Less than a week after a nearly a dozen Hallmark Channel superstars gathered in Kansas City for the first weekend of the 2025 Hallmark Christmas Experience, fans will get to see inside the holiday extravaganza as longtime fan-favorite Benjamin Ayres hosts a one-hour special on December 6.
Filming “The Hallmark Christmas Experience: A Hometown Holiday Special,” was a total whirlwind, Ayres told EntertainmentNow, and an “even bigger” production than when he hosted the red carpet “Holiday Touchdown” premiere in 2024. But Ayres wouldn’t have it any other way and predicts fans will have a blast watching.
Benjamin Ayres Says He Loved Filming Hallmark Channel’s Christmas Show While Juggling His Other Appearances
The Hallmark Channel Christmas special, airing right after the premiere of “She’s Making a List,” will feature a star-studded lineup of guests, B.J. Britt, Robert Buckley, Paul Campbell, Taylor Cole, Rhiannon Fish, Tyler Hynes, Jessy Schram, Kimberley Sustad, Andrew Walker, and Jonathan Bennett, plus a “special announcement” from Lacey Chabert.
During the weekend after Thanksgiving, Ayres was one of the featured stars posing for photos with fans and appearing on live panels (including a hilarious segment during the Hallmark Dating Game). In between, he ran around filming segments with a production crew, which he quipped made him “feel like Ryan Seacrest.” It didn’t leave much time for hobnobbing with his Hallmark buddies, though.
He laughed, “Everybody was like, ‘We’re going out for dinner and drinks!’ And I’m like, ‘Um, I’m out in the square till midnight tonight, doing my thing!'”
But Ayres didn’t mind a bit and said he worked with “such a wonderful team” producing the show, explaining, “They worked so hard to get to the point where I could just roll in and say my lines. I was just watching them have to navigate the unpredictable nature of big crowds, sounds that are happening in the background, the weather, the location, the lights, all these things.”
Ayres, who most recently starred in “A Christmas Angel Match,” continued, “The team would go, ‘Okay, quick, let’s do something here! Let’s do something there!’ And we’d have a pretty good plan of what it was going to be, but then you’d have to work around the parameters of the chaos of everything going on around you. It’s kind of like making an indie movie, and that’s what’s so exciting about it. There were so many unpredictable things and personally, I quite enjoy and kind of thrive in creative chaos like that.”
Benjamin Ayres Teases What to Watch For in Hallmark Channel Special
EntertainmentNowThough Ayres’ first love is acting, he realized through the creation of his online Romance University community, which now includes Instagram Lives and in-person events, how much he also loves hosting.
“In any capacity, I just enjoy sort of dropping into that version of myself and, you know, connecting with the audience and kind of bringing them along for the ride,” he told EntertainmentNow. “There’s something really fun about that, and it’s just a different muscle (than acting).”
For the “Hallmark Christmas Experience” special, he said he loved creating little moments onscreen with the Hallmark family he’s part of, from having hot cocoa with fans to catching up with stars at the outdoor ice rink (can’t wait to see how they skate!). He also teased that there will be something sweet for Hearties, and also amazing music from country superstars Brad Paisley and Mickey Guyton, all leading up to the lighting of the enormous Christmas tree outside Hallmark’s headquarters.
“It was a wild weekend, but I think it turned out really beautiful and the fans are gonna love it,” Ayres said.
“The Hallmark Christmas Experience: A Hometown Holiday Special” premieres on December 6 at 9 p.m. Eastern time and will be available to stream on Hallmark+ the following day.
Watched this and it was great. So much comradery and love to all who attended. Was so much fun to see the actors just be themselves and have fun. No acting, just fun and being present with folks they don’t know. So many people, like myself get so lost in all the movies they make it’s just wonderful just to see them be.
Thanks for all that all of you do for the community of Hallmarks lovers.