Christmas at the Catnip Café (2025): A New Hallmark Movie to Add to Your Holiday Watchlist

Your first look at Christmas at the Catnip Café (2025), a new Hallmark movie packed with festive charm… and a lot of cats.

The moment the calendar even inches toward December, I’m already craving twinkly lights, festive tea, and a new holiday movie to curl up with.

This year, Hallmark is delivering just that with Christmas at the Catnip Café, premiering on November 30, 2025, at 8:00 PM ET. 

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Plot Summary: A Cozy Small-Town, a Cat Café, and Christmas Romance

Christmas at the Catnip Café follows Olivia Pierce (played by Erin Cahill), a marketing executive from Oakland, who unexpectedly inherits half of her late great-aunt’s beloved cat café in New York. 

With plans to sell her share to fund her condo, Olivia returns home to find that the other half of the café belongs to Dr. Ben Kane (Paul Campbell), a kind-hearted veterinarian who’s determined to keep the café open so he can help the town’s cats. 

Over three weeks of holiday events, community gatherings, and fundraising efforts, Olivia discovers that the café is much more than a business: it’s a heartwarming gathering place that brings the town together, and maybe even opens her heart to a new kind of Christmas magic.

A Festive Setting: Cozy Cafés, Twinkling Lights, and Holiday Charm

Directed by Lucie Guest and filmed in Vancouver, Christmas at the Catnip Café perfectly captures the spirit of the season: twinkling lights reflected in freshly fallen snow, the hum of holiday music drifting from a cozy café, and that contented feeling you get when a small town rallies around love, community, and kindness. 

The film’s producers—Gemma Martini, Trevor McWhinney, and Jonathan Shore—have created a charming winter escape that’s as comforting as a mug of hot tea by a glowing fireplace.

Meet the Cast: Erin Cahill and Paul Campbell

Erin Cahill, who brings Olivia to life, will feel instantly familiar to Hallmark fans. 

Cahill has appeared in several Christmas Hallmark films before, including Christmas Bedtime Stories (2022), Christmas on Cherry Lane (2023), Deck the Halls on Cherry Lane (2024), and The Christmas Quest (2024). She knows just how to make a character both relatable and heartwarming. 

Paul Campbell, who plays Dr. Ben Kane, is equally at home in the Christmas Hallmark universe. 

He’s acted in titles such as A Godwink Christmas (2018), Christmas by Starlight (2020), and The Nine Kittens of Christmas (2021), and has even contributed as a writer on Hallmark projects such as Three Wise Men and a Baby (2022). 

Christmas at the Catnip Café Trailer

Final Thoughts

More details, including stills and posters, will be coming soon. I’ll be sharing all of it here the moment it arrives.

If you’re planning your holiday watch-list or searching for new Christmas romance films to enjoy with the whole family, keep your eye on this one.

Until then, light your favorite Christmas candle, pull out a cozy blanket, and let a little holiday magic fill the room.

Christmas movie season is officially starting, and Christmas at the Catnip Café might just become your new festive favorite.

For other cat-centric movie set in Canada, check out the Hallmark movie The Nine Lives of Christmas (2014), Ghost Cat (2004) and Mr. Patman aka The Crossover (1980).

About the Author

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampires Movies, Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children, and Meow! Cats in Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Movies. She also published one cat book (Avalon) and four supernatural thrillers (Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders). Three of her stories became movies. She introduces movie screenings at several European cinemas and film festivals and is also a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Brussels. When she is not writing, you will probably find her eating out, doing yoga, or taking photos of felines for her website, Traveling Cats.