We've heard of Christmas in July, but Hallmark has moved the holiday cheer even earlier in 2019 with a special announcement in February.
Of course, work on the network's annual marathon of heartwarming Christmas movies has to begin months in advance, and the network has teased three new movies that are in the works for Christmas 2019.
The most exciting project so far is an "emotional homecoming journey" set to a soundtrack of Blake Shelton hits.
Shelton will both write new music and executive produce the untitled project, which is his second collaboration with Hallmark. Shelton's family life in Oklahoma was the inspiration for the 2018 TV movie Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas.
While Step Up star Josh Henderson played a Shelton-like musician in Come Home for Christmas, Hallmark says the new movie will feature a different story and cast.
While there's no news about which of Shelton's Christmas songs will be featured, we'd bet good money that his duet with Gwen Stefani, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas," will play at least once.
The second film project teased for Christmas 2019 is also a musical, called The Christmas Song and starring Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked) and Scott Wolf (Party of Five).
A plot description reveals that Chenoweth will play a youth choir director who finds a boy with a "golden voice," as Wolf plays the boy's widowed father.
Soap opera star Melissa Claire Egan will also star in Holiday for Heroes, alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marc Blucas, in a film about a couple who exchange letters before meeting at Christmas.
Hallmark also announced that the bestselling Alys Murray novel The Christmas Company, which was released by Hallmark Publishing, will be adapted into a new Hallmark Channel movie.
This upcoming holiday season will mark the 10th anniversary of Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas event, and the network is teasing a blowout year with the most original movie premieres ever (and they aired 37 last year).
The Christmas cheer begins earlier than ever, with the first movie premiere scheduled for July.
Other announcements from Hallmark's Crown Media network include the renewal of their popular series Chesapeake Shores, which will also spin-off into a new movie featuring characters from the show.
When Calls the Heart, the historical drama entering its sixth season, is also getting a new spinoff called When Hope Calls. The new series will debut on Hallmark's digital streaming service Hallmark Movies Now later this year.
