Adopting St. Nick Cast and Premiere Date
Short version: Adopting St. Nick premieres Saturday, Oct. 31, at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel, with Amy Groening and Michael Rady in the leads. Groening is Maren, a single mom who runs her late father's hardware store. Rady is Reid, who opens retirement communities for a living and never stays long. A Hallmark+ release follows on Sunday, Nov. 1, going by the network's movie page.
It's the Saturday premiere of the third weekend of Countdown to Christmas 2026, one night after Who's Coming for Christmas?. Yes, that makes it a Christmas premiere on Halloween night.
What is Adopting St. Nick about?
Maren fixes things for half the town, which leaves her almost no time of her own. Her adopted daughter, Leah, misses having a grandfather around.
So when a new retirement community called Jolly Acres starts a Christmas Companions program, Leah signs up. She's paired with Kris, a cheerful resident who looks a great deal like Santa Claus.
Reid is the man in charge of getting Jolly Acres up and running before he moves on to the next branch. Then the contractor on the community room walks away, and the program is suddenly at risk. Maren, being Maren, picks up her tools.
We've retold the network's synopsis up to that point and stopped short of the ending. TVLine's rundown boils it down to a hardware-store owner drawn into the program by her daughter and thrown together with the center's "nomadic director."
Who plays Maren, Reid and Kris?
Hallmark's cast page credits only the two leads. The other two names below come from the network's own synopsis, which puts the actors in parentheses after their characters.
| Actor | Role | You may know them from |
|---|---|---|
| Amy Groening | Maren | Bone Cage (Chicky); Reign; Backpackers; Mr. D; Hallmark's The Santa Summit |
| Michael Rady | Reid | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Kostas); Melrose Place (Jonah Miller); The Mentalist (Luther Wainwright); Magnum P.I. |
| Taylor Blake | Leah, Maren's daughter | Named in Hallmark's synopsis |
| Randy Apostle | Kris, a Jolly Acres resident | Named in Hallmark's synopsis |
Groening was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and started out in low-budget horror before training at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Her Hallmark bio counts more than 10 movies for the network. She picked up a 2021 Canadian Screen Award nomination for best supporting actress for Bone Cage.
Rady's first screen role was Kostas, the love interest of Alexis Bledel's character in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. He studied theatre at Temple University. More recently, his network bio says, he recurred on the fifth season of Magnum P.I. and on Chicago Med.
Who directed and wrote it? Neither Hallmark's pages nor TVLine's list say, so this page doesn't guess.
When does Adopting St. Nick air again, and can you stream it?
| Date | Eastern | Central | Airing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 31 | 8 p.m. | 7 p.m. | Premiere |
| Sun., Nov. 1 | 6 p.m. | 5 p.m. | Encore |
| Fri., Nov. 6 | 10 p.m. | 9 p.m. | Encore |
| Tue., Nov. 10 | 8 p.m. | 7 p.m. | Encore |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | 8 a.m. | 7 a.m. | Encore |
All five come from the showtimes list on Hallmark Channel's page for the movie, checked Thursday, Oct. 8, at 10:11 a.m. ET. Hallmark's day-by-day schedule ran through Oct. 31 when we looked, so only the premiere shows up there too. The November dates could still shift.
One thing to keep straight: U.S. clocks go back an hour early on Sunday, Nov. 1. The first encore, at 6 that evening, is already on standard time.
Streaming is a day behind. The movie page is tagged "Streaming Next Day on Hallmark+," and that app is on-demand only. To see it live on Halloween night you need Hallmark Channel itself, by cable, satellite or a live TV bundle that carries it.
Where was Adopting St. Nick filmed?
Hallmark hasn't said where it was filmed. Jolly Acres gets a name in the synopsis; the town around it doesn't. The two cast bios and TVLine are silent on a shooting location too, as of Thursday, Oct. 8.
FAQ
What else is on Hallmark Channel on Oct. 31?
The network's grid for that Saturday has a Who's Coming for Christmas? encore at 6 p.m. ET, Adopting St. Nick at 8, and The Spirit of Halloween at 10.
What's the next new Hallmark movie after Adopting St. Nick?
A Danish Christmas, with Emilie Ullerup and Corey Sevier, on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. ET. Both Hallmark's page for it and TVLine carry that date and time.
Sources
- Hallmark Channel: Adopting St. Nick (showtimes, streaming note), its synopsis and cast page (roles, actor bios)
- Hallmark Channel: schedule
- TVLine: 2026 Hallmark Christmas movie schedule
- Wikipedia: Amy Groening and Michael Rady (earlier credits)