Winter Wonderlanes, the new Hallmark Channel Christmas movie starring Ashley Newbrough and Franco Lo Presti, premieres tonight, Friday, October 23, at 8 p.m. ET to open week two of Countdown to Christmas 2026. It streams tomorrow on Hallmark+, and it trades the usual bakery or cozy lodge for a family bowling alley.
Week two of Countdown to Christmas is here, and this time we are going bowling. That’s right. Instead of a bed and breakfast, a cozy lodge or a sweet bakery, Winter Wonderlanes takes us to a beloved community bowling alley. It is the first of three new movies this weekend on Hallmark’s 34-movie Countdown to Christmas schedule, followed by Forgotten Holiday on Saturday and What If Christmas, starring Lori Loughlin and Tom Cavanagh, on Sunday.
Newbrough plays Audrey Bell, a globe-trotting pop-up restaurant owner who comes home for Thanksgiving and learns that her late grandfather’s bowling alley, Wonderlanes, is going to be sold. She agrees to stay for one last holiday season and decides to bring back the alley’s Winter Wonderlanes youth bowling tournament.
To get the word out, she reluctantly teams up with Jason Miller, played by Lo Presti, a local news reporter who also happens to be her high school boyfriend. The more time they spend working side by side, the more the old feelings come back. As the tournament gets closer, Audrey has to decide whether her next move will take her away from the people and places she loves, or whether it is time to put down roots at Wonderlanes for good.
Our Take on Winter Wonderlanes
Winter Wonderlanes mixes lighthearted fun, second-chance chemistry and small-town holiday warmth. The old flame coming back, the miscommunications and the last-minute push to save the bowling alley make this a familiar story. The bowling alley is what makes it feel new, and it is a fun change of scenery for Countdown to Christmas.
Newbrough and Lo Presti have easy chemistry, and there is a reason for that. The two already played a couple in Lifetime’s A Christmas Cookbook last year. Newbrough is a familiar face to Hallmark Christmas fans from movies like Small Town Christmas and Christmas for Keeps. This is Lo Presti’s first Countdown to Christmas movie, though Hallmark fans may remember him from 14 Love Letters. Nicole Amber Farrugia plays Hadley, and Michael Gordin Shore also stars.
Max McGuire directed Winter Wonderlanes. He has a long list of holiday TV movies, and he also directed Eight Nights for Love, the Hanukkah movie starring Hunter King and Dan Jeannotte, coming later this season. Alan Donahue wrote the story, his third Hallmark movie, and Barbara Kymlicka wrote the teleplay.
Winter Wonderlanes premieres Friday, October 23, at 8 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. CT on Hallmark Channel, and it streams the next day on Hallmark+.
Missed week one? Catch up with our Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story review and our Mr. & Mrs. Christmas review, then see how the first weekend went in Teaching My Husband to Love Hallmark Christmas Movies.
