The original movie My Grown-Up Christmas List will premiere during Hallmark’s Christmas in July 2022 lineup. Starring real-life couple and When Calls the Heart co-stars Kayla Wallace and Kevin McGarry, it is the first of three new Christmas movies to debut this month on Hallmark.
My Grown-Up Christmas List is based on a song written by Amy Grant and David Foster. In the movie, Wallace plays a journalist Taylor Nichols and McGarry plays Luke Malone, who is in the military. According to a synopsis from the network, the movie follows “the special bond that grows between them over the course of several Christmases spent together and apart.”
Christmas in July 2022
This is the second movie that Wallace and McGarry have starred in together. In March, the pair headlined the romantic comedy Feeling Butterflies. Wallace played Emily, a lepidopterist (the scientific name for a butterfly expert) trying to build a business that releases butterflies at birthday parties and weddings.
“Which is an actual, popular thing,” Wallace said during an appearance on the Everything About Hallmark podcast. “I had no idea.”
She is hired to do a release at a birthday party for a little girl named Amanda (played by Alyssa Gervasi). Emily connects with both the birthday girl and her handsome, widowed father, Garrett (played by McGarry).
Through Garrett’s connections, she gets the opportunity to do a release at a socialite’s wedding, an event that could bring her business the publicity it desperately needs. Garrett and Amanda agree to help her get ready, and as Garrett and Emily spend more time together, she develops feelings for him. Things become complicated when Garrett’s ex-girlfriend shows up, and Garrett contemplates moving to New York City.
About the stars
A native of Canada, Wallace got her break on the Disney TV movie Descendants as a member of the chorus. She had parts on the TV shows Ice, The Good Doctor, and Breckman Rodeo. Wallace also starred in the TV movies Once Upon a Prince, Terrified at 17, and Undercover Cheerleader. She joined the cast of Hallmark’s hit series When Calls the Heart in 2019, playing Fiona Miller.
McGarry is also a native of Canada. He played Mitch Cutty on the series Heartland from 2015 to 2021. He also had parts in the Hallmark movies Love at First Bark, Autumn Stables, and Winter Castle. He joined the cast of When Calls the Heart in 2019 as Mountie Nathan Grant.
The pair have recently been sharing photos from a trip to Italy on social media, where they have been joined by co-stars Erin Krakow and Ben Rosenbaum. She posted a photo when the cast got the news that When Calls the Heart had been renewed for a 10th season.
“News just reached Italy🇮🇹 Mamma Mia! Here we go again!” she wrote on Instagram.