‘The Christmas House’ Includes Hallmark’s First LGBTQ Lead Story
Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas continues with a highly anticipated movie, The Christmas House. Starring in an all-star ensemble cast that includes Robert Buckley (One Tree Hill), Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls), Treat Williams (Chesapeake Shores), Sharon Lawrence (Dynasty), Ana Ayora (In The Dark) and Brad Harder (Aurora Teagarden), this is a warm, family Christmas story.
What Is Hallmark’s The Christmas House About?
What is this new Christmas movie about? According to the Hallmark press release, Phylis (Lawrence) and Bill (Williams) are the Mitchell family matriarch and patriarch. As they are currently working on “some difficult decisions,” Phylis calls in her two grown sons to return home for Christmas. Mom and dad want to revive the Mitchell family tradition of the Christmas House.
Singleton Mike Mitchell (Buckley) is a television star, heading home from Hollywood. He winds up reconnecting with his high school sweetheart, Andi (Ayora). Brandon Mitchell, and his husband Jake (Harder), head home, despite waiting for some life-changing news. They are awaiting news on the adoption of their first child.
Can the Mitchell family find resolution and create a memorable Christmas?
Robert Buckley created and developed The Christmas House. This is actually based on his own family’s holiday tradition.
Hallmark’s The Christmas House premieres on the Hallmark Channel on Sunday, November 22, at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Concerns LGBTQ Storyline Not Lead Romance
The Christmas House includes Hallmark’s first LGBTQ storyline. But, it has been called out for not being the lead story.
For example, on Twitter, SleepyKittyPaw, who shares all things Christmas wrote, “THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE, set to air Nov. 22 on Hallmark Channel, gets its key art. Happy to see Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder make the poster, but definitely worth noting Robert Buckley and Ana Ayora, who have the movie’s falling-in-love story, are center stage.”
But, this is all based on the movie poster. The movie is not out for a few weeks. Christmas movie fans that have been anticipating this storyline still need to see the movie to evaluate whether Hallmark has done enough to show a same gender relationship.
While the objections are surely reasonable, it should be pointed out that Hallmark is premiering the movie on Thanksgiving week. That is a top week during the holiday schedule.
Hallmark had promised to include more diversity and inclusivity in their movies after Christmas 2019. There had been a huge Hallmark boycott over a Zola advertisement that featured a wedding between two women, who kissed. First, the network removed the ad. Then, after a lot of backlash, they apologized. This caused internal turmoil in the network.
The result has shown quite a few changes already. The 2020 Christmas movies have been more diverse.
When Can You See Hallmark’s The Christmas House?
Hallmark’s The Christmas House premieres on the Hallmark Channel on Sunday, November 22, at 8 p.m., with Encores airing on Thursday, November 26 at 10:03 p.m., Saturday, November 28, at 12 p.m., Wednesday, December 2, at 8 p.m., Monday, December 14, at 12 a.m., Thursday, December 17, at 4 p.m., Friday, December 25, 9:30 a.m., and Thursday, December 31, at 12 a.m., all times Eastern.
Make sure to check the Hallmark Channel schedule for any changes, or additional times.
Moreover, make sure you head to Twitter on premiere night, during air time. Hallmark, and many of the stars of The Christmas House will be on Twitter to live tweet about the movie. This is a fun way to interact with your favorite Hallmark stars. This is also an opportunity to let Hallmark know if you think that the LGBTQ storyline was strong enough.
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