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Are you a fan of the Hallmark Channel’s expansive collection of Christmas movies but no longer pay for a cable subscription that includes them?
Don’t fret! The holidays aren’t ruined.
We’ll help you find the Christmas movies you crave without paying an expensive cable bill. There are several cheaper alternatives that can have you curled up watching your favorite holiday films in no time.
This article was updated in November 2023 and I review it every 12 months. Detailed notes on all updates can be found here.
Before we dive into the options for streaming Hallmark Christmas movies, it’s probably best if you determine what you actually want to see.
Hallmark is promising a brand new collection of Christmas movies for 2023 that will debut on its channels as livestreaming events. Gaining access to those may require you to pay for a livestreaming service.
For example, the Hallmark Channel is debuting new Christmas movies each Friday between now and the end of 2023 as part of its Countdown to Christmas campaign. And the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel is debuting new Christmas movies on Thursday nights during its Miracles of Christmas series.
If you’re not worried about seeing the new movies and are more interested in catching up on classics or rewatching your favorites, you may be able to get away without paying for a livestreaming service, as some of these movies are available on demand.
As you read through our options, keep your goals in mind and pick the best method for you.
If you’re looking for the most cost-effective way to livestream Hallmark’s Christmas content, this may be your best option.
Peacock Premium, which retails at $5.99 per month, gives you livestreaming access to all three of Hallmark’s live TV channels.
This may make the most sense for streamers already interested in this popular video streaming service. You get access to the streaming catalog of popular shows, including “The Office” and “Yellowstone,” as well as much of NBCUniversal’s top content.
You may also be able to find a discount for a Peacock subscription. For example, I was able to secure a year-long subscription for just $19.99 during the “Summer of Peacock” promotion.
Frndly TV is a discount livestreaming service that carries a limited selection of channels for a modest $7.99 monthly subscription fee.
Luckily for Hallmark Christmas movie fans, Frndly TV offers include all three of Hallmark’s live TV channels among its more than 40 channels.
You can gain access to livestreams of Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama with this subscription.
Here’s a look at the full channel options from Frndly TV.
| Frndly TV – Basic ($7.99) |
|---|
| A&E |
| BabyFirst |
| BYUtv |
| Catchy Comedy |
| Circle |
| Court TV |
| Cowboy Way |
| Crime + Investigation |
| CuriosityStream |
| Dove Channel |
| Dove Family Movies |
| Dove Kids |
| FETV |
| FMC – Family Movies Classic |
| frndlyTV |
| FYI |
| Game Show Network |
| GetTV |
| Great American Family |
| Great American Living |
| Grit |
| Hallmark Channel |
| Hallmark Drama |
| Hallmark Movies & Mysteries |
| Heartland TV |
| Heroes & Icons |
| History |
| INSP |
| Ion |
| Ion Mystery |
| Laff |
| Lifetime |
| Lifetime Movie Network |
| Local Now |
| MeTV |
| MeTV+ |
| Military History |
| Movies! |
| Outdoor Channel |
| PixL |
| Pursuit |
| QVC |
| Recipe.TV |
| Start TV |
| Story Television |
| The Weather Channel |
| UPtv |
| Vice |
| Waypoint TV |
If you want a more optimal viewing experience, you may want to pay for either the Classic ($9.99 per month) or Premium ($11.99) subscription options.
Doing so will unlock streaming in high definition, and you’ll get DVR functionality.
You get unlimited DVR space with a Classic or Premium subscription, so you can record all of the movies to binge-watch later. Also, Frndly features a 72-hour “lookback” that automatically captures all the content aired on a channel for the previous three days, so you can catch something if you forgot to watch it live or record it.
Frndly TV also offers an add-on Hallmark Movies Now subscription so that you can access even more Hallmark Christmas content.
Frndly TV has a seven-day free trial, so you can give this a test spin before deciding if it’s the right solution for you.
I’ll mention some more live TV streaming services that offer cable-like experiences later in this article, but Philo may be the perfect sweet spot for people who want more than what Frndly TV offers but don’t want to pay cable-like prices for their streaming TV.
For $25 per month, Philo offers more than 70 channels including the Hallmark family of networks. It also gives you access to other popular networks such as Food Network, HGTV, Comedy Central and more.
Team Clark rates this service as the “best” for live TV streaming on a budget.
| Philo ($25.00) |
|---|
| A&E |
| AccuWeather |
| AMC |
| American Heroes Channel |
| Animal Planet |
| aspireTV |
| AXS TV |
| BBC America |
| BBC World News |
| BET |
| BET Her |
| Catchy Comedy |
| Cheddar |
| Chicken Soup for the Soul |
| Cinevault |
| Cinevault 80’s |
| Cinevault Classics |
| Cinevault Murder & Mayhem |
| CLEO TV |
| CMT |
| Comedy Central |
| Comedy Dynamics |
| Cooking Channel |
| Cowboy Way |
| Crackle |
| Crime & Investigation |
| Deck The Hallmark |
| Destination America |
| Discovery Channel |
| Discovery Family |
| Discovery Life |
| DragRace Universe |
| EarthxTV |
| Fail Army |
| FETV |
| Food Network |
| FYI |
| G4 |
| Game Show Network |
| Gameshow Central |
| GetTV |
| Great American Family |
| Great American Living |
| GustoTV |
| Hallmark Channel |
| Hallmark Drama |
| Hallmark Movies & Mysteries |
| Heroes & Icons |
| HGTV |
| History |
| IFC |
| Infast |
| INSP |
| Introuble |
| Investigation Discovery |
| Inwonder |
| KIN |
| Law & Crime |
| Lifetime |
| Lifetime Movie Network |
| LOGO |
| Magnolia Network |
| MeTV |
| MeTV+ |
| Military History |
| MotorTrend |
| MTV |
| MTV Classic |
| MTV Live |
| MTV2 |
| Nick Jr. |
| Nickelodeon |
| Nicktoons |
| Outside TV |
| OWN – Oprah Winfrey Network |
| Paramount Network |
| People Are Awesome |
| Pet Collective |
| Players TV |
| Pocket.Watch |
| POP |
| RetroCrush |
| Revolt |
| Revry |
| Ryan and Friends |
| Science Channel |
| Scream Box |
| Smithsonian Channel |
| Start TV |
| Story Television |
| SundanceTV |
| Tastemade |
| Tastemade Home |
| Tastemade Travel |
| TeenNick |
| The Bob Ross Channel |
| TLC |
| Travel Channel |
| TV Land |
| TV One |
| UPtv |
| USA Today |
| Vevo Country |
| Vevo Hip-Hop |
| Vevo Pop |
| Vevo ’80s |
| Vevo ’90s |
| VH1 |
| Vice |
| WE tv |
You’ll get unlimited DVR space with this subscription, so you can load up on recording your Hallmark Christmas movies as they air live.
What is not included with this one is live sports, local channels or premium movie channels. But hey, you’ve gotta save money somewhere.
If the channel menus for Frndly or Philo leave you wanting a bit more selection, you may find that you’re happiest with a live TV streaming service that better simulates the cable TV experience. Just know that there’s a higher monthly price attached.
Our first suggestion in this category is a Sling TV subscription.
Unfortunately, the Hallmark Channel is not included with a base Sling subscription package, so you’ll have to pay for an add-on service to be able to watch those Christmas movies.
That means you’ll need to pay $40 per month for either the Sling Orange or Sling Blue package and then an additional $6 per month to get the “Lifestyle Extra” add-on to your subscription.
That’s $46 per month to get Hallmark Channel on Sling TV, but it’s still better than some of the streaming alternatives.
YouTube TV, Fubo and DIRECTV Stream offer the Hallmark Channel in their base packages, but they start at a minimum of $73 per month. Popular service Hulu + Live TV also added the Hallmark channels to its channel list.
If you’re just looking for access to a library of content that includes plenty of Hallmark Christmas movies, paying for access to Hallmark Movies Now may be your simplest solution.
This on-demand streaming service gives you access to more than 1,000 hours of Hallmark movies, including many of the Christmas options.
There are two subscription options for Hallmark Movies Now:
However, it’s important to note that this subscription does not give you livestreaming access to any of the three Hallmark channels nor will you have on-demand access to the movies that are debuting on those networks this year.
You can use a free seven-day trial to see if the Christmas movies available on this platform are enough to get you through the holiday season.
If you’re not picky about which Hallmark Christmas movie you watch, you could get by without paying anything at all.
The Hallmark TV website offers some free streaming options on select movies. You’ll have to watch commercials, but that’s really not much different from watching the live TV channel.
You won’t have nearly the selection of movies from which to choose, and inevitably the better ones are probably behind the paywalls of the options we’ve listed above.
Still, this could work in a pinch for movie night. You’ll see in the screenshot below that I was able to stream a Christmas title from 2019.
The Hallmark TV app is built for cable subscribers to use their paid logins to access Hallmark content on the go.
If you’re looking for a chance at free Hallmark Christmas movies, you could score by downloading the app and checking it out.
Sometimes Hallmark will “unlock” some of the content on that app to allow everyone a sneak peek at what’s behind the paywall.
If you want to give this a shot on your phone or tablet, the Hallmark TV app can be downloaded here for Android devices and here for Apple users.
You certainly can’t count on this method to produce consistent results, but you might be able to get a free Christmas movie out of it this season.
If you’re not willing to pay for YouTube TV, don’t write off Google’s streaming platforms just yet.
The regular, free version of YouTube may have some options for you.
I searched for Hallmark Christmas movies on YouTube and was able to find the full version of some films, including “A Christmas Cure,” available for streaming for free. However, this may be an unofficial upload that could be subject to removal, so your mileage with this method may vary.
I also noticed that you can rent Hallmark Christmas movies from YouTube if you want to keep your actions out of the streaming gray area.
Here’s a sample of the pricing on that, which may be less efficient than paying for a service such as Hallmark Movies Now.
Much like the YouTube option mentioned above, the Amazon Prime Video streaming service offers an option to rent or buy individual Hallmark movie titles.
The prices and selection vary, with rentals as low as $1.99 and purchases as low as $3.99.
You also can subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now through your Amazon Prime Video account to unlock more Hallmark movie options.
It’s worth noting that most video streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney+, don’t carry on-demand streaming options for Hallmark content. That likely is a combination of not wanting to pay for licensing agreements and the fact that those streaming services offer their own Christmas movie content.
Are you watching Hallmark Christmas movies this holiday season? We’d love to hear about your subscription method in the Clark.com community.
This post was last modified on March 28, 2024 12:32 pm
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