Are You, Christmas?” he said of the similar J.Crew coat he used in the 2023 film, adding, “It was a cute wink-wink from our other movie, but you wouldn’t really know.”

Nielsen has wardrobe signatures

You can always tell if Nielsen created the looks in Hallmark Christmas movies because he’ll drop in one of his signatures. For example, his belief has long been that every costume piece should be beautifully tailored.

“Very few people in the world are off the rack, and I tailor everything,” he said. “It’s like figuring out proportions on people. ‘So, where do you want to cut the jeans? Is it a high-rise jean or a mid-rise?’ That’s really looking at and being honest about people’s proportions of your short legs, long legs, long torso.”

He continued, “Because if you have a short waist, you’re not necessarily going to look good in a high-rise jean, so you have to cut the body in a different way.”

His other “biggest signature” has become a matching glove moment.

“I love doing a monochromatic glove that matches the jacket,” Nielsen said. “I feel like that’s very Hallmarkian, as I call it.”

There’s an outfit that’s the “most” Hallmark

Despite their inherently American feel, not every Hallmark Christmas movie takes place in the U.S. So, Nielsen makes sure the wardrobe reflects that all-American feel by shopping at stores that exude the right vibe.

“I shop at quintessential Americana brands like J.Crew, Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic, because they’re very classic,” he explained. “I also try to keep things classic and timeless. That way you can watch these in 10 years, and it doesn’t look super dated.”

The most important part is the signature Hallmark outfit.

“Across the board, your cozy, relaxed look is always going to be jeans and a sweater,” he said.

It’s not just any denim, though. Nielsen goes for a dark wash because it’s appropriate for winter. He also loves to add a pointed-toe black bootie with a heel and keep sweater hues rich to feel more joyful.

Christmas doens’t always mean using red and green hues

While the movies all center on Christmas, Nielsen doesn’t necessarily want the wardrobe to be too on the nose with holiday colors, so he weaves in other shades that represent cold-weather days.

“I love jewel tones instead,” he says. “There are different variations of jewel tones to play with, and they read very winter. I love a deep purple and oxblood, which is kind of on the red spectrum.”

A red coat always makes an appearance

All Hallmark Christmas movies have a statement piece: a beautiful red coat.

As Nielsen knows: “You have to give the people what they want!”

“There’s always just going to be a red coat moment,” he said. “So one of my favorite red coats was the one Lacey [Chabert] wore in [A Merry Scottish Christmas] because it’s almost ’50s-esque and really classy.”

Many costumes get a new life after their movies wrap

Though there’s no wardrobe warehouse — and Nielsen’s personal storage unit has limited space — there are a few different options for costume pieces that haven’t been rented.

“Certain things we keep for display, like some of the Holiday Touchdown stuff’s on display at the Hallmark Visitor Center,” he said. “Some of it just gets donated. Sometimes actors buy a bunch of stuff. I know Hunter [King] and Tyler [Hynes] bought some stuff [from Holiday Touchdown].”

He continued, “I say to the actors too, I’m like, ‘This is, like, an $800 tuxedo that’s been tailored to you, and I’m giving it to you at a severely discounted price, which also helps my budget.’ ”

Hynes, who starred in the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs-themed Holiday Touchdown movie, kept “a lot” of his wardrobe pieces because they came in handy for fan appearances, Nielsen noted.

Nielsen does one big fitting for a very important reason

According to Nielsen, Hallmark Christmas movies are shot in an incredibly tight timeframe, leaving the wardrobe teams very little time to pull everything together.

That’s why Nielsen chooses to do one big fitting with his actors before filming, so he can avoid cramming everything in during the shoot, which would be difficult.

“It’s so fast,” he said. “And if you’re ahead on one day, they could pull a scene up, so you have to be ready for everything, which is why I don’t do multiple fittings throughout the process. I do one mass of one in the beginning so I can understand the scope of everything visually.”

He also doesn’t want to end up in a situation where he’s begging the actors to make time for him amid their busy schedules.

“Imagine me texting Lacey, like, ‘I know it’s the weekend, but can I come throw this dress on you while you’re half asleep? Thanks,’ ” he joked.

They don’t always film in actual winter weather

Sure, the cable network’s holiday movies take place in the winter, but that doesn’t mean they’re filmed then. In fact, many are shot in the middle of the summer.

Holiday Touchdown, for instance, was filmed in the summer of 2024 in Kansas City, Mo. Nielsen said it was miserably hot, which meant he had to get creative. That included using ice vests to keep the actors cool in their stifling winter clothes.

“We actually bought a deep freezer for my truck just to put all the packs in,” he said. “But then your clothes are wet, and then it’s hot. We lightened those loads as much as we could. I pulled stuffing out of jackets, but then you also don’t want to lose the structure of the jacket.”

As for the clothes themselves, he chose lightweight knits when possible and cut sleeves off many of the shirts worn under jackets to help debulk layers.

The actors also employed their own tricks, like putting their coats on at the last second before the cameras started rolling and using clip fans to blow air into their shirts.

Occasionally, though, the cast and crews have the opposite problem, as was the case with the 2024 film Christmas Quest. Filmed in Iceland, Nielsen said it got dreadfully cold after the sun went down, so they had to figure out a way to keep everyone warm in the late hours.

“We ended up buying heated vests or heated thermals,” Nielsen said. “Then you have to make sure those are charged so that they can turn them on. Those totally saved Lacey because she’s the tiniest human.”