James Denton's "A Kiss Before Christmas" was born out of his "A Good Witch" contract with Hallmark, as he agreed to executive produce three made-for-TV movies with the network. The actor revealed that he had a long-time interest in making a Christmas movie, explaining in a statement, "From the very beginning, I wanted the first Hallmark Christmas movie I produced to be unique" (via Deadline).

While the specific idea of "A Kiss Before Christmas" seemed to be cooking for at least a year before its production, Denton revealed that things moved pretty quickly when his former co-star Teri Hatcher became attached to the project. If you're unfamiliar, Denton and Hatcher played a married suburban couple on the long-running series "Desperate Housewives," reuniting for the first time for their shared Hallmark endeavor.

"Mark Amato, the writer, brought [the idea] to me. We brought it to the network, and we knew we had to have the right girl," Denton told WGN News. "Everybody got excited once we had Teri [involved], and it just took off." The Hallmark star added that he angled for a 2021 holiday release, so "A Kiss Before Christmas" was fast-tracked for September filming and premiered in time for Hallmark holiday viewing.