The entertainment industry as a whole is becoming more diverse and inclusive, and this is certainly evident on the Hallmark channel. In recent years, while the network’s favorite comfort films still feature couples saving local businesses and participating in Christmas events, the network has chosen to offer more varied stories in a variety of ways.

Whether it’s adding Hanukkah and Kwanzaa to the fan-favorite Countdown to Christmas, bringing more diverse cast to the forefront, or breaking the norm with characters not previously featured in such TV movies, the Hallmark channel has used its platform to offer more diverse characters and stories.

“Holiday Babysitter”

After years of slowly but surely incorporating LGBTQ+ characters into their films, the Hallmark Channel finally released a Christmas movie featuring two openly gay male leads played by two openly gay actors. Jonathan Bennett from Mean Girls the notoriety that previously paved the way for queer stories on the web.

In this highly anticipated Christmas movieholiday babysitter followed a single bachelor hired by his sister to look after his niece and nephew at Christmas. But after proving his inability to work, he hires their next door neighbor to help him and soon begins to fall in love with a man who dreams of a family of his own.

“Wedding Every Weekend”

In 2019, the Hallmark Channel made history when it featured not only its first same-sex couple in a film, but also its first—and so far only—same-sex wedding in Kimberly Sustad and Paul Campbell-vel wedding every weekend.

Following two best friends who go to four different weddings together that end up helping their own romance blossom, one of the weddings they attend is that of lesbian couple Amanda and Vicki, who tie the knot and are celebrated by friends and family as they walk down the aisle hand in hand.

“Big Fat Family Christmas”

Part of the Hallmark countdown to Christmas in 2022, big fat family christmas became the first Hallmark Channel film to feature an almost entirely Asian cast including Tia Carrere, Shannon Cook and Shannon Chan-Kent, with reference turn from When the heart calls star Jack Wagner.

Although it received mixed reviews for its use of Asian and Chinese stereotypes, big fat family christmastold the hilarious story of an Asian-American photojournalist who was assigned to document the annual family holiday party, unaware that her work colleagues knew that the family she would be photographing was her own.

“Double Holiday”

It wasn’t until 2019 that Hallmark finally expanded its Countdown to Christmas to include two Hanukkah-themed films: double holiday and Holiday date. This started the channel’s annual tradition of showing a new Hanukkah movie each season, including Love, Lights, Hanukkah!, The Eight Gifts of Hanukkah and Hanukkah on rye.

double holiday follows two opposing colleagues who must come together to plan a Christmas and Hanukkah celebration while Love, Lights, Hanukkah tells the story of a Christmas-obsessed woman who learns she is half Jewish and learns to take part in the festivities.

“Holiday Legacy”

Due to a flurry of Christmas movies over the years, it wasn’t until 2022 that the Hallmark Channel branched out and released a holiday movie that showcased a less-represented Kwanzaa, a holiday celebrated in African-American culture in a movie starring a black cast. .

holiday legacy should Lindy Greenwood Ella, who returns home for Christmas with plans to heal old family wounds. Ella recruits her ex-boyfriend Brooks Darnell Griffin, who helps the family participate in Kwanzaa and Christmas traditions, unexpectedly rekindles his old flame with Ella.

“Color my world with love”

It’s still rare to see actors with Down syndrome in movies and TV these days, but Hallmark Movies & Mysteries surged ahead in 2022 when it premiered. Colour My world with love.

Two actors with Down syndrome appeared in the rom-com Lily D. Moore and David DeSanctis, together to tell the love story of Kendall and Brad, who got engaged and left Kendall’s mother worrying about whether Down Syndrome would leave them unprepared for the next step in this emotional, coming-of-age romance drama.

“Christmas House”

In the same year that Lifespan the first-ever LGBTQ Christmas romantic comedy premiered, Hallmark Channel aired a holiday film starring a gay couple played by Hallmark alum Jonathan Bennett and a newcomer to the network, Brad Harder.

While the 2020s christmas house primarily follows two brothers who take it upon themselves to decorate their parents’ famous home for the holidays. It features a subplot revolving around Brandon Bennett and Jake Harder as they struggle to complete their adoption. Continuation of 2021 Christmas House 2: Decorate these halls continued the couple’s story by showing the couple as fathers of two babies.

“My Christmas Family Tree”

On a channel full of love movies, all drama genres tend to be few and far between, or just air on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. But My family Christmas tree changed it in 2022.

While the film does include a budding holiday romance between the two main characters, it is the story of a family that stays at the forefront when a young woman with no family whatsoever receives DNA test results that reveal she has a father she never I didn’t know, along with some other half. -brothers and sisters with whom she plans to spend Christmas for the first time.

“Christmas Ring”

christmas ring released in 2020 and tells the unique story of a reporter who seeks to uncover the history of an ancient wedding ring and enlists the support of the ring’s owner’s grandson, in the process forging a romance between the two.

While the film featured some familiar Hallmark faces such as David Alpay and Casey Manderson, christmas ring introduced the Indonesian-Canadian actress Nazneen Contractor as reporter Kendra Adams, making history as Hallmark Channel’s first-ever South Asian lead role in a film.

“Majestic Christmas”, “Christmas Memories”

2018 has been a big year of diversity for rom-com fans who have seen several Christmas movies starring BIPOC for the first time. Christina Milian and Jerrika Hinton not only debuted at Hallmark, but also made history as the first black women in their films, Memories of Christmas and Majestic Christmas.

Both air on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Memories of Christmas followed Noel of Milian who inherits her late mother’s house and learns that her mother has hired an ornament to decorate her house every Christmas, while Majestic Christmas told the story of Nell of Hinton, an architect who changed her mind when she returned home to turn the historic theater into a multiplex during the holidays.