Hallmark Channel has long been our go-to for all things holiday. Their Countdown To Christmas, filling their networks with festive films twenty-four hours a day is celebrating 15 years this season. But the folks at Hallmark are not resting on their laurels. They have been shaking things up and trying new ways to bring in that Christmas cheer. 

One way they are breaking the mold yet again is in their brand new reality competition, Finding Mr. Christmas where the winner would not only be crowned, Mr. Christmas, he would star in his very own Hallmark Christmas movie.This brand new show is the brain child of one of the network’s veteran stars, Jonathan Bennett.

What Is Finding Mr. Christmas All About?

“I was so excited to create the show Finding Mr. Christmas because it is not only the first of its kind, not only are we bringing Hallmark into a new era of programming, but we are doing something that’s never been done before,” Bennett told Southern Living. 

The Mean Girls star added, “And the coolest part about it is that his movie airs the following week. So it’s instant gratification. You get to watch a full season and have your favorites and pick who you want to win and then the winner who you’ve watched for 8 episodes grow and change and evolve you’ll then get to see him in a Christmas movie and see how he did. That’s never been done before.”

Bennett not only created the show, he serves as host along with Melissa Peterman. In each episode, the men vying for this opportunity compete against each other in short, activity-based challenges like wrapping presents or a Christmas-themed obstacle course with the victor earning an advantage for the Star Quality Challenge, which is an acting challenge. One Hallmark Hunk hopeful is eliminated each week after the Star Quality Challenge. Also, each week Bennett and Peterman are joined by a different guest judge and mentor, a recognizable face from the Hallmark universe. Erin Cahill, Tyler Hynes, and Nikki DeLoach all joined in on the fun. 

Now, the rest of this article will contain spoilers. If you have not yet watched Finding Mr. Christmas, all 8 episodes are streaming on Hallmark +. Feel free to catch up before you continue reading. 

Who Won Finding Mr. Christmas?

Thursday, the final episode dropped on Hallmark + so we now know that 31-year-old Ezra Moreland has taken the title of Mr. Christmas. Moreland is a former Navy rescue diver and model from California. You won’t have to wait long to see his acting chops on full display. The new Mr. Christmas stars opposite Jessica Lowndes in Happy Howlidays, which premieres on Hallmark Channel on Saturday, December 21.

While we wish a huge congratulations to Ezra Moreland, that is not who caught our eye. We were rooting for the Southerner who made it to the final four, Blake Kelley.

Who Is Blake Kelley?

Blake Kelley is a 36-year-old sales manager from Beaumont, Texas who now lives in Austin. He’s also a former college football player, a  wide receiver for Texas Tech. Even Bennett admitted to us that  “Blake is America’s fan favorite. No question.” 

He continued, “People just gravitate towards him not just because he has that Southern charm, but Blake embodies everything that is great about tenacity and going for your dreams. He embodies that because he’s never done any of these things before. He’s never acted before. He’s never danced before. He’s never performed before and yet here he is, making it all the way to semi-finals of the show and beating out his competition because he had the tenacity to just go for it and put himself out there and be vulnerable and try new things. And I think he’s the perfect American story that if you want something and you go after it with everything you’ve got, your chances of getting close to that goal are very high. And he did that.”

We spoke with Kelley as well who told us he had “zero acting experience” before the show but that he had been searching for something that he loved as much as playing football ever since his time in sports ended. He said he was “just kind of looking for the next thing that kind of gave me that adrenaline rush and that kind of pump like I used to have. I couldn’t find it. I tried various different things.” When he was contacted through social media and asked to be a contestant on the Bachelor, he ultimately decided that wasn’t right for him. But he told the person who initiated that connection to reach out if another opportunity did seem like a better fit. That’s how he came across Hallmark’s Finding Mr. Christmas. 

“I’m like, okay I can compete. I know how to do that. And Hallmark is such a family friendly company, I thought okay they are going to put me in a better light than I thought maybe some gotcha TV would. So that’s led to just the leap of faith, just an adventure. And I didn’t want to go to bed anymore thinking ‘what if?’” 

While Kelley admits that he wasn’t super confident going into the show, he jumped with both feet. He was willing to try anything and everything that was asked of him, as Bennett pointed out. “We’re saying Blake, we need you to do this challenge. Have you ever done it before? ‘Never done it before in my life but I’m excited to try it.’ He just had the excitement of going after what he wanted and he was going to throw every part of himself into each challenge to make it work. And he did. And worked.”

It did work. He was able to improvise and move through scenes with ease. And he recited scripted lines with heart, the way we expect a Hallmark leading man to do, but he did it with an authentic Southern twang we don’t often hear in these movies. 

While he was not crowned the champion of this show, we’re pretty sure we will see much more of Kelley in the not so distant future. But for Kelley, this show was more than just the opening of a door to a new career path.

“So I went into this I was kind of sizing the guys up. Watching what they said. Watching what they did. Taking little mental notes and I didn’t want to divulge too much of what I thought. I played my cards close. But then I realized that these guys were handling it the exact opposite. They wanted to win of course, but they were such good guys, that if you needed help, they were willing to help you. I almost felt like  they wanted you to win as much as you wanted yourself to win. And so that totally changed my scope and outlook of the competition because I’m competing with 9 other great men that still to this day, we talk every single day. As cliche as it sounds, I’ve gained a few new brothers. That’s what it feels like. I text them and talk to them just like I talk to my own brother.”

It’s been just over six months since filming on the show wrapped and Kelley says he’s fully committed to pursuing acting and modeling jobs but also to doing the work to succeed in this new arena. He’s taking acting and improv classes and absorbing as much as he can. 

“Again it goes back to my football background. I played wide receiver which runs around and catches the ball. So catch 100 passes a day just so you can be better at catching. Same applies here for me. I’m going to take these acting classes and do as much as I can. Do every single audition, no matter what it is, just to sharpen my tools in my toolbox if you will so when opportunities do arise, I can execute better than just going in there cold. So I am wholeheartedly going to chase this. But at the end of the day I’m just going to let the cards fall where they may.”

Kelley added, “I have this weird sense of calmness that God and the universe is going to take care of me and God is going to provide, all I have to do is give the effort and stay patient. And everything will end up like it should be.”