So you’ve decided to write a movie script for the Hallmark Channel holiday season. We are thrilled to spend another summer shooting Christmas movies in Canada. In order to produce our annual quota of 147 whimsically enchanting heteronormative Christmas-themed movies,we invite anyone and everyone to submit their made-for-TV movie teleplays. Here are the Hallmark Channel Christmas Movies screenplay guidelines to help you get started
CAST
Lead Role: Occupation
(Select up to two)- Pastry chef
- Interior designer
- Small-town bookshop owner
- Architect with a daily scheduled call to Hong Kong
- Former figure skater who lost a major competition, failing their now-dead parents
- Nondescript workaholic (advertising industry only)
- Widower
- Adult orphan
Lead Role: Level of Holiday Spirit
(Select one)- Loved Christmas until an unfortunate life event occurred
- Despised Christmas due to an unfortunate childhood but now makes the best of it
Lead Role: Socioeconomic Status
(Select one)- Upper class
- Upper-middle class (small-town farming childhood backstory only)
- Middle-class owner of newly constructed palatial five-bedroom home
- Struggling but beloved by all who meet him/her
Supporting Role: Occupation
(Select one)- Writer
- Writer with writer’s block
- Retired writer
- Aspiring writer
- Ghost writer
- Ghost
Supporting Role (Female): Personality Type
- Quirky
- Quirky
- Quirky
- Quirky
- Quirky
Supporting Role (Male): Personality Type
- Happily married and wants the same for the lead role
- Sassy, gay, and wise: required to address all others as “honey”
- Cold and calculating businessman—except when it comes to love, of course
Supporting Role (Mother): Personality Type
(Select up to three)- Nosy
- Intrusive
- Meddling
- Schemer in the name of love
- Protector of family recipes
- Artistic hippie
- Just trying to be helpful!
Note: Actress must appear no more than eight years older than the main female character
Person(s) of Color
N/A
LOCATION
Big-City Exterior Options
(Select one)- New York City
- Chicago
- Seattle
Big-City Interior Options
(Select up to three within the Vancouver Marriott)- High-end hotel lobby
- High-end hotel suite
- Executive office
- Fine-dining restaurant
- Banquet hall
Small-Town Exterior Options
- Refurbished Gilmore Girls Stars Hollow set (no additional options)
Small-Town Interior Options
(Select one conifer-based location)- Bed-and-breakfast
- Rustic inn
- Ski lodge
- Woodsy cabin
- Family lake house
Note: Interiors may be haunted only by spirits of benevolent Christmas magic
Additional Locations to Mention (but never visually referenced)
- Phoenix
- Back east
- Nondescript city in Europe
- “Where Daddy grew up”
PLOT STRUCTURE
Conflict
(Select up to three)- Big-city girl returns to childhood farm, forgets her roots, and offends love interest with big-city ways
- Snowstorm — all flights are canceled
- A woodsy inn is down to their last vacant room; the lead and the supporting characters must begrudgingly make do together
- Santa has vanished
- Someone has a sprained ankle
- Heated rival Christmas-cookie bake-off
- The lead is up for a big promotion in another city just as the supporting character begins to fall in love with the lead character
- A ghost cannot spend eternity with a living love interest
- Conflict about breaking a Christmas family promise
- Santa has amnesia
The lead role unearths a family heirloom in their dead parents’ vacant yet meticulously decorated holiday home
Tension Requirements
- At exactly 01:15, your lead and love interest must nearly kiss
- The supporting-role actor must then leave abruptly
- The male lead must painstakingly learn a new skill to prove his Christmas love
Resolution
(Select two)
- Christmas shows the lead character what love is all about
- The small-town child is happy once again since the untimely death of their mother, thanks to a Christmas miracle made possible by the lead and the supporting characters
- Santa makes a brief clandestine appearance, reminding the lead character that the Christmas spirit was there all along
- The lead character turns down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (e.g., a big promotion) to spend Christmas with strangers
- The lead character convinces their love interest to help with the town Christmas decorations
- The lead role unearths a family heirloom in their dead parents’ vacant yet meticulously decorated holiday home
- Snow falls in the town, which hasn’t seen snow in 40 years
- Through Christmas magic, the ghost is now a living human again
- Through Christmas magic, the living human is now a ghost
Required Dialogue
- “I once held Christmas dear to my heart, but since my parents died in the [choose any horrific accident]…”
- “How will we ever make it to the Christmas gala in time?”
- “How will we ever bake all these cookies in time to save Christmas?”
- “Christmas is who I am. I could never be anything but Christmas.”
- “I never felt the Christmas spirit… until I met you.”
- “The only thing that could save us now is Christmas.”
- “But you’re a ghost. Only a Christmas miracle could make this work!”
- “My dream job was missing one thing: you on Christmas day.”
- “Christmas, Christmas, Christmas.”
Note: Your lead may rehash a well-known childhood memory to an old friend who is already aware of every detail in order to provide backstory and fill overlooked plot holes.
Acceptable Puns
Puns are integral to Hallmark Christmas movie titles. Please consider the following examples for guidance:
- Cooking Up Christmas Joy (for epicurean romps)
- Santa’s Blueprints (scripts featuring an architect)
- Christmas Love at LaGuardia (for a narrative involving grounded flights)
- A Christmas Tchotchke (craft a highly edgy interfaith love story)
- A Party-of-Three Christmas (revive the hit ’90s family drama, and take advantage of our in-perpetuity contracts with three-fifths of the Party of Five cast)
Thank you for reviewing the Hallmark Christmas Movie script guidelines. We look forward to filming every single one of your submissions.
Sincerely,
Executive Producers of the Hallmark Channel
