When Hallmark Channel aired The Christmas House on November 22, 2020, it became the first movie in the network’s history to prominently feature a same-sex couple as part of the main story. The film followed Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder as Brandon Mitchell and Jake Hayward, a married couple joining Brandon’s parents and siblings for the holidays. After years of conservative backlash and the 2019 Zola ad controversy, this quiet family drama marked a genuine shift for the Countdown to Christmas lineup.
I went back through the original press coverage, read the actor interviews from late 2020, and pulled together how this Hallmark first gay-couple holiday film actually landed with viewers, critics, and the LGBTQ community. Here’s what I found.
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The Background: From the Zola Ad Pull to Onscreen Inclusion
Hallmark’s path to The Christmas House started with a controversy. In December 2019, the channel pulled Zola ads that featured a same-sex couple kissing at a wedding. Crown Media reversed the decision within a day after public backlash from GLAAD and others, but the move put Hallmark’s LGBTQ representation under a national spotlight.
By August 2020, the network aired its first same-sex wedding in the movie Wedding Every Weekend. That scene was brief. The Christmas House went further by making a gay couple one of three central family pairings sharing the spotlight across the entire film. Director Michael Grossman told the LA Times the goal was never to make a statement movie. He wanted to make a regular Hallmark movie that simply included everyone.
The shift matters because Hallmark had built its holiday brand on traditional, family-friendly romance. Putting a same-sex couple at the heart of that formula tested whether the audience would follow.
What The Christmas House Is About
The plot follows the Mitchell family as they return to the family home for one last Christmas before the parents sell the house. Three adult siblings arrive with their partners. One of those partners is Brandon’s husband Jake.
The movie runs on three parallel storylines rather than one central romance. One brother navigates a career crisis, a sister tries to revive a holiday tradition for her young daughter, and Brandon and Jake deal with the adoption process for their first child. The adoption thread ties directly into the family acceptance theme. Jake already belongs. The question is how the family welcomes a new member.
Because the cast is split across three pairs, Brandon and Jake share scenes with both sets of parents and siblings. They argue about holiday decorating. They comfort each other through fertility paperwork. They kiss in the kitchen. None of these moments are framed as groundbreaking. That is exactly why they landed as groundbreaking.
Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder as Brandon and Jake
Jonathan Bennett, best known for Mean Girls, had already been a longtime Hallmark fixture. Brad Harder came from Hallmark’s Chronicle Mysteries series. The two had real chemistry from past projects, which is why Grossman cast them as a couple.
Bennett told Entertainment Tonight the role meant more to him than the typical rom-com lead. He had watched Hallmark since he was a kid and understood what it meant to see yourself in that holiday slot. Harder added that crew members approached them on set in tears. Some had never worked on a Hallmark film with a same-sex couple before and felt the weight of the moment.
The casting choice was deliberate. Hallmark did not pick a fresh face or a niche LGBTQ actor. They used two familiar Hallmark faces, which made the inclusion feel like an extension of the brand rather than a special event.
The Kiss Scene That Made Network History
The onscreen kiss between Brandon and Jake is short, around three seconds, and placed in the kitchen during a quiet moment. There is no dramatic buildup. No one walks in and reacts. It is treated exactly the way every other Hallmark kiss is treated.
That was the point. Grossman said in interviews that the goal was for the kiss to be unremarkable. When the audience treats a same-sex kiss as ordinary, the representation has actually done its job.
Crowd reactions at the time were split. Some viewers posted that the moment felt overdue. Others said it was jarring to see in a Hallmark film. The network kept the scene in the final cut despite knowing the conservative audience backlash would come. That decision set the template for what followed.
Portraying Family Acceptance, Not Just Coming Out
One of the smartest choices in The Christmas House is that Brandon and Jake have already been accepted. There is no coming-out scene, no parent conflict over the relationship, no dramatic reveal. The family already knows. The family already loves Jake.
This avoided a tired trope where LGBTQ characters exist to teach straight audiences tolerance. Instead, the film treated the couple as fully formed. The drama came from the same places it does in every Hallmark movie. Career choices, family legacy, fertility struggles, and the question of whether to keep a beloved home.
Forum reactions on Reddit’s r/HallmarkMovies and r/gaybros reflected this. Some longtime Hallmark fans wrote that they appreciated finally seeing themselves without the trauma arc. Other viewers felt the couple was sidelined and wanted the gay leads to carry their own standalone story. Both reactions are valid and tell you how rare inclusive Hallmark storytelling still was.
How Audiences and Critics Reacted
The Christmas House earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for its portrayal of the couple, which remains the strongest signal of LGBTQ community approval. The LA Times review called it a quietly radical step forward for the network.
Conservative groups pushed back. One Million Moms launched a petition asking viewers to boycott the channel. The petition gathered a few thousand signatures and generated press coverage but did not dent the film’s ratings. Hallmark’s parent company Crown Media stood by the film publicly.
Viewership for the Countdown to Christmas 2020 lineup was strong. The pandemic-era audience was hungry for comfort viewing, and the movie’s wholesome tone fit. The Christmas House became one of the most-watched Hallmark originals of the season. Critics in the LGBTQ press noted that representation without ratings collapse was a real victory.
The Sequel and Hallmark’s Ongoing LGBTQ Programming
The Christmas House got a sequel in 2021, The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls, which brought back Bennett and Harder as Brandon and Jake. The sequel added an adoption reveal and pushed the couple further into the center of the family drama.
Hallmark followed up with more LGBTQ holiday programming in subsequent seasons. The Holiday Sitter, Christmas in Tahoe, and others featured queer characters and storylines. The pace was slower than many advocates wanted, but the precedent set in 2020 stuck.
For comparison, Lifetime and Netflix had moved faster on LGBTQ holiday content. Hallmark’s late arrival still mattered because of the network’s reach. Roughly 80 million viewers tune into Countdown to Christmas each year. That audience now regularly sees same-sex couples on screen during the most-watched television season.
The Christmas House did not solve every representation problem. Critics rightly pointed out that the leads were still white, still cisgender, still able to afford the adoption storyline. But for one weekend in November 2020, a Hallmark family Christmas looked more like America than it ever had before.
FAQs
What was the first gay Christmas movie on Hallmark?
The Christmas House (2020) was the first Hallmark Channel movie to prominently feature a same-sex couple. It premiered on November 22, 2020, as part of the Countdown to Christmas lineup and starred Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder as a married couple at the heart of the family story.
Does Hallmark have any gay Christmas movies?
Yes. Since The Christmas House in 2020, Hallmark has continued to include LGBTQ characters and couples in its holiday slate. The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls (2021) brought back the same couple, and later films have featured additional queer storylines.
When did Hallmark start having gay movies?
Hallmark’s first same-sex wedding scene aired in Wedding Every Weekend in August 2020. The first prominently featured same-sex couple came with The Christmas House in November 2020. Both followed the 2019 Zola ad controversy that pushed the network toward more visible inclusion.
Which Hallmark Christmas movie has a gay couple in it?
The Christmas House (2020) and its sequel The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls (2021) both center on a gay couple played by Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder. Their storyline includes a marriage and an adoption arc across the two films.
Why The Christmas House Matters Five Years Later
Looking back at how Hallmark’s first gay-couple holiday films in The Christmas House landed, the answer is mostly well. The film earned a GLAAD nomination, drew strong ratings, and weathered conservative backlash without walking back the choice. More importantly, it changed what a Hallmark Christmas could look like for the millions of viewers who treat the network as annual tradition.
The couple at the center of The Christmas House was not a teaching moment or a tolerance lesson. Brandon and Jake were already family. The drama was about the same things every Hallmark couple faces. That normalcy, more than the kiss or the adoption storyline, is what made the film work.
If you have not revisited it, the movie is still streaming on Hallmark Movies Now and rotates on cable each holiday season. It remains the clearest marker of where LGBTQ representation on the network began, and a good reminder that quiet, ordinary inclusion can land louder than a statement ever could.