Erin Krakow Says ‘Santa Tell Me,’ Her New Hallmark Christmas Movie With Daniel Lissing, Is ‘Special’
Together again! Years after they played a couple on When Calls the Heart, Erin Krakow and Daniel Lissing are back to making magic on the small screen. Santa Tell Me, which airs Nov. 9, is the pair’s first-ever Hallmark Channel movie. Krakow says it’s a truly “special” film.
Erin Krakow plays a design show host searching for love in ‘Santa Tell Me’
In Santa Tell Me, Krakow plays Olivia, an interior designer and TV show host. When preparing to renovate her childhood home for her show, she discovers an old letter from Santa. The note promises that she’ll meet the love of her life by Christmas Eve, and that his name will be Nick.
Santa’s promise gets complicated, however, when Olivia meets three different guys named Nick (played by Benjamin Ayres, Christopher Russell, and Kurt Szarka). As she navigates her holiday romances, she’s drawn to her co-worker Chris (Lissing). That throws her quest for her soulmate into question. With the clock winding down to Christmas Eve, Olivia will have to discover which guy is really meant to be her true love.
‘Santa Tell Me’ is a ‘special movie,’ the ‘When Calls the Heart’ star says
For fans looking forward to seeing Krakow and Lissing together again, Santa Tell Me is a must-watch. But Krakow says that the movie is special for other reasons. In a recent Instagram post, she praised Santa Tell Me writer and director Ryan Landels.
“This guy. @ryanlandels wrote AND directed this special movie and it was a joy working with him every step of the way,” she wrote. “Such a talent. Such a good person. Such a magical imagination. It was an honor to help bring his script to life.”
In another post, Krakow said she “felt like I was 7 years old again,” while filming a scene for the movie at an ice rink. She also shared a photo of her and Lissing sitting on the front stoop of a house. “This movie is STOOPid good,” she joked in the caption.
Daniel Lissing left ‘When Calls the Heart’ in 2018
From 2014 to 2018, Lissing and Krakow co-starred on Hallmark’s romantic period drama When Calls the Heart. She played Elizabeth, a sophisticated young woman from the big city who takes a teaching job in a small frontier town. There, she meets and falls in love with a mountie named Jack (Lissing). Jack and Elizabeth got married in season 5. But soon after, he died in a training accident, leaving his pregnant wife a widow.
Hearties were devastated by Jack’s death, which was written into the show after Lissing decided he wanted to move on and explore other projects. When Calls the Heart has continued (season 11 aired earlier in 2024), with Elizabeth embracing a new romance with a mountie named Nathan (Kevin McGarry). Meanwhile, Lissing has appeared in episodes of shows like S.W.A.T. and The Rookie, as well as several movies for Great American Family. In 2021, he briefly reprised his role as Jack in a special installment of When Calls the Heart spinoff When Hope Calls, where, in a dream sequence, he shared a message for Elizabeth with her friend Abigail (Lori Loughlin).
Santa Tell Me airs Saturday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.
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