Hallmark is putting Amy Groening’s Adopting St. Nick in the center of its Halloween night schedule. The movie premieres Saturday, October 31, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel, then streams the next day on Hallmark+.
That timing is why the title is landing now. Adopting St. Nick is one of three new original movies in Hallmark’s week-three Countdown to Christmas 2026 rollout, part of a slate that includes 34 original movies this year. On Friday, October 30, Who’s Coming for Christmas? opens the weekend, and A Danish Christmas follows on Sunday, November 1, both at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.
Groening plays Maren, a single mom who runs her late father’s hardware store. In the story, Maren signs her adopted daughter Leah, played by Taylor Blake, up for a Christmas Companions program at a retirement community, where Leah is paired with Kris, a resident who looks a lot like Santa and is played by Randy Apostle. Michael Rady plays Reid, the community’s operations director, and the film sets up a choice point for both of them: Maren steps in to help finish the community room after the contractor backs out, while Reid weighs a job offer that could take him away.
That is the part that gives the movie its pull. The holiday setup is familiar, but the practical problem is not decorative. Maren is not just passing through the community room story; she is the one keeping it moving when the work stalls, while Reid’s decision hangs over the project and the relationships built around it.
For viewers, the answer is simple: Adopting St. Nick arrives on Halloween night, and the next day it is available on Hallmark+. The larger question is whether Maren, Leah and Reid can hold the community room project together long enough for the rest of the story to land.
