D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event has added a new panel for Sunday, August 16, called Hallmark & Disney Magic: Our Creative Partnership, and it is exactly the crossover Fantasy Land News has been chasing for a year now.
The panel promises a behind-the-scenes look at the creative collaboration between Hallmark and Disney, starting with Walt Disney and J.C. Hall’s shared beginnings in Kansas City and moving through the artistry behind the fan-favorite products that have come out of the partnership since. Disney and Hallmark have been connected for decades through ornaments, cards, and collectibles, but a dedicated D23 panel putting that history and partnership on stage is new territory, and it lands right in the middle of a year where the two brands have gotten closer than ever.
Why This Fits Everything We Have Been Covering – We started building the bridge between Hallmark fans and Disney fans back when Fantasy Land News launched, and this panel is the clearest sign yet that Disney and Hallmark see the same overlap we do. Our Hallmark Channel hub has tracked the ornaments, the merch, and the movie news as it happened, and a panel like this is the kind of validation that keeps us covering both sides of that overlap.
The timing lines up with the biggest Hallmark and Disney Parks story of the year. Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, the first original movie Hallmark Channel and Walt Disney World have ever produced together, premieres this fall during Hallmark’s 17th annual Countdown to Christmas. We reported on the announcement back in December, covered the official poster reveal with Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle in front of Cinderella Castle, and brought you the first trailer when it dropped this month. The film was shot on location at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, and the merch tie-in has grown into one of the biggest crossover collections we have ever tracked, from the Cinderella Castle tree topper to the cards and gift wrap collection that just landed.
A panel built around the history of Walt Disney and J.C. Hall’s partnership feels like the natural next step for a collaboration that started with ornaments and has grown into an entire original movie. If Disney and Hallmark are willing to trace that relationship on a D23 stage, it tells us this partnership is not slowing down after Holiday Ever After premieres.
Fantasy Land News will be at D23 2026 in Anaheim from August 14 through 16, covering every panel, including this one.
