Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas is finally here.
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| Jessica Lowndes and Michael Rady get in the holiday spirit in Hallmark’s “Christmas at Pemberley Manor. Photo: Crown Media / Robert Clark |
By Rachael Ellenbogen, International Business Times
Get ready to receive Hallmark Channel’s annual gift of new Christmas movies because the first premiere is finally here.
Jessica Lowndes and Michael Rady star in the first Countdown to Christmas 2018 flick, “Christmas at Pemberley Manor.” When the holiday film debuts Saturday night, it’ll be the first time the CW alums have worked together, but it most definitely won’t be the first Hallmark movie for either one.
The “90210” actress made her network debut with 2015’s “Merry Matrimony” and has been in three additional Hallmark movies since, making this her fifth in total. As for Rady, who starred on The CW’s “Melrose Place, and other shows on the network, this will be his fourth Hallmark movie. Keep reading to find out what “Christmas at Pemberley Manor” is all about.
“As Christmas approaches, Elizabeth Bennett (Lowndes), a spunky New York event planner, is asked to organize a holiday festival in a small, quaint Connecticut town where her friend, George Wickham (Cole Gleason), resides as the current mayor,” the synopsis begins. “Meanwhile, William Darcy (Rady), a wealthy New York business tycoon lacking in Christmas spirit, travels to there hoping to finalize the sale of his late uncle’s charming estate, Pemberley Manor. When she arrives in town, Elizabeth, unaware George has had a crush on her since their college days, meets with him, sharing her plans to provide the community with an over-the-top holiday festival in the town square.”
Unfortunately, due to a water main break, Elizabeth needs to find a new home for the festival. When she learns that Pemberley Manor used to be a cheerful place around the holidays, she suggests it as the new location for the event. When she heads to the estate to meet Darcy and ask him about it, he refuses to let her use the place because he’s working on selling it.
“Determined to make her event a success, Elizabeth soon persuades the reluctant billionaire to let her hold the festival on the property,” the synopsis continues. “Assembling a crew of local volunteers…Elizabeth goes to work decorating the grounds. Before long, as he recalls childhood memories of holidays at the estate, Darcy’s all-business demeanor begins to wane and he feels the Christmas spirit — and an attraction to Elizabeth — wash over him.”
As the two work side-by-side to put together the festival, Elizabeth begins to fall for Darc, as well. All is going well until a “compromising photo” of them shows up in a newspaper and her boss demands that she come back to New York. Things only start to go downhill from there, when the event is not only shut down the day before Christmas, but Darcy mistakenly starts to think that Elizabeth and George are romantically involved and prepares to sell the manor again.
“On the night before Christmas, Elizabeth wishes for a way to save the festival, stop Pemberley Manor from being sold and revive her holiday romance,” the synopsis shares. “With a little help from Kristofer (Steve Larkin), whose resemblance to Santa might be more than coincidental, the young event planner just might receive the Christmas miracle she’s hoping for.”
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