Make-A-Wish, Hallmark and Disney granted a young Hallmark superfan’s wish to be in a movie by putting her in Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, the Hallmark Channel movie premiering Saturday, November 28. Disney Parks shared a behind-the-scenes video on November 9 of her day on set at Walt Disney World, where she met the stars, worked with the director and filmed a scene as an extra.
“I’m Ceci, and my wish is to be in a movie,” she says at the start of the video. Disney Parks summed it up in its post: “a movie about a wish became a wish about a movie.” Her day started in hair and makeup, then wardrobe, where she was decked out in the latest Disney Christmas merch, from a holiday Mickey tee to Minnie ears with a red bow.
Then came the surprise. On set, Ceci met the movie’s stars, Lacey Chabert and Travis Van Winkle, and hugged them both. “It’s very cool seeing them like in real life,” she said. You can see who they play in our Holiday Ever After cast guide.
She was not just there to watch. Ceci worked side by side with director Ryan Landels behind the monitors, got her own director’s chair and called action herself. “I got to say action, was really cool,” she said. Then she and her mom, a fellow Hallmark superfan, stepped in front of the camera as extras in what Disney calls one of the movie’s biggest scenes. The footage appears to be shot in the lobby of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, with its carved tiki and Christmas trees in the background, so look for Ceci and her mom there on premiere night.
“I felt like I was just gonna have like fun in the movie, but now I get to have like fun outside the movie, and it being Disney is just like 10 times cooler,” Ceci said.
The video is part of Disney’s Make the Holidays Magic campaign, which launched November 9 with Make-A-Wish as one of its partners. Fans who want to meet the stars themselves can catch Chabert and Van Winkle at Ryan’s Hallmark near Disney World on November 19.
Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True premieres Saturday, November 28 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel and streams the next day on Hallmark+. Follow every premiere on our Countdown to Christmas hub.
