Candace Cameron Bure and Great American Family Christmas Movies Will Pretend Santa Exists But Gay Couples Don’t

Candace Cameron Bure has tossed off her Hallmark Channel crown to join Great American Family, and the actress says her new projects with the network will be markedly different from past Christmas films she’s become famous for in the later half of her career.

Ahead of the premiere of A Christmas…Present, Bure’s first film with Great American Family, she spoke to The Wall Street Journal about her leap from Hallmark to her new broadcast home, and said the key difference between the two platforms is their approach to relationships in their content.

While the Hallmark Channel has become increasingly progressive in recent years and will be releasing its first movie centered on an LGBTQ romance this holiday season, Bure told the Journal her films at Great American Family will not feature same-sex couples at all.

“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she told the outlet.

Bure, who left Hallmark in 2020, told the Journal she left the network because she thought it dramatically changed since she made her first Christmas movie there in 2008, saying, “It basically is a completely different network than when I started because of the change of leadership.”

While most people would agree that more representation is a change for the better, the Full House star said she prefers the larger emphasis on faith and religion at Great American Family.

“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” Bure said. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.”

Hallmark executives did not respond to the Journal‘s request for comment on Great American Family, but a spokesperson for the network told the outlet, “We want all viewers to see themselves in our programming and everyone is welcome.”

While Bure is doing her best to boost Great American Family to the masses, its “family-friendly” and “traditional” content aren’t going to reach nearly as wide of an audience as Hallmark’s more diverse and representative offerings. According to the Journal, Great American Family has a much smaller prime-time audience, which brought in about 333,000 live viewers for the premiere of Destined at Christmas. 

By comparison, 1.89 million that same evening watched the Hallmark release We Wish You a Married Christmas.

A Christmas … Present premieres Nov. 27 on Great American Family.