Call it love among the actuarial tables. San Antonio’s USAA has teamed up with the Hallmark Channel on a new romance, Christmas on Duty, part of the network’s annual Countdown to Christmas rollout of warm and fuzzy holiday films.
The Yuletide rom-com follows the misadventures of Josh Cannon (Enlisted’s Parker Young) and Blair Birch (Pretty Little Liars’ Janel Parrish), Marine rivals who haven’t seen each other since their Quantico days. Years later, the pair bump into each other at a Christmas soiree, cause a kerfuffle, and are disciplined by a 24-hour shift.
This being a Hallmark holiday movie, Christmas is in peril, this time by a sudden snowstorm. It’s not much of a spoiler to say everything ends happily and that the wardrobe department was up to its eyeballs in nubby knits.
A rep from USAA says the sponsorship made good business sense. According to the company’s research, prospective USAA members watch Hallmark content 85 percent more than the general population.
“This exciting and innovative partnership brings USAA’s brand to our members and future members in an authentic and organic way,” said USAA Vice President and Head of Brand Marketing Jen Escobar, in a statement.
Although the script was written by actual Marine Alexis Siegel, USAA’s marketing team was able to work in a scene based on real-life interactions with its military customers, as well as some promotional lines like “Taking care of military families is what we do.”
“Together, we based our scene on USAA’s real-life sponsorship of tree lighting events that take place at Quantico, and we cast a veteran and USAA member as the movie’s USAA representative,” explained Escobar.
Still, the film feels more natural than some of Hallmark’s other 2025 holiday setups, which include a time-traveling boat, tons of improbable hometown meet-cutes, and a reimagining of A Christmas Carol set on a transatlantic flight.
Christmas on Duty is now streaming on Hallmark Plus. You can watch a very USAA preview below.