The 64 days of Christmas: Hallmark Channel bumps Halloween this year

Over at the Hallmark Channel, there’s a word for people who start decorating for Christmas right after Halloween:

Slackers.

The cable channel said Tuesday that its popular “Countdown to Christmas” programming lineup will start earlier than ever this year.

October 28th, to be precise.

That's three days before Halloween, when the soft-and-squishy TV home of the Kitten Bowl, "Little House on the Prairie" reruns and original series like "The Good Witch" and "When Calls the Heart" will air its first holiday movie at 10 p.m.

And then it will keep on airing them, nonstop and round-the-clock right through New Year's Day.

That's 64 straight days for those of you keeping score at home. Or, approximately 1,536 consecutive hours of movies with titles like "Suddenly Santa" (starring Danica McKellar of "The Wonder Years"), "Christmas Makeover" (starring Lori Loughlin of "Fuller House") and "A Wish for Christmas" (starring "Party of Five's" Lacey Chabert). Those are just some of the 19 new movies Hallmark's unleashing this year to go along with its Santa's sack-sized library of holiday movies from previous years.

Lest you think some TV exec’s had a little too much eggnog, Hallmark says the 2015 version of “Countdown to Christmas” attracted a whopping 80 million-plus viewers.

And it “only” ran for 61 days last year.

Rest assured, though, Labor Day is still safe. For now.