Hallmark Christmas movies are a staple in many households during the holiday season.
They’re feel-good stories that transport you into wintry destinations (most of the time) and provide festive happy endings. What’s not to love? It’s why people like Lacey Chabert has starred in 40 Hallmark movies and why costume designer Keith Nielsen has worked on 10 Hallmark Christmas movies.
There’s something about a Hallmark movie that just brings you joy — and there’s something about the wardrobes that is both attainable and aspirational. We’re sure you find yourself watching these movies thinking, “I want that sweater … I bet I can find that sweater.” In many of these movies, that’s the work of Nielsen.
But have you ever wondered how some of the magic happens with the clothes in these Hallmark Christmas movies? Like how they film for Christmas in the summer? Or if clothes ever get reused? Nielsen breaks down all those secrets and more, exclusively for PEOPLE.
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There Isn’t a Traditional Wardrobe Warehouse
While many movie studios have wardrobe warehouses for storage, Nielsen says Hallmark doesn’t maintain such a thing. That means he doesn’t have a place to store wardrobe pieces between projects or pull from for his various movies. He does, however, have his own personal storage unit that he can use.
“There isn’t a Hallmark warehouse with all the clothes in it that everybody thinks there is,” he reveals. “So I’m sourcing all the time. I do keep basics [from project to project]. I love a great coat, but I can’t really reuse the great coats because they’re so obvious.”
Nielsen says he’s tried to “pare down” his personal storage unit to pieces that he knows he’ll be able to reuse, like tuxedos, jeans and neutral outwear because everything else is too specialized to be repurposed in future movies.
That being said …
Costumes Are Sometimes Reused
Nielsen has reused a couple very special pieces that weren’t basics.
“There’s a jacket in The Christmas Quest in the tree lot and it’s actually a ’50s coat that I featured in Holiday Spectacular. So it was kind of like a cool thing to use it not in a period setting,” Nielsen shares.
But that wasn’t the only costume nod from movie to movie! Nielsen also snuck another subtle hint in with Lyndsy Fonseca. The two worked together on Next Stop, Christmas, where Nielsen says he put her in a J.Crew coat that Meghan Markle made popular (prompting it to sell out immediately, of course).
“The backup coat for the movie was the same colors but a different pattern, so then I used that as an Easter egg when we did Where Are You, Christmas?” he says of the similar J.Crew coat he used in the other film. “It was a cute wink-wink from our other movie, but you wouldn’t really know.”
Nielsen Has Wardrobe Signatures
You can always tell if a Hallmark Christmas movie was helmed by Nielsen because he’ll drop in one of his signature bits of flair. For example, he believes every costume piece should be tailored beautifully.
“Very few people in the world are off the rack, and I tailor everything,” he says. “It’s like figuring out proportions on people. ‘So where do you want to cut the jean? Is it a high-rise jean or a mid-rise?’ That’s really looking at and being honest about people’s proportions of your short legs, long legs, long torso. Because if you have a short waist, you’re not necessarily going to look good in a high-rise jean, so you have to cut the body in a different way.”
His other signature is a matching glove moment.
“My biggest signature beyond tailoring is that I love doing a monochromatic glove that matches the jacket. I feel like that’s very Hallmarkian, as I call it.”
There’s an Outfit That’s ‘Most’ Hallmark
Even though not every Hallmark Christmas movie takes place in the U.S., the movies are inherently American with an all-American feel. Thus, Nielsen keeps the wardrobe as such. He shops at stores that will tell that story and says there’s one specific outfit throughout each film that is “specifically” Hallmark.
“I shop at quintessential Americana brands like J.Crew, Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic, because they’re very classic,” he says. “I also try to keep things classic and timeless. That way you can watch these in 10 years and it doesn’t look super dated.”
As for the classic Hallmark look?
“Across the board, your cozy, relaxed look is always going to be jeans and a sweater.”
It’s not just any denim, though. Nielsen says it should be a dark wash because it reads more winter. He also loves to add a pointed-toe black bootie with a heel and keep the colors of the sweaters rich where he can, because then they feel joyful.
Christmas Isn’t Always Obvious
While the movies all center on Christmas, Nielsen doesn’t necessarily want the wardrobe to be too on the nose with Christmas colors — so he cheats a bit.
“I love jewel tones instead,” he says. “There are different variations of jewel tones to play with and they read very winter. I love a deep purple and oxblood, which is kind of on the red spectrum,”
There’s Always a Red Coat
All of the Hallmark Christmas movies are going to have a statement piece, and it’s going to be a beautiful red coat, Nielsen says.
“You have to give the people what they want!” he says.
“There’s always just going to be a red coat moment,” he shares. “So one of my favorite red coats was the one Lacey [Chabert] wore in [A Merry Scottish Christmas] because it’s almost ’50s-esque and really classy.”
Many Costumes Get a New Life After the Movies Wrap
Because there’s no wardrobe warehouse and because Nielsen’s own personal storage unit has limited space, there’s a question of what happens to wardrobe pieces after movies wrap. There are a few different things that happen to wardrobe pieces that haven’t been rented, Nielsen explains.
“Certain things we keep for display, like some of the Holiday Touchdown stuff’s on display at the Hallmark Visitor Center,” he says. “Some of it just gets donated. Sometimes actors buy a bunch of stuff. I know Hunter [King] and Tyler [Hynes] bought some stuff [from Holiday Touchdown]. I say to the actors too, I’m like, ‘This is like, an $800 tuxedo that’s been tailored to you and I’m giving it to you at a severely discounted price, which also helps my budget.’ ”
Hynes, who recently starred in the Kansas City Chiefs-themed Holiday Touchdown movie, keeps “a lot” of his wardrobe pieces, Nielsen says, because they come in handy for fan appearances.
Nielsen Does 1 Fitting for a Very Important Reason
Hallmark Christmas movies are shot in an incredibly tight timeframe, Nielsen reveals, which means the wardrobe team has very — and we mean very — little time to pull everything together. For this reason, Nielsen chooses to do one big fitting with his actors ahead of filming, that way he’s not trying to cram it in during the shoot.
“It’s so fast,” he says. “And if you’re ahead on one day, they could pull a scene up so you have to be ready for everything, which is why I don’t do multiple fittings throughout the process. I do one mass of one in the beginning so I can understand the scope of everything visually.”
He also doesn’t want to run into a situation where he’s begging the actors to make time for him in their busy schedules.
“Imagine me texting Lacey, like ‘I know it’s the weekend, but can I come throw this dress on you while you’re half asleep? Thanks,’ ” he jokes.
Sometimes They Have to Cheat the Weather with the Costumes
Hallmark may specialize in releasing its movies for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean the movies are filmed in the winter. In fact, some of them have to be filmed in the blazing heat of summer.
Holiday Touchdown was filmed in summer 2024 in Kansas City, Mo., and Nielsen says it was miserably hot, which meant he had to get a little bit crafty with some of the wardrobe.
“We had ice vests. We actually bought a deep freezer for my truck just to put all the packs in,” he says of the lengths he went to to help keep the actors cool in the winter clothes they had to wear during filming. “But then your clothes are wet and then it’s hot. We lightened those loads as much as we could. I pulled stuffing out of jackets, but then you also don’t want to lose the structure of the jacket.”
He chose as many lightweight knits as he could and says that the actors would put the coats on at the last second before the cameras rolled. The stars also used clip fans to blow air into their shirts. Nielsen also cut sleeves off a lot of the shirts that were worn under coats to get rid of some of the layers.
On the flip side, Christmas Quest was filmed in Iceland, and Nielsen says it got dreadfully cold after the sun went down so they had to keep everyone warm during the later hours.
“We ended up buying heated vests or heated thermals,” Nielsen says. “Then you have to make sure those are charged so that they can turn them on. Those totally saved Lacey because she’s the tiniest human.”
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