Day 3 of the ✨ 13 Days of Recommended Holiday Reality TV 🤵♂️
3. Finding Mr. Christmas
The holiday magic
Hallmark’s description ► “follow 10 promising Hallmark ‘hunks’ who live together and compete against one another for the lead role in an upcoming original holiday movie”
why I recommend it ► a campy and gay ol’ time
where to watch ►
free: The Roku Channel (season 1) | Hallmark Channel (season 2, Mondays at 8)
subscription: Hallmark+ | Amazon Prime Video (season 1)
Why you should watch
There are similarities to the festive competition Santas in the Barn (which sadly lasted just one season, despite my best efforts to get it renewed), as both take place in a fancifully decorated house.
But Finding Mr. Christmas is more like RuPaul’s Drag Race: Christmas Edition, and sweet baby Jesus is it amazing television.
There’s no runway or lip sync on Hallmark, but beyond that, they’re structural siblings. Both are competitions between performers, and just like Drag Race, Finding Mr. Christmas anchors each episode with an acting, improv, dancing, or photo shoot challenge.
Finding Mr. Christmas season two’s first episode’s mini challenge is a quick drag challenge: creating Santa costumes with hot glue guns, and then auditioning for the role of Santa in character.
Also queering the space is Finding Mr. Christmas host and co-creator Jonathan Bennett, the “Gay King of Christmas.”
His reactions are a big part of the Finding Mr. Christmas fun, whether it’s to a contestant opening his Santa suit to show off his abs or to a contestant flubbing his lines.
The show has enough of an undertone of seriousness—there's a real prize at the end—as a foundation, yet the comedy and corniness take the lead, kind of like in many Hallmark Christmas movies. It's not camp, but add your own commentary and it can be.
✨ 13 Days of Holiday Reality TV ✨
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