Whether you love them or hate them, TV Christmas movies are a staple of the holiday season. Romance, snowy landscapes, perfectly decorated houses, and family stories provide millions of viewers with comfort and joy in December (and even November for some with a looser definition of the holiday season).
Of course, part of that comforting familiarity comes from the conventions now expected in a network Christmas movie: for example, the idea of reconnecting with a high school sweetheart or the presence of an older, bearded gentleman who may or may not be Santa Claus.
So when Hallmark and Lifetime movies start incorporating things like pickleball and NFL players into their rosters, it's enough to turn heads.
Lifetime’s “A Pickleball Christmas” (premiering Saturday) and Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” (now streaming on Hallmark+) provide that new hook to a Christmas story, but romance and the holiday spirit remain at its core.
A Christmas Day tournament in which Luke (James Lafferty) and Caroline (Zibby Allen) compete is at the climax of Lifetime's “A Pickleball Christmas.”
(Sydney Wong / Lifetime)
Cable TV movies can capitalize on trendy sports like pickleball or spirited teams like the Bills because of the breakneck pace at which they are produced. Taking advantage of more specialized venues, hobbies and sports teams allows networks to invite new audiences while keeping their loyal viewers satisfied with an innovative formula.
The idea for “A Pickleball Christmas” was born at a pickleball club in South Pasadena. Sami Ponoroff, senior director of programming at Lifetime, is an avid gamer and member of a club called iPickle. He mentioned the idea of a Pickleball Christmas movie to a professional instructor there, Blake Rutledge. Luckily for them, Rutledge is also a writer who had been working on a pickleball-related script.
From there, the two launched into development. It was “a pleasure” that they met through the sport at the center of the film, Ponoroff said. When Ponoroff initially pitched the idea to the film's eventual executive producer, Karen Glass, her first thought said it all: “Of course, there are has “Being a Pickleball Christmas Movie.”
While the film mentions the cooking rules of dinking and pickleball, you don't have to be familiar with the sport or its details to appreciate the story. Ponoroff credits Rutledge for creating a balance between giving pickleball fans what they want and not isolating non-players. Since he teaches newcomers, he knows how to introduce them to the sport well, he said.
The same goes for “Holiday Touchdown.” While members of the Bills Mafia, as the team's fan base is called, will appreciate the shots from Highmark Stadium and the numerous cameos by current and former players and other Bills figures, even viewers who root for rival teams (or no teams at all) can find something to like.
Samantha DiPippo, Hallmark's senior vice president of programming, joked that there was a secret recipe for a Hallmark Christmas movie, one she couldn't reveal, but that the key to a Hallmark movie is the root of romance. Referencing “Adventures in Love & Birding,” a film from earlier this year that also plays with the niche hobby of bird watching, he said the basis is “the story just helps them get by, right? That's how we find these two people in this movie falling in love.”
“Holiday Touchdown” is the second film to come out of Hallmark’s partnership with the NFL; Last year's “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” was the first, which “tapped into a crazy zeitgeist moment last year,” DiPippo said, referring to the relationship frenzy between Taylor Swift and Chiefs player Travis Kelce. Kelce's mother, Donna, even made a cameo in the film.
But Hallmark's connection to the NFL is based on much more than animated relationships. DiPippo said about 75% of Hallmark's audience also watches NFL games.
“People watch with the same passion whether they're rooting for their team or watching a Hallmark movie, and so we wanted to take advantage of that and make something that feels truly personalized for our Hallmark viewers, but also for NFL fans,” he said.
The writers and team behind the film traveled to Buffalo early in the production process and “we got ingrained in everything related to Orchard Park, Buffalo and East Aurora to really understand what the fandom is there,” DiPippo said. The Bills' strong season this year has been “pretty fortuitous,” he added. “Maybe that's the Hallmark Christmas magic, right? Get a movie and let's go to the playoffs.”
Lifelong Bills fans Gabe (Matthew Daddario) and Morgan (Holland Roden) find love in Buffalo on Christmas.
(David Scott Holloway/Hallmark Media)
Approaching holiday boards from unique angles seems to be working for the networks. Hallmark's Christmas movies have reached 24 million people so far this season, and Lifetime saw more than 23 million people tune in last year, according to Nielsen data provided by the respective networks to The Times.
“We have a more, maybe, niche focus (although it's the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., it's more of a niche focus), but that becomes the hook that makes the story itself feel fresh,” Ponoroff said. “Obviously there will be a romance that may be familiar, but the world itself is new, and that combination of newness and authenticity is what our audience responds to and comes to us. Feeling that their worlds, their community, what they are really involved in, is being represented on the screen.”
While Ponoroff said he doesn't see any signs of pickleball's popularity waning anytime soon, and that Bills fans will always be around, Glass emphasized how the rapid production works in its favor in this regard as well. “A Pickleball Christmas” will hit audiences just months after Apple TV announced it was adding a pickleball comedy, “The Dink,” from Josh Greenbaum and Ben Stiller to its upcoming slate.
“You have an idea and you can be in production in a month,” he said. “It's a little easier in the TV movie space to connect with trends because the process is much quicker.”
Having a keen eye for what trend people will connect with is just part of the job, Ponoroff said. “You have a hunch, you have a feeling, you go down a rabbit hole,” he said, “and you hope it works.”
She and Glass said they've already been kicking around a new idea for a mahjong-themed Christmas movie, and DiPippo similarly said planning is underway for Christmas 2026, including a movie filmed at Disney World.
“What's been great is that our team is very quick to pivot when we need to, and if we need to take advantage of a moment, we can do that too,” DiPippo said. “They are literally magical elves and they make this happen.”
