How to Watch Every ‘When Calls the Heart’ Christmas Movie This Dec. 25
It will be another Christmas without When Calls the Heart this year. In the past, the fans of the Hallmark Channel series could spend Dec. 25 watching the show’s annual Christmas episode. However, the last When Calls the Heart Christmas special aired in 2019, and there are no plans to revive the tradition. But that doesn’t mean fans will have to deal with an entirely Hope Valley-free holiday.
How to watch all the ‘When Calls the Heart’ Christmas specials
While there won’t be a new When Calls the Heart Christmas special this year, you can revisit some of the holiday magic from years past. All of the show’s holiday specials are available to stream on both Peacock and Hallmark movies now. That includes:
- When Calls the Heart: New Year’s Wish
- When Calls the Heart Christmas
- When Calls the Heart: The Christmas Wishing Tree
- When Calls the Heart: The Greatest Christmas Blessing
- When Calls the Heart: Home for Christmas
Peacock plans start at $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Hallmark Movies Now costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
Why there won’t be a ‘When Calls the Heart’ holiday episode this year
Why did Hallmark stop making When Calls the Heart holiday specials? Executive producer Brian Bird shed some light on the decision in a 2023 interview with Heart to Hearties (via YouTube).
“Everybody loves good Christmas movies,” he said. However, making a When Calls the Heart Christmas movie presents “creative challenges” because the episode must be able to stand apart from the show’s ongoing storyline.
“When we do 12 episodes of the show, they’re very much continuing, serialized drama, serialized storytelling that all connect to each other,” Bird explained. However, a holiday episode is “disconnected from the chronology of what’s been happening in Hope Valley.”
Another challenge? Most of Hallmark’s holiday programming consists of standalone movies that are “not connected to any other creative streams,” he added.
“They can air anytime,” he explained. “You can air them out of order. When they’re running Christmas in July they can rerun a bunch of those things. And then to throw a When Calls the Heart Christmas special into that mix is kind of odd from a business standpoint.”
What else to watch this Christmas if you love ‘When Calls the Heart’
Hearties will have to satisfy their urge for a Hope Valley Christmas by rewatching the show’s old Christmas specials. They can also check out some other similar shows and movies that deliver similar cozy holiday vibes.
While the odds don’t look good for a second season of the When Calls the Heart spinoff When Hope Calls, you can still watch the show’s 2021 holiday special When Hope Calls Christmas. It’s streaming on Freevee.
The classic 1971 television movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story introduced TV audiences to the Waltons, a tight-knit family celebrating Christmas at the height of the Depression. It’s streaming on The Roku Channel.
Set in Victorian England, The Christmas Candle is about a skeptical minister who arrives in a small village where the residents believe that every 25 years, an angel will grant a miracle to the person who lights the Christmas candle. It’s streaming on Prime Video.
Like When Calls the Heart, the Love Comes Softly series of movies are inspired by a series of books by author Janette Oke. In the 2011 Christmas special, Love’s Christmas Journey, a frontier widow’s faith is tested at Christmas. It’s streaming on UP Faith & Family.
Call the Midwife’s Christmas specials are an annual tradition for fans of the heartwarming British drama, which follows nuns and midwives working in an impoverished London neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s. A new special airs Dec. 25 on PBS (check local listings). Specials from seasons 2-12 are streaming on Netflix.
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