The 10 Best Female Actors In Hallmark Christmas Movies, Ranked

If you watch a lot of Hallmark holiday movies (and believe us, it’s scary easy to get hooked on them from October to December once you get started), you’ll notice faces that reappear over and over again. Hallmark is nothing if not reliant on safe, predictable storytelling, and this tendency extends to the people they hire to act in their made-for-TV films — once you’ve proven that you can provide a stable, likable presence in a lead role, they’ll keep on booking you. 

But while Hallmark male stars need to personify whatever romantic fantasy Hallmark is selling — whether that’s sensitive, or caring, or supporting, or rugged, or good at fighting fires — their actresses have an altogether different responsibility. Since a large portion of the Hallmark viewership is made up of women, these actresses need to be aspirational and, above all else, relatable. We need to be able to see ourselves in them, which isn’t as easy a task as it sounds. So when they find a performer who can do it well, they get their candy cane hooks in them and never let them go. Here are some of the best of the best that the Hallmark network has to offer.

Like many of our Hallmark stars to be, Bethany Joy Lenz got her start in the world of soaps — her very first television role was on “Guiding Light,” which she appeared in from 1998 to 2000. But she’s better known for her work on The CW’s “One Tree Hill,” where she played Haley, Lucas Scott’s best friend and future wife. (Apparently the “One Tree Hill” to Hallmark pipeline is real, since Chad Michael Murray has also starred in a few holiday films for the network.)

For Hallmark, Lenz has been a regular feature. She first appeared with the network back in 2014, when she starred in “The Christmas Secret.” From there, they were off to the races. Lenz went on to star in “Royal Matchmaker,” “Five Star Christmas,” “An Unexpected Christmas,” and most recently, “A Biltmore Christmas,” in which a modern-day screenwriter on a movie set is transported into the film universe of a 1940s holiday classic.

When Merritt Patterson was a teenager, she was cast in the ABC Family teen sci-fi drama “Kyle XY.” That was just the beginning for the young actress — she later starred in several different television series, including the “Pretty Little Liars” spinoff “Ravenswood,” “The Royals,” and “The Art of More.” But her most reliable work has been with the Hallmark Channel: Since her first appearance in 2017 with “A Royal Winter,” she’s done six more holiday films with them, including “Christmas at the Palace” and “Christmas Chateau.” 

Unfortunately for Hallmark, it seems as though Patterson has been poached by the Great American Family network, which is swiftly moving in on the traditional Hallmark and Lifetime territory — she’s done four films with them since 2022. But it speaks to her likability as a holiday film star that multiple different networks are vying for her when it comes time to make their annual Christmas films.

Kimberly Williams-Paisley has a long history in the romance department — she got her big break in “Father of the Bride” playing Annie, George Banks’ (Steve Martin) daughter who stuns the family by returning home from studying abroad in Italy with the announcement that she’s engaged to be married. She’s acted continually since then, largely in supporting roles in films like “We Are Marshall” and “The Christmas Chronicles.” But she’s also had a substantial career on television, both for the Hallmark network and beyond. 

Her largest role to date was as Dana, Jim’s sister-in-law, in “According to Jim,” in which she appeared for 165 episodes and even directed a few along the way. For Hallmark, she starred in “The Christmas Train” alongside Dermot Mulroney, as the two embark on a long-distance train ride from the east coast to Los Angeles. She followed this up with “A Nashville Christmas Carol” in 2020 as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and a year later, she appeared alongside her real-life sister, actress Ashley Williams, in two more Christmas-themed movies for Hallmark, “Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday,” and “Sister Swap: Christmas in the City.”

If you were coming of age in the 1990s and 2000s, chances are you recognize Rachael Leigh Cook, who was having a pretty big moment as a star of teen movies at the time. Most famous for her role in “She’s All That” opposite Freddie Prinze Jr., she also starred in “The Babysitters Club” as Mary Anne (her on-screen debut), cult classic “Josie and the Pussycats,” and corporate thriller “Antitrust,” to name just a few. 

Although she was arguably most prominent during that period, she’s continued to act over the past few decades, and these days, she’s been taking on a lot of work with the Hallmark Channel. She starred in “Frozen in Love,” a sports-themed winter romance that paired up a hockey player with a mild-mannered bookstore owner, as well as “A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas,” “Cross Country Christmas,” “Tis the Season to be Merry,” and “Rescuing Christmas.”

There may not be a huge amount of overlap between fans of the “Power Rangers” franchise and Hallmark aficionados, but the common ground in that venn diagram is certainly familiar with Erin Cahill. Her first television role was as the Pink Ranger on “Power Rangers Time Force,” joining the legacy of a cult classic action series. (She also reprised this role in the 2017 web series “Power Rangers Hyperforce.) In the years since, she’s been a popular day player on many well-known TV shows, making one-off appearances on shows like “Supernatural,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Monk.”

Her career with Hallmark has been equally illustrious, starring in “Sleigh Bells Ring,” “Last Vermont Christmas,” “Christmas on the Range,” “A Timeless Christmas,” and “Every Time a Bell Rings.” She’s so well-known with the holiday subgenre that she appeared as a guest judge on Hallmark’s “Finding Mr. Christmas,” a reality series that put a group of men through a series of Christmas-themed challenges, with the winner receiving a lead role in an upcoming Hallmark holiday film.

Alicia Witt began her career as an actor with one of the most unnerving child performances we’ve ever seen — she played Alia in David Lynch’s perennially underrated “Dune” (and later appeared in “Twin Peaks” as well). Over the years, she successfully transitioned into an adult career, working in both film and television. As a young adult, she played Gertrude Lang in “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” whose clarinet lessons are one of the first signs that Mr. Holland (an Oscar-nominated Richard Dreyfuss) might actually be cut out for teaching after all. She also appeared in “The Sopranos,” and “Ally McBeal,” with recurring roles on “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Justified,” “Nashville,” and “Orange Is the New Black.” Witt has even taken steps into the world of horror, acting in 2024’s “Longlegs.”

As if all of that wasn’t enough, she’s been starring in Hallmark holiday films since 2013, with “A Very Merry Mix-Up” and “A Snow Globe Christmas.” Each year until 2020, it looks like she made time to do one Hallmark film — “Christmas at Cartwright’s” in 2014, “I’m Not Ready for Christmas” in 2015, then “Christmas List,” “The Mistletoe Inn,” “Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane,” “Our Christmas Love Song,” and “Christmas Tree Lane.”

Most science-fiction fans will likely recognize Tricia Helfer as the incredibly popular, slinky red dress-wearing Number Six from “Battlestar Galactica,” a Cylon who has been engaged in war against the remnants of humanity. But her career goes far beyond that iconic sci-fi role. Helfer had substantial roles on “Tron: Uprising,” “Burn Notice,” “Killer Women,” “Powers,” “Lucifer,” and, most recently, “Step Up: High Water.” On the big screen, she appeared in the Oscar-nominated drama “Bombshell” as broadcaster Alisyn Camerota. (And in between all of this, she found time while she was filming “Battlestar Galactica” to host the first season of “Canada’s Next Top Model” — a fitting role, considering that she began her career as a model.)

Unlike many Hallmark stars, who seem to have a specific window of their career when they do a ton of holiday films for the network, these roles are peppered throughout her filmography. In 2011, she starred in “Mistletoe Over Manhattan,” a film in which Mrs. Claus travels to the Big Apple to perform some miracles during the holiday season. Two years later, she was featured in “Finding Christmas,” which is essentially a gender-swapped version of “The Holiday.” In 2016, she returned again for “Operation Christmas,” and in 2019, she was seen in “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”

If you, like us, logged more than a few hours watching the frothy teen drama “The O.C.,” you probably remember Autumn Reeser as Taylor Townsend, a high-achieving, Type A student who became a surprise love interest for Ryan after Marissa’s untimely death. But although that’s one of her most famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask — Taylor Townsend was not a universally beloved character) roles, it’s far from her only substantial credit. She also had key roles on “Entourage,” the “Incredibles”-esque superhero show “No Ordinary Family,” “Hawaii Five-0,” and “The Arrangement.”

As a Hallmark star, Reeser has been equally productive. In 2017, she starred in “A Bramble House Christmas,” which was followed by “Season for Love” in 2018 alongside Marc Blucas of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, “Christmas Under the Stars” in 2019, and “A Glenbrooke Christmas” in 2020. She’s also worked with the network on “The Wedding Veil” franchise, which she did six films for over the course of 2022 and 2023.

To a not insignificant portion of mainstream audiences, Danica McKellar will always be known for the role she took on as a child actor in the 1980s — Winnie on “The Wonder Years.” But despite her early successes on the popular coming-of-age television series, she’s had a long and fulfilling career that has seen her thrive in higher education and seek out roles as an adult actress. After receiving a degree in mathematics, she published a series of books about math for kids and teens, each of which were positively received by critics. As an actress, she appeared on “The West Wing,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “The Big Bang Theory,” among many other shows. 

And of course, she’s grown into one of the Hallmark Channel’s most charming and reliable leading ladies. Over the course of her time with the network, she has starred in “Crown for Christmas,” “My Christmas Dream,” “Coming Home for Christmas,” “Christmas She Wrote,” and “You, Me, and the Christmas Trees” — and that’s not counting the non-holiday films she’s worked on. In the past few years, she’s gravitated towards the more overtly-Christian Great American Family network, but her Hallmark fare still holds a special place in our hearts.

It’s pretty much official at this point. Lacey Chabert is the modern-day queen of made-for-TV Christmas movies, and although you’ll see her bouncing between different networks (she appeared, for example, in 2024’s absurdly popular “Hot Frosty” for Netflix), the lion’s share of her work has been for Hallmark. Before she became the network’s go-to female star, she worked as a child actress, acting in “All My Children” and “Party of Five.” Chabert was also a reknowned voice actress in her early years, often collaborating with Nickelodeon — she was featured on “Hey Arnold,” and “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,” but her most famous voiceover role was Eliza Thornberry on “The Wild Thornberrys.” She was even the original Meg Griffin on “Family Guy,” before the role was taken over by Mila Kunis in Season 2. And of course, anyone growing up in the early 2000s will recognize her as Gretchen Wieners, one of the Plastics in “Mean Girls.”

But these days, she has both feet planted firmly in the world of Christmas. Since 2012, she’s done at least 17 holiday films with Hallmark (we honestly can’t discount the possibility that we’ve missed one or two) and dozens of other non-Christmas romances for the network. So basically, at this point, when you see Lacey Chabert, you think Hallmark — and honestly, we could think of no better brand representative.