Madison Lane is a very busy resort developer tasked with finding a location for a new ski resort. She’s pretty committed to Mountain Park as the next location but her boss wants her to check out the town of Christmas, Colorado all the same. Christmas has been down on its luck for a while now, in desperate need of both jobs and tourists if it wants to flourish once again and though it is small, it put together a pretty attractive incentive package for the resort people. On her way there, Madison (Jennifer Finnigan) literally crashes into the Welcome to Christmas sign, which will serve as a running joke and an opportunity to rethink the town’s awful slogan. It also conveniently traps her there or as long as the mechanic can convince her he doesn’t have the parts to make her car run.

Meanwhile, the whole town launches a campaign tailored in secret to Madison to convince her theirs is the best town for the new ski resort. Town Sheriff Gage McBride (Eric Mabius) acts as her guide while the town throws every magical thing they can think at her: tree lighting ceremonies and ornament scavenger hunts, not to mention oodles of charm and tradition. Madison can’t help but fall in love with the town. And with the sheriff. Right?

World famous pianist Margot (Merritt Patterson) takes a break from her busy touring schedule to stay at Chateau Neuhaus for Christmas. It’s a family tradition she hasn’t had time to share for several years, and while she’s happy to reconnect with her young niece, she’s also hiding out from a recent review that called her playing passionless – the worst part is, she knows it’s true. Contemplating retirement, she’s glad for the time off. Not that she’s going to get much.

Also at the Chateau for Christmas: her ex-boyfriend Jackson (Luke Macfarlane)! Seems like a pretty big coincidence, but his best friend is the hotel manager, and the manager has a pretty big problem: their annual Christmas concert is in peril, having lost not only its director but most of its performers as well. Uh oh. So obliging Jackson got roped into putting together an entire concert in just a few days with his ex-in-laws in attendance and his beautiful ex-girlfriend set to be its star. Life is throwing them together again after their careers took them in different directions – will Margot and Jackson be able to find their way back to each other?

Hallmark Magic 8 Ball says: all signs point to yes. Happy endings are guaranteed, remember? And happiness defined by Hallmark means true love forever. That’s sort of a pukey concept, but if you’re willing to buy in to the romance be all and end all of that is good and right in the world, you can rest assured that Hallmark will come through for you. The true purpose of a Hallmark movie is to get just as swept along as the couple in question. You will give in to the Christmas spirit, which inevitably fosters love and warmth and family and commitment and cookies.

As fate would have it, Jennifer and Aidan both work at the same Chicago scavenger hunt company. Yes, a company that plans and executes scavenger hunts on behalf of anyone crazy enough to pay them – typically as corporate team-building things, which is a sad and terrible market around which to build a business. Not only do Jennifer (Mallory Jansen) and Aidan (Tyler Hynes) both work at the same place, they’re vying for the same promotion. Aidan has more experience, but Jennifer has a certain creative spark, which does not go unnoticed by their new client who is relaunching one of the city’s swankiest hotels. This means that these two rivals, one a Christmas fiend, the other a self-described lone wolf, will have to work together on the firm’s biggest project to date.

The theme is the 12 Days of Christmas, but their inspiration leans more toward the romantic – the 12 Dates then. And for some reason instead of just thinking of clues in their heads or brain-storming at the office, they decide the only thing that makes sense is to hit the town and do the dates themselves. Strictly as professionals of course, just a couple of colleagues who realize that incorporating their date selfies into the pitch is a needless but brilliant way to expense wine tasting on company time. Who could have guessed that going on a bunch of romantic dates together could make you fall in love?

Script writers Christine Conradt and Jamie Pachino take the time to set each clue in a unique location of Chicago, all twelve in different historic districts so the scavenger hunters will have the opportunity to enjoy the whole city before eventually being led to the luxury hotel’s grand opening in its ballroom, all decked out for Christmas (where, incidentally, Jennifer and Aidan’s boss also awaits to announce the promotion). Unfortunately, the siren song of tax breaks and nearly year-round snow cried out to director Gary Yates, who filmed the thing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. So if Chicago looks good to you, fly to Canada instead.

Ashley (Meghan Ory) is on her way home for the holidays when her flight is cancelled and the last rental car is rudely rented right from under her nose by a pushy, entitled nogoodnik named Dash (ugh) (Andrew W. Walker). Still, beggars can’t be choosers and Ashley’s desperate to get home in time for Christmas, so she accepts a ride from her brand new nemesis (stranger danger, Ashley!).

As if their first impression wasn’t bad enough, the two quickly find that they are complete opposites now stuck in a teeny tiny vehicle on a mad two-day dash to get from Sacramento to Seattle. Ashley is sunny and bubbly and despite Dash’s curmudgeonly attempts to rain on her parade, her brightness persists, and persists in annoying the heck out of him (honestly, she would be a lot to take during this type of road trip). Now, the sensible thing to do would be to spell each other in the driver’s seat while the other naps, eats, and plans their route. Are these two sensible? Of course not. But it wouldn’t be a holiday Hallmark movie if they weren’t stopping at diners to help decorate trees, or randomly adopting puppies from bikers, now would it? (Actually….)

And then there’s the tail. Yeah, did I mention the feds are after Ashley? That’s why she couldn’t get on her plane, she’s on the no-fly unbeknownst to her, suspected of being a home grown radicalized terrorist! Which seems like it must be a big mistake with some perfectly logical explanation, except…what’s in that big red box she’s been carrying around, and what is her rush to get to Seattle, exactly? So maybe our girl’s just a teeny bit suspicious. But what Ashley and Dash don’t know can’t hurt them, so they’re just obliviously driving along, snacking on pork rinds or whatever disgusting foods Americans eat in their cars, and falling just a bit in love. Or a lot in love, according to Ashley, who cries it to her mother when she finally gets to see her. In love! After a 36 hour car ride, during most of which at least one of them hated the other. For goodness sake, Ashley, have some self respect!

Amanda (Julie Benz), a widowed army wife, is facing her second Christmas alone and still can’t bring herself to decorate for the season during which she lost her husband. Now she’s on the verge of losing her job at the local history museum too, unless her brilliant fundraising plan can save the day – and honestly what are the chances of that happening, and with such a tight deadline?

Good thing she’s recently taken on a tenant, Master Sergeant Jim Mullins (Michael Shanks), who’ll be staying just long enough to heal his broken leg. For reasons unknown to us, Jim is a very big fan of Christmas and the first thing he does is string up lights around his shabby little apartment, after which he immediately begins wildly overstepping. Perhaps he’s unused to idle hands, but he starts playing Mr. Fix It around the house without Amanda’s permission or knowledge, even tinkering with a vintage motorcycle he knows belonged to Amanda’s dead husband, which should have rendered it not only off-limits and sacrosanct. This is the same woman, after all, who still can’t delete her late husband’s last voice mail or throw out even his ugliest bowling shirt.

Slowly but surely, the two begin to heal together – and yes, to even the playing field, Jim does have something more to heal than just his dumb leg. With broken hearts on the mend, love is perhaps not as impossible as it once seemed, but widows are a tough nut to crack. It is much harder to move on from a love that never ran its course, and it’s hard to be compared to a sainted man who died a hero. And yet Jim decides to make things even harder on them by re-enlisting. Sure the retention bonus allows for a grand gesture, but do you think Amanda wants to risk her heart in Afghanistan again?

Hallmark is no stranger to depictions of Christmas for the military family but this year have specifically partnered with the United Service Organizations (USO), the nation’s leading organization to serve the men and women in the U.S. military and their families. This partnership aims to raise awareness about the needs of the military community, honouring the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces, bringing cheer to military families and encouraging the American public to express gratitude for our men and women in uniform.