Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Introduces The Christmas Secret

One Tree Hill alum Bethany Joy Lenz stars in the latest holiday movie on the newly crowned Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel The Christmas Secret as Christine Eisley, a recently divorced mom of two who lives in the charming, small town of Wilsonville where she works as a waitress. Unfortunately, because of her wayward ex-husband Brad (Greyston Holt from Bitten) [who isn’t paying her child support], she doesn’t have enough money to make ends meet and is on the verge of being evicted.

One fateful morning, as Christine is taking her kids – 6-year old daughter Haley (Jaeda Lily Miller) and 8-year old Zach (William Ainscough) – to school, they witness a car accident involving town storekeeper Judy Wilson (Susan Hogan from the made-for-TV movie A Very Merry Mix-Up). Christine jumps into action, getting Judy out of the car and performing CPR, but in the process her beloved star-shaped locket falls off, landing inside Judy’s jacket.

This incident makes Christine late for work (something that has happened before) and her uncaring boss fires her despite her explanation about stopping to help with the accident. That isn’t the worst of it, though, as Christine is then approached by a representative from Children’s Services because her ex-husband has petitioned the court for custody of their kids. Her luck improves shortly thereafter when she wanders into Betty’s Bakery and lands a job thanks to the owner Betty (Nicola Cavendish from the box office film Air Bud).

Meanwhile, Judy’s husband Marshall (Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica) and grandson Jason (John Reardon from Continuum and When Calls the Heart) arrive at the hospital to see that she is doing okay despite suffering a heart attack. Judy tells them both that she needs to find the young woman who saved her life, and she tasks Jason with finding her.

This leads to an unusual hunt on Jason’s part as he tries to track down Christine even though he has already meet her at Betty’s [insert convenient case of mistaken identity] and Christine frantically searches for her lost locket, which leads to an even bigger discovery about her past.

The Christmas Secret is a touching movie that fits perfectly with the typical holiday movies done by the Hallmark Channel but, of course, airs on the sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on Sunday, December 7 at 9/8c.