Family Guy 2025 Christmas Special Is a Full-Length Hallmark Movie Parody

The Griffin family is getting a wholesome makeover for the holidays. Family Guy is releasing a brand-new Christmas special for 2025 that fully commits to parodying the cozy, predictable world of Hallmark holiday movies. In a hilarious twist, the show is leaving its signature edgy humor in Quahog to deliver a spot-on spoof filled with small-town charm, a secret pie recipe, and a musical guest star.

The special, which has one of the longest titles in television history, is called “Disney’s Hulu’s Family Guy’s Hallmark Channel’s Lifetime’s Familiar Holiday Movie.” It premieres exclusively on Hulu on Friday, November 28, 2025, just in time to kick off the holiday viewing season.

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Lois Griffin Takes the Lead in a Sugary Story

This holiday special puts Lois Griffin front and center as a classic Hallmark movie heroine. The plot sees Lois as a high-powered executive from the big city named “Big Pie.” She travels to the idyllic small town of Townsville with a mission to acquire a prized, secret family pie recipe.

Instead of completing her corporate task, she meets Peter, reimagined as a humble small-town mechanic and pie expert. Their encounter teaches Lois that love and carbohydrates might be more important than her career ambitions. The storyline lovingly pokes fun at the well-known Hallmark formula where city life and professional success are often traded for rustic charm and romance.

The show’s executive producers explained the thinking behind this parody. Alec Sulkin said the challenge of creating an original Christmas story led them to embrace every cliché.

“Well, I think it gets harder and harder every year to try to think of an original — or what we hope is an original — Christmas episode,” Sulkin admitted. “So this year, we just decided to give up trying to be original and just used every single thing that’s been used before.”

Rich Appel added that the contrast between Family Guy’s usual tone and the wholesome Hallmark style was a fun creative area for the show to explore.

A New Animated World and a Country Music Guest

Creating a convincing Hallmark movie atmosphere required a significant visual overhaul for the Family Guy animation team. For this special, the show completely abandons its usual setting of Quahog, Rhode Island. The artists built the entirely new, snowy town of Townsville from scratch, requiring new backgrounds and character designs.

Alec Sulkin noted that such an effort is reserved for special occasions. “Every background is practically new, every character is redesigned. Any episode that requires that much new background work and design has to get the manpower it deserves. So we can’t have too many of those in one season. It’s special because we know it’s a bigger effort,” he said.

Adding to the authentic Hallmark feel is a guest appearance by country music star and Yellowstone actress Lainey Wilson. She provides the voice for a country singer who performs an original “busy city girl” anthem during the special’s opening scene, much like the songs used in trailers for real Hallmark films.

Sulkin shared that Wilson was deeply involved in the process. “She came in, she’s very hot right now, and she loved doing it. She even suggested a harmony for the song that she then filled in herself. It’s fun when you get to use somebody like that, who seems kind of perfect for a high-end Hallmark movie.”

Family Guy’s History of Holiday Specials

This is not Family Guy’s first holiday special, but it is their first to fully embrace the Hallmark movie genre. The show has a long history of Christmas episodes that subvert traditional holiday tales, from Stewie’s problematic visit to Santa to a storyline where Jesus wants to sleep with Lois.

The 2025 special continues the show’s trend of producing Hulu-exclusive holiday episodes, following a Halloween special that streamed in October 2024. Despite the increased production work, the team’s approach to making these episodes feel unique has not changed. The writers aim for a funny, special idea, and the production side delivers with entirely new visuals.

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