Forgotten Holiday, the new Hallmark Channel Christmas movie starring Janel Parrish and Daniel Lissing, premieres tonight, Saturday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET during week two of Countdown to Christmas 2026, and it streams tomorrow on Hallmark+. It is an instant classic, and it gives a couple the rare chance to fall in love all over again.
Imagine forgetting the last year of your life, including the woman you love, and getting to date her all over again. That is what happens to Rob and Kathryn. Forgotten Holiday is the second new movie of the weekend, following Winter Wonderlanes on Friday and ahead of What If Christmas, starring Lori Loughlin and Tom Cavanagh, on Sunday.
What Forgotten Holiday Is About
Parrish plays Kathryn Liu, an antiques buyer for her father’s store who has been happily dating Rob Ashford, played by Lissing, for almost a year. When Rob surprises her with a proposal before Christmas, her fear of a failed relationship sends her running without giving him an answer.
Heartbroken, Rob heads to his sister’s house and is in a car accident that wipes out his memories of the past year. That includes Kathryn and his love of Christmas. His doctor has an unusual idea, and Kathryn agrees to help bring his memory back by retracing their romance and reintroducing him to the holidays. As Rob gets closer to remembering, Kathryn has to face the chance that bringing him back to himself could mean losing him for good, unless she finds the courage to fight for the love she was too afraid to claim.
Forgotten Holiday is an instant classic Countdown to Christmas movie. Parrish and Lissing bring warmth, heart and fun, and as a fan, I hung on every moment of this love story.
Hallmark is no stranger to amnesia movies, but this one lands differently because Rob and Kathryn are already a couple. Kathryn ran from his proposal, but she already loved him. You get to watch the two of them rediscover each other and fall in love again.
Hallmark fans know Parrish, the Pretty Little Liars star, from Holly & Ivy and Coyote Creek Christmas. Lissing will always be Mountie Jack Thornton to When Calls the Heart fans, and he was on Hallmark Channel this summer in Christmas Under Construction. Gabrielle Rose, Steve Makaj and Jen Oleksiuk also star.
The set design, costumes and music set this movie apart. The music grabbed me from the first beat. There is a lot of swing and big band music, which is a favorite of mine.
The attention to detail is second to none. In one small moment, Rob’s father blows a kiss to his mom, and she catches it and holds it over her heart. It is a little moment, and it stuck with me. Rob and Kathryn also bond over an old jukebox, and that one hit home. My own love story started around a jukebox.
Jessica Harmon directed Forgotten Holiday from a script by Lee Friedlander and Tracy Andreen, and all three women are Hallmark veterans. Hallmark fans know Harmon from movies like the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, and she co-directed Tipline Mysteries: Dial 1 for Murder. Andreen has worked on more than two dozen Hallmark movies. Friedlander, who is also an executive producer on Forgotten Holiday, teamed up with Andreen years ago on the Hallmark favorite Snow Bride.
Forgotten Holiday premieres Saturday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. CT on Hallmark Channel, and it streams the next day on Hallmark+. Every Hallmark fan should watch this one. We think it is going to be a fan favorite.
Catch up on our Winter Wonderlanes review and our Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story review.
