Hallmark’s Jingle Stop Tour makes its first 2026 stop on Wednesday, October 14, at Little Green Apple, a Hallmark Gold Crown Store at 9 W. Rand Road in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Jonathan Bennett, Erin Cahill, James Denton, Sarah Drew and Peter Mooney will meet fans from 2 to 4 p.m., two days before Countdown to Christmas begins on Friday, October 16.
Hallmark announced the stop on Facebook on Thursday. When the network released its full 34-movie schedule in September, it named Chicago, Orlando and Asheville as tour cities and left out the dates and venues. Chicago is the first city with both. The post says nothing about tickets, wristbands or a purchase requirement, so call the store before you make the drive. Arlington Heights sits about 25 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, and the event falls on a Wednesday afternoon, so plan for traffic and time away from work.
Chicago is on the tour because of Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story, which premieres Saturday, October 17, at 8 p.m. ET. It is the second movie of the season, following ’Tis the Season for Setups on Friday night. The movie’s leads, Lyndsy Fonseca and Robert Buckley, are not on the Arlington Heights list, and none of the five stars who are coming appear in the Bears movie.
We would still make the trip, because every one of these stars has a holiday project on Hallmark this year. Cahill stars with Andrew Walker in Christmas in Blue Dog Valley on November 21. Denton plays the dad at the center of A Season of Promises on November 8. Bennett leads Save the Date for Christmas on December 20 and co-hosts The Hallmark Christmas Experience: A Hometown Holiday on December 5. Drew and Mooney return for season 3 of Mistletoe Murders on November 5. We interviewed Erin Cahill for Christmas at Sea and found her highly engaging and a wonderful person. We would expect the same for anyone who meets her on Wednesday.
The Chicago venue changes our Orlando prediction. On September 17 we wrote that the Orlando stop would likely land at Disney Springs, because each tour city matches a filming location and Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True was shot at Walt Disney World. The cities still match. The venues do not. The Bears movie filmed at Soldier Field, and Hallmark picked a suburban Gold Crown Store for the meet-and-greet. Hallmark’s own announcement says the stops happen at Gold Crown Stores in all three cities, and it calls its Disney Springs shop a holiday pop-up. We were at the pop-up’s opening on October 7, and you can see it in the video below. We now expect the Orlando meet-and-greet at one of the area’s Gold Crown Stores instead.
Hallmark has not announced dates for Orlando or Asheville. Holiday Ever After premieres November 28 and A Grand Biltmore Christmas premieres December 5. If Hallmark follows the Chicago timing, each stop would fall a few days before its movie. We will update our Hallmark Channel hub when Hallmark names the Orlando store and date.
