NEED TO KNOW
It’s officially Christmas! On the Hallmark Channel and in the music business, at least.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive promo celebrating the launch of Hallmark’s 16th annual Countdown to Christmas on Friday, Oct. 17, they tease 19 of their 24 new holiday movies and unveil a festive new anthem by Mickey Guyton and Drew Baldridge.
According to the country stars, the powerful track came together only three weeks ago but felt like kismet.
“How Drew and I were even able to do this together was a miracle,” Guyton, 42, told PEOPLE at a celebration for the network on Oct. 16. “He recorded on his bus, I was recording in L.A.”
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Said Baldridge, 33: “Literally, my producer came out on the road. The background ‘joys’ is my band guys just having fun on the bus. … But it just came together beautifully.”
“When I heard the song, I just thought it was such a beautiful, much-needed song,” Guyton added. “Especially right now, especially with everything going on in the world. Just bringing joy to your world no matter where you come from: We just want to bring joy. And that’s what this is.”
The pair finally sang the song together in the same room for the first time on Wednesday, Oct. 15, when they performed it at the Grand Ole Opry. They repeated that magic at the Countdown to Christmas Kickoff party on Oct. 16 at Category 10 in Nashville.
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Grammy winner Brad Paisley also lends his voice to Countdown to Christmas this year. He wrote and recorded the original song “Counting Down the Days,” the official anthem of Hallmark’s 2025 on-air campaign.
He’ll appear in A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which features two of his original songs: “Leave the Christmas Lights on for Me,” performed in the movie by fictitious duo Winters & Wade (Rob Mayes and Luke Benward) and “Falling Like the Snow,” which he performs on the famed Opry stage. In addition, Paisley’s version of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” provides the soundtrack for Christmas at the Catnip Café starring Erin Cahill and Paul Campbell.
All three tracks appear on Paisley’s upcoming Christmas album, Snow Globe Town, out Nov. 7.
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Megan Moroney also features in A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, where she performs “All I Want For Christmas Is a Cowboy” with Jamie Johnson. “Christmas, the Grand Ole Opry, and Brad Paisley’s music top my list of favorite things,” she said in a statement. “And, to bring this all together with the opportunity to appear in my first Hallmark movie is so, so surreal.”
But Guyton and Baldridge singing “Joy to Your World” and Nikki DeLoach confirming she knows Kristoffer Polaha would “do anything” for her in A Grand Ole Opry Christmas aren’t the only magical holiday moments in the new promo.
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Jessy Schram and Dominic Sherwood are dancing (A Suite Holiday Romance), Niall Matter is kissing Autumn Reeser’s hand (We Met in December), Jonathan Bennett is laughing in Europe (A Keller Christmas Vacation), Erin Krakow is laughing by a fireplace (Christmas Above the Clouds), B.J. Britt realizes Tamera Mowry-Housley has been “right in front of me all along” (Tidings for the Season), Lacey Chabert gets a hug (She’s Making a List), Meghan Ory and Benjamin Ayres kiss (A Christmas Angel Match), and the Three Wisest Men stars (Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker, Paul Campbell and Miles Marthaller) are taking a nap, to name a few.
Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas begins Friday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m. ET/PT with the network debut of Mistletoe Murders, a mystery series starring Sarah Drew and Peter Mooney which first aired on Hallmark+ last year. (Season 2 will premiere on the network on Nov. 7.)
The first new holiday movie of the season, A Royal Montana Christmas, starring Fiona Gubelmann and Warren Christie, premieres Saturday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
