Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story
Da Bears
After 2024’s Chiefs Love Story and 2025’s Bills Love Story successes, the NFL-Hallmark collab is back in 2026. This time, the Chicago Bears fandom takes centre stage in a movie that takes place in the leadup to Christmas but isn’t really a “Christmas movie.” That’s not uncommon for many of the movies in the annual Countdown.
Like its predecessors before it, Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story uses a lot of vintage footage mixed with period settings, but with the bulk of the story taking place in the present day. In this iteration, the plot centres around a long-time fan, Darlene Donnelly, in the leadup to her 500th Chicago Bears game.
Side note – I (read: Google) did the math. We know her first ever game was at Soldier Field, and the Bears only moved there in 1971. Assuming she attended every home game (regular season and playoffs) with the remainder as away games, she would have attended 454 home games and 46 away games between 1971 and 2026. In short, the math checks out.
Avery is a freelance reporter tasked with telling Darlene’s story, and wouldn’t you know it, the superfan has a dashing grandson, Matt, to assist. Sure, some of the classic tropes are thrown in for good measure – a cookie making montage, a Christmas market… But with the Touchdown movies there are always extra Hallstar appearances and cameos from the titular team’s roster of legends and current lineup. Robert Buckley and Lyndsy Fonseca are really climbing my list of favourite Hallstars these days.
So it’s a bit of a love letter to Chicago, the Bears, and their enduring fans. But darned if I didn’t shed a tear (ok, a few tears) at the end. Sometimes these movies just sneak right up on you, and that’s just fine.
