HALLMARK

Some people who get cards this holiday season will need a smart phone to see what's inside. Hallmark is selling video greetings that make it easy to send montages of personalized videos.

As an aging millennial who has the privilege of living with my parents while I save up to buy a house in this crazy housing market, I’ve noticed something about my parents that I had no clue about, previously: They’re obsessed with Hallmark Christmas movies.

Companies like Hallmark, Lifetime, AMC and more have a whole new slate of holiday themed films just in time for the season.

Companies like Hallmark, Lifetime, AMC and more have a whole new slate of holiday themed films just in time for the season.

Get your peppermint schnapps and hot cocoa ready, because Hallmark officially kicks off its annual Countdown to Christmas on Friday.

Dozens of new holiday movies are on the way. Here's a guide on how to stream them all live.

Sign & Send will allow customers to send physical cards signed in their own handwriting from their phones.

A sale sign is displayed near the entrance of a Hallmark store Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. Retail sales fell for a third straight month, as a surge in virus cases kept people away from stores and restaurants during the holiday shopping season. The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday that retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in December from the month before, a decline Wall Street analysts weren't expecting. The Commerce Department said sales even fell online, down nearly 6% after rising 19% for the year. At restaurants and bars, sales fell 4.5% in December as states restricted in-person dining, ending the year down 21%. The nation’s largest retail trade group said that when car, restaurant and gas sales are taken out, and when non-seasonably adjusted numbers are compared from a year ago instead of month to month, sales in November and December actually rose 8.3% from the year before.

BOSTON – Just like a real-life movie, the story of Buddy the Elf meeting his biological father has come to life, just in time for the holidays. Doug Henning wore a costume like the one actor Will Ferrell’s character wore in “Elf” while meeting his father face to face for the first time last week at Boston's Logan Airport. He even broke into the same awkward song from the 2003 movie — sample lyrics: “I’m here, with my dad. Just like the movie, the father didn't know about his son. The two met on Zoom and Henning's dad was able to fly to Boston for Thanksgiving.

Scottish poet Alexander Smith once said, “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.” And, thanks to Lifetime, it may very well be the day that holds all people together. The network, a long-time competitor of holiday movie maven Hallmark, has emerged with an exciting (and somewhat unexpected) Christmas miracle—its first LGBTQ holiday movie. Indeed, just months after its rival announced its plans to include LGBTQ-friendly storylines in its holiday program, Lifetime announced in early September that it would be creating an LGBTQ-centered film, titled “The Christmas Setup,” as part of its extensive efforts to uphold diversity and inclusion in its program. To be sure, the network’s up-and-coming LGBTQ narrative will be an empowering step in the right direction—a tender, progressive rendition of modern love. As Winter expressed in her statement last week, “[t]he world we create on camera should reflect the world we live in.” Love (and Christmas) is in the air!

On Sunday night, Hallmark apologized for pulling ads of same-sex couples from wedding website Zola, after previously telling the company that a lesbian couple's public display of affection violated its policies. Now Hallmark has the chance to show the world that it's being authentic and not just caving to its attackers. Zola ad of same-sex marriage. But Hallmark has publicly said it's exploring including same-sex couples in content it releases. One Million Moms has been putting brands and publishers on blast for years for promoting or running ads on content it doesn't see as appropriate.

A Hallmark spokesperson said the lesbian couple's public display of affection violated its policies. However, while Hallmark cut the ads with same-sex weddings, the network continued to air two other Zola ads that didn't include lesbian couples. Wedding website Zola will no longer run advertisements on the Hallmark Channel after the network removed four commercials that featured two brides kissing each other. A Hallmark spokesperson said that Crown Media Family Networks, the channel's parent company, made the decision to pull the commercials. The original complaint to Hallmark from One Million Moms stated: "Please reconsider airing commercials with same-sex couples, and please do not add LGBT movies to the Hallmark Channel.

In an interview, she added: "The Hallmark brand is never going to be divisive. We don't want to generate controversy, we've tried very hard to stay out of it ... we just felt it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy."

(CNN) - If you can somehow erase Elisabeth Moss in "The Handmaid's Tale" from your mind, she wants us to imagine her in a much lighter role. A role, say, as a Hallmark Channel heroine who saves some small-town bookstore form shutting down just in time for Christmas. "[I downloaded the app] for Christmas last year, because I needed a way to watch Hallmark Christmas movies," she said. "I needed a way to access all my Christmas movies, because I love Hallmark Christmas movies and I watch as many of them as possible." "I actually would love to do a Hallmark Christmas movie!"

(CNN) - Hallmark established Friendship Day in 1919 as the first Sunday in August. Psychologists speak about different levels of friendships: best friends, close friends, casual friends and acquaintances (we can have a million of the latter, Degges-White says). Don't hoard your friends: Don't be afraid to introduce your friends to each other. Be OK with disagreement: Our friends don't have to think exactly like we think. "If you're not feeding your social needs through companionship, you're going to feed those needs in other unhealthy ways."