Actress Danica McKellar said a church invitation from fellow actress Candace Cameron Bure changed her life — and helped reshape what she wants her Christmas movies to give viewers.
“Like, it’s been Jesus this whole time, and I just didn’t recognize it,” McKellar told The Christian Post recently, looking back on becoming a Christian four years earlier.
For the actress known to generations of viewers as Winnie Cooper on THE WONDER YEARS, the turning point came when Bure invited her to a Passion play at church in 2022. McKellar said the Holy Spirit made things clear to her in a way she had not experienced before.
“I just was flooded with understanding,” she recalled.
She reached for a comparison her friend would immediately understand: a romantic comedy in which someone finally realizes the person they have been looking for has been right in front of them. McKellar said that was how she came to recognize Jesus, not as someone suddenly entering her story, but as the One she had failed to recognize all along.
The friendship had already opened a door. In May 2022, The Christian Post described how Bure gave McKellar a Bible and invited her to church after McKellar reached out about forgiveness.
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Now, that faith shapes more than her private life. McKellar told the outlet she has watched Great American Family’s movies lean more openly into Christianity, giving her opportunities to connect the comfort of a Christmas story with something deeper.
“There’s conflict in all of these movies, of course. There’s conflict in life, but how do we choose to deal with it?” McKellar said.
Those questions give her two upcoming holiday movies a common thread, even though the stories head in different directions. One begins with a woman trying to stop putting everyone else first; the other follows a couple whose carefully planned future faces an unexpected setback.
In THE CHRISTMAS YES LIST, McKellar plays Chloe Hollis, a New York professional who heads home to Maple Hills, West Virginia, after her people-pleasing habits leave her overlooked for a promotion. Her effort to overcome rejection leads her into an unexpected romance with James Stone, played by actor Sam Page.
It’s an adaptation of author Melissa Ferguson’s novel. McKellar told The Christian Post that the romantic comedy also includes a scene in which the lead characters pray together.
Her second movie, THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT, pairs her with actor Matthew Marsden as music teacher Emma Harper and her fiancé, Caleb Bennett. When a setback threatens their Christmas wedding plans, their small town rallies around them.
McKellar described that story as a faith-forward drama centered on sacrificial love. For her, openly acknowledging God in a character’s everyday encouragement of a student was part of what made the role special.
The connection is personal: a friend once invited her to church, and now she hopes the stories she tells can help other people find hope in Christ. The Christmas setting gives her a familiar place to begin that conversation.
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