Cover Story
An entire generation of television watchers know Danica McKellar as one of the stars of the 1980s television show The Wonder Years. Her portrayal of young Winnie Cooper was delicate and heartwarming and one of the main reasons the Emmy Award-winning show is still beloved. Now McKellar is beloved for another kind of role, as she’s become one of the most popular leading ladies in the ever-popular Christmas movie genre. She says that these roles- first on the Hallmark Channel, and now on the faith-based Great American Family television network- are what gives her particular joy. They represent, she said, the kind of behavior model she wants to set and the kind of entertainment programming there needs to be more of today.
A Cinderella Christmas Ball. McKellar stars in a new Christmas movie to premiere on Black Friday (November 29, 2024) called A Cinderella Christmas Ball. In the movie, McKellar plays Chelsea Jones, a dance instructor from Chicago who travels to a fictional European country to learn more about her long-lost birth parents. While there, she has to teach a stubborn prince (played by Oliver Rice) to dance in preparation for a royal ball designed to help him find a wife. “It’s the story of a woman who is trying to find her biological father, and she has a heart for foster kids,” McKellar said. “She finds a clue before Christmas about her father, and it takes her to Havenshire. The search isn’t going well so she gets a job as a dance teacher to help this very reluctant prince. And he helps me on this emotional journey to find my father while helping me learn to dance.” Over the years, McKellar starred in 18 movies for the Hallmark Channel. She’s played the main character in Christmas movies, but also mysteries and romantic comedies. The movies have always been inspiring, but now the movies she stars in are even more faith centric. “I’ve been associated with wholesome television since I was a kid,” she said. “It started on ‘The Wonder Years,’ and that’s what feels best. I’ve played roles that don’t show human nature in the best light, and I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to lift people up.” McKellar said she was in her 30s when she asked herself what sort of stories she wanted to tell through her acting. “What do I want to spend time doing? What kind of stories do I want to put in people’s living rooms?” she asked herself. “It’s so rewarding to have roles that model good behavior.” McKellar, who has authored numerous educational math books for kids and teenagers (she took a break from acting and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics), served as a writer on her latest Christmas movie and is looking toward writing more in the future. “I write educational books for kids, making math fun, and have written high school geometry textbooks,” she said. “But I’ve also been an actress forever, read a billion scripts, and have ideas for movies with more faith involved.”
The Wonder of Christmas Movies. McKellar said that she appreciates how much people love Christmas movies; in fact, they’ve become an important holiday tradition for many. “People love the cozy Christmas movies, the cozy rom-coms, the cozy mysteries,” she said. “People talk about how they’re an escape. The world gets crazier and more divided all the time, so they do offer an escape. But I think these movies do even more than provide an escape.” She said that the movies model a certain kind of behavior and show what human nature can be. “They show what’s possible when you want to do the right thing,” she said. “Yes, you have struggles, but you want to do it the right way and do the right thing. These are standards that mostly we don’t get to see on TV.” According to Bill Abbott, the President and CEO of Great America Media (home to the Great American Family Network and other family-friendly entertainment brands), his company focuses on Christmas “as it’s meant to be.” The former Hallmark Channel executive who has been instrumental in creating the fastest growing network on television over the last year said that Great American Family’s Christmas movies recognize that the true celebration of the season is the birth of Christ. “We know that the focus of the season is religious. It’s not commercial, but thoughtful and thought provoking,” Abbott said. “We’re not going to run away from faith. We’re unabashed and proud of faith, family, and country.” He said that fans of such Christmas movies are passionate, and they’ve helped make the network and streaming service extremely successful. “We’re proud to now be a big part of creating Christmas movies,” he said. “We have a rabid fan base that loves what we do.” Abbott credits Great American Family’s slate of celebrities as one reason that fans are drawn to its movies, television shows, and other programming. In addition to McKellar, the company features Candace Cameron Bure among other stars. “Candace, Danica, and our other celebrities are so ideal for what we represent. They are different from what else we see in Hollywood,” he said. “And it’s no surprise that many of them were childhood stars. There’s a nostalgia there, and they represent our brand really well.”
McKellar said that she’s thankful to work with Great American Family. “I love the movies, and I love the family,” she said. “It’s a dream.” McKellar worked with Abbott at Hallmark, and she credits him for reviving her career and for making her such a big part of the Christmas movie genre. While McKellar calls Abbott the “mind behind the Christmas movie phenomenon,” he himself said there were a number of people who deserve credit for the popular trend. He and others recognized that Christmas is all about tradition- whether it’s meeting with family, making cookies, ice skating, celebrating with music, and other common tropes of the genre–and holiday movies extend the tradition even further. “Christmas moves are a great way to embrace the season,” he said. At Great American Media- the home of Great American Family, Great American Faith, Great American Adventures, and Pure Flix- those movies are closely acquainted with faith. “There are so many ways to tell stories with faith in them,” McKellar said. “Some have faith on the side. Maybe we see that the character has faith, and they lean on it through the story. Or maybe they go through a faith journey. Whatever it is, I’m interested in stories that explore faith itself.”
Focus on Faith. For McKellar, faith has been a relatively new part of her life. “I’ve only been on my faith journey for about two and a half years,” she said. “I’m now on my second time reading through the Bible, and I used to have the impression that it was sort of long and boring and a list of rules. But it’s filled with all sorts of things, and it’s really fun to get into it.” McKellar, who has been married to her lawyer husband Scott Sveslosky since 2014 and homeschools her teenage son, said that she’s interested now in sharing her faith through her acting projects. She’s found herself watching many of Pure Flix’s faith-based programs and has been inspired to develop similar ideas for movies in the future. Abbott also credits his faith for all of his plans and priorities. He grew up in a Christian family with parents who instilled a mentality about the way you treat others. His father was in the military, so he learned early that faith, country, and character were of utmost importance. “I’m very blessed to do what I do,” he said, “and to focus on faith.”
Getting Ready for Christmas. Both McKellar and Abbott say they love the Christmas season and look forward to their upcoming Christmas projects, and the season in general. McKellar said she usually gets ready for Christmas even before Thanksgiving has arrived, and this year looks forward to the premiere of A Cinderella Christmas Ball. “I love that it will premiere on Black Friday,” she said, noting that she’ll be live-Tweeting during the movie. “For many people it’s the first acceptable day to start celebrating Christmas.” Abbott said that he loves the Christmas season, and he has excitement for the projects his company has in store for this year and beyond. “I’m a huge Christmas fan,” he said. “I’ve always loved the music, and the season, and the feeling of home.” This year, the network is hosting a Christmas Festival in New York City featuring meet-and-greets with its brand talent, movie screenings, Christmas experiences, a Santa village, and much more. And on the networks and online, Great American Media has 18 Christmas movies featured for 2024. At www.greatamericanfamily.com, visitors can find almost 100 Christmas programs in total. And the network is already getting ready for 2025, with plans for brand-new Christmas movies. “We’re always looking to elevate the quality of our content,” Abbott said. “We’ll focus on both faith and family, and we have some really high-quality movies coming next year.” With the Christmas season just around the corner, that’s good news for everyone who loves cozy stories with a message of faith.
-Cheryl Wray
