Jonathan Bennett is considered a part of Hallmark Channels’ Christmas royalty but at home he’s a bit of a grinch. Still, he swears there’s a good reason for his lack of holiday spirit.
“I’m going to be honest, I don’t decorate for Christmas,” Bennett, 43, exclusively confessed to Us Weekly while promoting Hallmark+’s Finding Mr. Christmas.
The actor, who hosts the festive-themes reality competition series, explained that once the actual holiday hits he’s burnt out on all-things holly and jolly.
“By the time Christmas gets here [this year], I [will] have shot Finding Mr. Christmas, Christmas on Cherry Lane, a sequel to another Christmas movie I can’t talk about and a Christmas movie for next year,” Bennett revealed. “I’ve been covered in tinsel for six months out of the year!”
Jonathan Bennett Hallmark Media/Kim Nunneley
That much public holiday hoopla takes a toll, Bennet explained. “This year I’m just going to not decorate because I can’t,” he said. “Just can’t do it.”
Following his confession, Bennett realized that he could just enlist his Finding Mr. Christmas contestants to help light up his and husband Jaymes Vaughan’s house.
“I have 10 elves that will come over and decorate for me,” he declared, teasing that he’d make it a “competition” to go along with the show. “You’re going to have to decorate Jonathan and Jaymes’ house. You have 30 minutes to go!” he joked.
While Bennett became a pop culture icon thanks to his role as Aaron Samuels in 2004’s Mean Girls — which features Lindsay Lohan performing a must-see rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” — he is now known as a mega star for Hallmark.
Vincent Rodriguez III, Jonathan Bennett in “Christmas on Cherry Lane.” Hallmark Media/Jeff Weddell
Despite boycotting holiday home decorations this year, Bennett has become synonymous with Christmas and the network as a whole since making his rom-com debut in 2010. It wasn’t until 2018 that he had his first leading man role in Christmas Made to Order. Since then, Bennett has blown up for Hallmark during the holiday season.
In 2020, Bennett starred in The Christmas House, marking Hallmark’s first film featuring a gay couple. It received a sequel the following year called The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls.
Everyone deserves to fall in love with a cheesy holiday movie at Christmas — and many networks and streaming services are making their offerings more diverse than ever. “[Christmas movies] give everyone everything they want,” Jonathan Bennett, a Hallmark mainstay, exclusively told Us Weekly in November 2022. “[The Holiday Sitter is] an LGBTQ+-led movie, but […]
Bennett added to his holiday Hallmark rom-com hits with 2022’s The Holiday Sitter, which focused solely on a same-sex couple story line as Bennett’s Sam babysits his niece and nephew with the help of a handsome neighbor.
Last year, he starred in the ensemble film Christmas on Cherry Lane, which received a sequel, Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane, on Hallmark+ this season. (He filmed this one in-between shooting The Groomsmen trilogy, which is not about the holidays, overseas.)
Melissa Peterman, Jonathan Bennett, Nikki DeLoach Hallmark Media/Kim Nunneley
To top it off, Bennett is the mastermind behind Hallmark+’s Finding Mr. Christmas. The series, which ends on Thursday, December 12, challenged 10 contestants to complete festive tasks that showcased their holiday spirit and acting abilities in hopes of becoming Hallmark’s next leading man.
“I think everyone’s come to fall in love with Hallmark Channel … [and] it’s become such a part of the fabric of what pop culture is, especially the Hallmark movies,” Jonathan dished to Us. “And they’ve fallen in love with the Hallmark signature stars. They love their Hallmark hunks.”
He explained that after his friends kept asking him how to become a Hallmark star, he had an idea for this show. “I started thinking, since I’m such a reality show fan, I was like, ‘What if we gamified the way in which we make an actor a Hallmark star?’” he added.
The winner will join Jessica Lowndes in her 2024 “Countdown to Christmas” movie, Happy Howlidays, which premieres on Saturday, December 21.
“I think it just was one of those things where once we figured it out, we go, ‘Why haven’t we done this yet?’ Bennett concluded. “It just seems so like no brainer.”
The season finale of Finding Mr. Christmas airs on Hallmark+ Thursday, December 12.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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