The Father Christmas film series is an American/Canadian trilogy, starring Erin Krakow and Niall Matter, based on the novels of Robin Jones Gunn. The films were originally broadcast in the USA on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, as part of the channels' "Miracles of Christmas" seasonal programming. The films follow the story of Miranda Chester (Krakow), as she visits the cozy sundown town of Carlton Heath, Vermont, in search of the truth about her parentage. Whilst there she meets, and falls in love with, local lawyer/hotelier Ian McKendrick(Matter). Main cast A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film. Author Robin Jones Gunn appears as an extra in theatre scenes in both Finding Father Christmas and Engaging Father Christmas. Production and filming Adaptation Gunn's literary agent was approached in 2011 by a production company looking for Christmas novels to adapt into screenplays. Her agent suggested the novel "Finding Father Christmas". On pitching the story to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in 2012, it was rejected due its lack of romance. Gunn's agent then made the suggestion to combine the first novel with parts of its sequel, "Engaging Father Christmas", as the latter novel featured a romantic plot for its main character. The two novels were reworked into a combined treatment, which was again pitched to the channel in 2013. It was again rejected, but with the possibility of reconsideration if further adaptations were made, in particular relocating the novel from England to North America. Following further adaptations, Hallmark approved the treatment of the novels in 2015, leading to the development of the screenplay. Gunn went on to publish an ebook ("How My Book Became A Movie:A True Story") in 2016, detailing her experiences of the process, from the origins of the novel to the film's production. Differences from the novel The first film differs significantly from the novel. The setting is moved from England to Vermont, the character of Ian is introduced much earlier in the story and several character names were changed. A new introduction to the story was also written, to introduce important backstory. However, author Robin Jones Gunn felt that "the heart of the story I'd written was still there". The second and third films diverged further from the original story, although author Gunn confirmed that the films still drew upon her novels. Sequels Following the success of the first film, star Niall Matter and author