Nikki DeLoach & Kristoffer Polaha Unite for Historic Hallmark Christmas Movie: ‘Dream Come True’

Twenty years after forging a meaningful friendship while co-starring on the Fox TV series “North Shore,” Nikki DeLoach and Kristoffer Polaha — now both beloved Hallmark stars — will reunite onscreen for “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas.” DeLoach and Polaha have both shared their excitement, with DeLoach calling it a “dream come true.”

The movie, announced by Hallmark on August 11, 2025, will premiere during Hallmark’s 16th annual Countdown to Christmas in 2025. It will mark the network’s first partnership with Nashville’s iconic Grand Ole Opry, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

According to Hallmark press materials, the movie is also expected to feature multiple country superstars who are Opry members, led by Brad Paisley, whose wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley has starred in her fair share of Hallmark movies.

Nikki DeLoach Says She ‘Never Imagined’ She’d Be Part of Grand Ole Opry’s History

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“A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” will begin filming in Nashville, including at the Opry, in late August, per Hallmark. Given that Polaha sings and plays guitar, there’s a good chance he’ll do so in the movie — and we’re hoping he may bring along his son Caleb Polaha, an aspiring country artist who’s attending college in Nashville.

Paisley, meanwhile, will perform in and write songs for the movie, per Hallmark, as well as “write and record the official anthem for the network’s 2025 Countdown to Christmas on-air campaign,” per Hallmark.

“The Hallmark Channel to me is a major part of finding the joy and the spirit of the holidays,” Paisley said in a statement. “We turn it on and leave it on in our house like Christmas tree lights or decorations, it’s a major part of the atmosphere for us. I loved the challenge of creating that same magic with this music by letting it take you to the same place that these movies and this world Hallmark has built. Can’t wait for you to hear what all we’ve done. Also, knowing the Opry is the setting for one of these movies is very inspiring.”

Polaha shared an Instagram Story with a story from Variety, which first reported the movie, and wrote, “Excited for this one!”

DeLoach posted screenshots from the story, too, and wrote, “A DREAM COME TRUE 💫I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry. It’s the biggest stage for country music, an institution in this country that I’ve revered since I was a child. In my wildest and biggest dreams, I never imagined that I would one day be able to be apart of its story.”

DeLoach continued, “And to do it alongside one of my longest and best friends, Kris Polaha, the legend that is Brad Paisley and with our Hallmark Channel team, is an unimaginable dream come true. I am beyond honored, humbled and grateful. ❤️”

All About Hallmark’s ‘A Grand Ole Opry Christmas’

Calling the “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas” a “magical trip across time,” Hallmark Media’s synopsis of the movie centers around Gentry Woods, played by DeLoach, who’s the daughter of late country music icon Jett Woods, half of the famed duo Winter and Woods.

The logline says she “abandoned her dream of a songwriting career and distanced herself from her father’s legacy following his tragic car accident 30 years prior. When the Grand Ole Opry invites her
to represent Jett at their centennial celebration at Christmas, she’s hesitant to return to the place
steeped in bittersweet memories. Encouraged by her good friends, Gentry visits the Opry and, while seated in one of the vaunted venue’s oak church pews, is suddenly transported to 1995.

Gentry’s lifelong friend Mac, played by Polaha, is a country music talent manager, per the logline, and “finds himself in 1995 as well. Thanks to some Christmas magic, Gentry gets precious time with her father, creative inspiration to finish the song she began decades earlier as a teen and learns surprising answers to questions about her father that have followed her for the last three decades.”

This will be Polaha’s second time-travel movie at an iconic destination. In 2023, he co-starred with Bethany Joy Lenz in “A Biltmore Christmas” at the historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.