Sarah Drew Talks Holiday Mysteries and Christmas Traditions in Mistletoe Murders
When a poisoned cookie links her to a crime, Christmas shop owner Emily Lane uses secret skills to investigate a murder to clear her name in Hallmark+’s Mistletoe Murders. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with Sarah Drew are the new holiday show.
This Christmas murder show parallels Drew’s characters festive energy with her cynical side. “The character of Emily Lane sort of mirrors the whole show itself. We are mixing two genres that feel like they should be playing opposite each other, but somehow they're working together. This show is so much fun. I don't think we've mixed the genre of murder mystery and Christmas together before. This is like new. It feels like Christmas noir,” Drew told me. “It's such a vibrant show. It’s got action, intrigue, adventure, sleuthing, romance. There's so much heart. I have fallen madly in love with the character of Emily Lane. I just want good things for her. I feel so many feelings for her. She's been through a lot, but we only get little breadcrumbs of it throughout the show, which is fun.”
As clues drop each week, it all leads to biggest secrets around Emily Lane’s identity. “The structure of the show is every two episodes we solve a crime. There's a mystery every two episodes, but then there's another mystery that's playing all the way through the whole thing about who is Emily, where did she come from, what's she potentially running from, what is she running toward, what is her story,” she shared. “[Just] getting to play all those little tiny pieces and reveal it bit by bit, giving us a lot of room to grow and play in future seasons. Knock on all the wood.”
When it comes to a Christmas song that represents her character’s journey this season, Drew connected to the sacred Christmas hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” “It's an anticipatory song. Advent is really about anticipating Jesus's birth. That's the tradition that I am raised in. The song is almost spooky. The sound of ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel.’ The whole Christmas tradition in my faith is the world is dark and light comes into the world, which actually mirrors what's happening on my show too,” she explained. “Emily has a lot of darkness and wants that light to break through. She wants the promise of Christmas. She is in a state of advent, of longing for and looking forward to the moment when light breaks through and she can find a home and she can find peace and she can find all the things that Christmas represents. So ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ kind of fits for this particular show.”
Drew has a new holiday tradition after working on several Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas projects. “I do a screening party for my movie where I invite all my girlfriends over and they have to come in their Christmas pajamas. We bring a potluck, like your favorite Christmas breakfast food, and we eat breakfast for dinner,” she shared. “I make a specialty cocktail and we cozy up in our pajamas and watch the Christmas movie. It's so fun and it puts us in the Christmas vibe. Every year I'm like well I have to have a Christmas project because I have to have that party.”
When it comes to her dream Hallmark Christmas co-star, Drew is hoping to work with Andrew Walker next. “I just love him and I love his wife. I love Cass so much. She's become one of my best friends. I got to know Andrew and Cass last year around this time of year and they're just the best humans,” she said. “We're like, ‘When are we working together? I don't know. When are we doing it? We have to!’”
New episodes of Mistletoe Murders air Thursdays on Hallmark+.
