If Lacey Chabert is the Queen of Hallmark Christmas, and she definitely is, then Jonathan Bennett is the King. He’s been appearing in the network's movies since 2010 and made history starring in the network’s first-eve gay-led holiday film. Bennett definitely eats, sleeps and breathes Christmas during filming. However, as it turns out, he's not one to actually decorate his house around the holiday season, and his reasoning makes sense.
During an interview with Us Weekly, the Christmas Movie King confessed that he has no plans to decorate his own home for the holidays. I’ll admit that when I first heard that, I was disappointed. I mean, how could someone who brings so much joy to my holiday celebrations through his movies be against decorating them for himself? But, after listening to his reasoning, you may understand it like I do now:
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. I’ve been covered in tinsel for six months out of the year!
Being surrounded by Christmas 24/7 for six months might seem like a dream at first, but even I can admit that it would take away some of the magic the season brings. Still, the thought of the Mean Girls star celebrating the holiday without so much as a piece of tinsel around him is depressing. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like Bennett is completely sold on the whole Grinch-like mentality.
While talking about hosting Hallmark’s first holiday reality TV series, Finding Mr. Christmas, which sees ten men competing against each other in festive challenges for the chance of staring in their own Hallmark original movie, Bennett had an epiphany:
I have ten elves that will come over and decorate for me!
The actor joked that he’d turn decorating his home for himself and his husband, Jaymes Vaughan, into a fun challenge for the contestants on the show. Of course, the competition would need an added plot twist, which Bennett -- who serves as an executive producer on the show -- has also thought of. Said twist idea is that the contestants would have to complete the job in 30 minutes or less.
While I haven’t seen Finding Mr. Christmas yet since I don’t have a Hallmark+ subscription, that idea does seem like it would be totally in line with such a holiday-centric show. The theoretical objective probably won’t make it onto this season of the reality show but, if the network decides to bring it back next year, I can totally see the host advocating to add it down the road.
Until then, Jonathan Bennett's house will remain undecorated for Christmas, though, as he prefers it. At the very least, let's just hope the star and his hubby have a Hallmark+ subscription since his upcoming Hallmark holiday film, Season's Greetings from Cherry Lane, is streaming exclusively on the new service.
