Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel has at least one really major production with its ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movies — even though we’re technically in ‘Merry Thanksgiving Weekend’ — and last year it was undoubtedly Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (sorry, but this year’s Holiday Touchdown movie fell short), and this year without question it is A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, filmed in mostly Kansas City and, one would assume, at the Opry House (celebrating the country music institution’s 100th anniversary in the process). The movie is loaded with country music star cameos — Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley, Dailey & Vincent, Drew Baldridge, Jamey Johnson, Maggie Baugh, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Pam Tillis, Rhett Akins, Riders in the Sky, Suzy Bogguss, Tigirlily Gold, T Graham Brown — and performances, and it has a truly unexpected story.
Nikki DeLoach stars as Gentry Wade, daughter of late country music icon Jett Wade (Rob Mayes) — half of the famed duo Winters & Wade. Gentry abandoned her dream of a songwriting career and distanced herself from her father’s legacy following his tragic accident 30 years prior. When the Grand Ole Opry invites her to represent Jett at their centennial celebration at Christmas, she’s hesitant to return to the place steeped in bittersweet memories. Encouraged by her good friends, Gentry visits the Opry and, while seated in one of the vaunted venue’s oak church pews, is suddenly transported to 1995. Gentry’s lifelong friend Mac (Kristoffer Polaha), a country music talent manager, finds her wild tale a bit unbelievable but he also finds himself in 1995 as well after sitting in the same pew. Thanks to some Christmas magic, Gentry gets precious time with her father, creative inspiration to finish the song she began decades earlier as a teen and learns surprising answers to questions about her father that have followed her for the last three decades.
Hallmark Channel
To say that A Grand Ole Opry Christmas is unexpected is an understatement. Nothing about the promos leading up to the movie indicated the concept of time travel, and while Hallmark does seem to have a history with time-spanning stories — from Providence Falls to The Way Home — most of those are centered around a romance that decades or centuries cannot deny. This time travel story has a romance, but that isn’t really the point. This one is deeper and may really hit hard for viewers, especially those who have lost a parent. In Gentry’s present, the one question she is asked most is why her father quit making music, a question she has never known the answer to. The second most asked question is what happened to his famed guitar, GiGi. Another answer she does not have. But those closest to her, including childhood friend (and crush) Mac, aunt Rita (Sharon Lawrence) and her father’s former partner Von Winters (James Denton), all know that Gentry is wasting her life as a server at a local country music establishment when she should be putting her songwriting talents to use. Von even tries to get her to sit down with him to talk about writing, but she always puts off the idea. She’s also hesitant to attend the Opry’s honor of her father because, even thirty years later, his loss is still too raw for her to deal with when the Opry comes up. But Rita convinces her to just come to the Opry, enjoy a tour (hey, there’s Erin Cahill making a cameo as a tour guide!), and think hard about the invitation. Once the Opry magic sends her, and Mac, back to 1995, just before Wade and Winters broke up, Gentry has to concoct a story about being a record company exec so her sudden appearance doesn’t make anyone suspicious. She also has to tread lightly around her father without giving away her identity, and in a moment when he overhears her singing her unfinished song to Mac, he offer to help her do the one thing she always wanted — help her finish it. She also gets the answer as to why he quit music, and he also gives her another gift. It’s all very emotional and comes to a head when Brad Paisley actually performs her song, ‘Falling Just Like the Snow’ (actually a song from Paisley’s 2025 Christmas album, Snow Globe Town) on the Opry stage. There is a nice little hint that perhaps Von, discovering that she is not a record exec in the past, is aware of what happened in the present. And, yes, she and Mac do get to end the story with a kiss, but this one is completely earned since they’ve known each other for thirty years and always had feelings for each other, but Mac’s own shyness prevented them from ever doing anything about it when they were teenagers. Everything about this story, by Tracy Andreen and Hilty Bowen, just works so well and the whole focus of the father-daughter relationship is a refreshing change of pace from the romance we come to expect from Hallmark.
Director Clare Niederpruem and her team have done a great job of recreating the 1995 era, from the fashions to Rita’s big hair (there is a very funny line about Rita’s hair being the same in both eras, just a bit darker in 1995), and they manage to squeeze in as many Nashville cameos as possible without making them seem out of place (most of the country music stars are seen while inside the Opry House). I did get a chuckle out of ‘Whispering Bill’ Anderson’s cameo as the 88-year-old legend talked to a newcomer (played by Drew Baldridge) about watching his videos on TikTok. If you’re a real country music fan, you will get a kick out of seeing so many stars from the past and present. Brad Paisley’s scene performing Gentry’s song is also highly emotional and really caps off the story (although no one seems to ask where she found her father’s guitar since earlier in the movie she said if she knew where it was she would have donated it to the Opry archives by now). This is a story told on a grand scale and Niederpruem and company absolutely crush it.
Hallmark Channel
Helping deliver the emotional — and comical — beats of the story is the amazing cast. Nikki DeLoach is outstanding as Gentry. She has the ability to make us believe that this time travel story is really happening to her (or Gentry), and her wide-eyed wonder at the sights and sounds around her just help draw you in to her world. We can feel her heart aching when Gentry first lays eyes on her father, and we’re there with her as she gets closer to him and they work on the song together, and the way she looks at him with so much love is truly heartbreaking because she can’t tell him who she truly is. But she learns in the process that family always came first for Jett Wade, and that really satisfies one of her long-burning questions about him and his career. DeLoach just beams in every scene she has with Rob Mayes as her father, and she also has wonderful chemistry with Kristoffer Polaha as Mac. It is truly an outstanding performance.
Polaha himself also gives a wonderful performance, always supportive of Gentry, obviously still carrying a flame for her after all these years, willing to stay with her in 1995 if need be, despite the questions his family would have about his disappearance. He also gets a really nice moment when he visits his grandmother’s flower shop in Nashville, seeing the younger version of her … and himself (though the encounter did not break any temporal laws that insist you cannot meet yourself when time traveling … though he was probably tempted to tell young Mac to go after Gentry), the expression on his face showing how much he loves and values his family. His chemistry with DeLoach is unquestionable, and the two finally realizing that this is now the time they were meant to pursue a relationship is totally rewarding. Sharon Lawrence is terrific as present day Rita, with her hair all teased out, showing a genuine love for Gentry and all things Opry. We may have become accustomed to seeing Lawrence play more of a villainous character of late, but here she is all about love. Eliza Maher is also wonderful as 1995 Rita, also with her hair all teased out, but still the same loving character who values family, both her own and the Opry family. I say this with the highest of compliments — Maher gave me some serious Jan Hooks vibes as Rita, in her look and performance. James Denton only appears at the beginning and end of the film, but he seems to know Gentry’s secret as he continually presses her about writing music again, but he manages to do it in such a way that it doesn’t become obvious until his last scene with her.
Hallmark Channel
Rob Mayes and Luke Benward are so good as 1995 Jett and Von, respectively. As we first saw Von in the present, Denton does not give away anything about the relationship of his character with Jett. Benward gets to flesh out the relationship, showing that Von was the career-driven one, more interested in fame and fortune than Jett, willing to take a different path to bolster their career after a couple of less-successful albums, seemingly unconcerned about stepping on Jett’s toes when their manager brings up the subject of hiring new writers to give them some more commercially viable songs, basically telling Jett that maybe he just doesn’t have the touch anymore. Benward makes Von just this side of ruthless to the point that it would have been nice to let Gentry have one scene with him in the present asking why he put his own career over that of the duo and her family. Rob Mayes gives Jett a real down home persona, and while he enjoys performing with his partner, he is clearly more a family man and his emotions are palpable when he’s given an ultimatum to put aside his holiday plans with his family or turn Von into a solo act. His scenes with DeLoach also feel so genuine, they have a connection even though Jett doesn’t know this is his grown daughter, and the scene where they complete the song is just filled with warmth and love.
The entire cast makes this unbelievable fantasy totally realistic, offering some laughs and tugging at your heartstrings from the moment Gentry sees her father. From beginning to end, A Grand Ole Opry Christmas shows that Opry magic and Christmas magic do indeed create a powerful force, and that force has given us a very special, magical holiday movie where the romance takes a back seat to family.
A Grand Ole Opry Christmas has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, is rated TV-G. An extended version running 1 hour 34 minutes is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – A Grand Ole Opry Christmas
Hallmark Channel
Listen to songs featured in A Grand Ole Opry Christmas – Leave the Christmas Lights on For Me by Brad Paisley, She’s Somebody’s Daughter by Drew Baldridge, The Christmas Yodel by Riders in the Sky, Mistletoe Tipsy by Tigirlily Gold, You are My Christmas (featuring Randy Parton) by Dolly Parton, It’s Finally Christmas by Tyler Hilton, Falling Just Like the Snow by Brad Paisley, All I Want for Christmas is a Cowboy by Megan Moroney and Christmas Without You by Kaylin Roberson