Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story (2025)
A serendipitous game
Following on the success of 2024’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which itself capitalized on the Taylor Swift - Travis Kelce attention focused on the Kansas City Chiefs, this year Hallmark took aim at the Buffalo Bills fandom mafia to set a story of holiday romance.
Riddled with Hallstar cameos and throwbacks to its predecessor - Andrew Walker as a bartender; Tyler Hynes and Joey King reprising their KC roles to name a few. And some non-Hallmark stars in Joe Pantoliano and Steve Schirripa (The Sopranos), this was a something of a love letter to another intense fandom of a team whose QB is also married to an entertainer. Plus a Hallmark movie title on the movie theatre marquee for good measure. Oh, and a whack of cameos by real(?) and former(?) Bills players. I know nothing about the Bills so I’m going to assume that’s who it was. Sorry, mafia.
This movie took some solid inspiration from Serendipity (is this a Christmas movie? Some say yes. I’m not convinced.) down to the almost fruitless search through decades of old receipts in search of a mysterious name. In this case, it was the search for a long-time “secret Santa” benefactor who stepped up to help the family when the breadwinner went off to war, then carried on their efforts for decades afterwards.
As to the love story, you ask? Of course this plays a central role, and it is blatantly obvious exactly how it’s going to play out from a few minutes into it. Unlike the KC movie which had strangers falling in love, this one was focused on two longtime friends who finally realize their feelings for each other.
While not as immediately engaging as the KC movie, this was pretty entertaining as these things go. Not overly twee and with some solid Christmassy elements thrown in. A decent Saturday afternoon watch for the Countdown to Christmas.
You’ll like this if…
You like the Bills. And Hallmark’s standard fare.
