Virgin River star unrecognizable in new Netflix Christmas movie

It's been a couple years since we spent the holiday season in Virgin River back in the fifth season of the hit Netflix original series. For the first time, the romantic drama got super festive with two special Christmas episodes, which found Mel searching for her birth father Everett. The following season skipped the holidays as Mel and Jack planned and celebrated their magical wedding.

However, who know whether Virgin River season 7 will feature any holiday episodes? Ahead of the upcoming new season's release either later this year or sometime in early 2026 (Netflix has not revealed the release window as of this writing), the episode titles don't tease any Christmas magic. Instead, Mel and Jack appear to be headed off on their honeymoon in Mexico.

Even if we don't spend Christmas with our favorite Virgin River characters this year or next year, we'll still have the opportunity to watch some of the show's stars in new holiday movies. Benjamin Hollingsworth stars in the Karen Kingsbury movie The Christmas Ring, while Alexandra Breckenridge takes on a very holly jolly role in one of Netflix's new Christmas movies.

Alexandra Breckenridge stars in Netflix's Christmas movie My Secret Santa in unexpected role

First announced back in February 2025, Breckenridge leads the cast of My Secret Santa, which will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 3 on Netflix. In the movie, Breckenridge stars as single mother Taylor, who decides to disguise herself as a man in order to land a gig as a seasonal Santa Claus impersonator at a luxury ski resort. She begins to fall for the manager, which poses problems.

Take at Breckenridge donning her Santa Claus suit in the first-look photos via Entertainment Weekly below!

In addition to Breckenridge, the My Secret Santa cast also includes New Amsterdam star Ryan Eggold, Tia Mowry, Madison MacIsaac, and Diana Maria Riva. MacIsaac plays Taylor's daughter and Eggold plays the ski resort's manager that Taylor begins to fall for.

Breckenridge revealed that in order to transform into Santa Claus, the process to apply the prosthetics to her face took up to three hours and she channeled Tim Allen in the classic Disney Christmas movie The Santa Clause to get the voice and vibe of Santa down. The Virgin River star said playing not only a character this iconic but also a man was daunting, but she was up for it.

"It scared me to death. But I was like, 'I have to do this because this is actually why I became an actress. If I don't meet my fear head on, what am I doing?'" she told Entertainment Weekly. She further explained the how fulfilling the role was for her, "It reignited this passion of why I do what I do. It was a real treat to be able to pull it off."

There's no doubt the movie will provide lots of laughs as Breckenridge's character stumbles her way through becoming Santa Claus and navigating falling in love along the way. My Secret Santa's just one of Netflix's new holiday movies, as A Merry Little Ex-Mas kicks things off on Nov. 12, Champagne Problems arrives on Nov. 19, and Jingle Bell Heist drops on Nov. 26.

My Secret Santa premieres Wednesday, Dec. 3 on Netflix.