Hallmark Channel has served as your home base for all things uplifting, joyful and bright for the holiday season for the past 15 years with their Countdown to Christmas programming. And every year they seem to outdo themselves with over 40 new original movies, a solid lineup of stars we love so much on the network as well as a few cameos each year that we didn’t expect. But this year, they have raised the bar even higher.

With the overhaul and reimagining of their streaming service now called Hallmark+, the folks at Hallmark have a whole new vehicle to bring us even more festive cheer. They’re trying new things and that includes their first-ever holiday-centric limited series, On vacationwhich follows the lives of six families, all living in the same bind, in the days leading up to Christmas. If Love in fact is on your annual watch list, then this show is for you.

Viewers get an inside look at each of these families, all seemingly very different, facing similar situations that many of us will recognize from our own life experiences. Ups, downs, challenges and how we overcome them, but the common thread is how these stories illustrate love in all its forms. To tell these stories, Hallmark has assembled a powerful ensemble including Erin Cahill, Ian Harding, Loretta Devine, John C. McGinley and Virginia Madsen, to name a few.

Living in the South spoke with Virginia native Erin Cahill and her on-screen son, 11-year-old Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, about how they both think this project is “such a gift,” as Cahill said.

Cahill plays Nora Jacobs, a widowed mother and town sheriff, and Billingsley-Rodriguez plays Theo Jacobs, her son. As Nora balances her responsibilities and her own grief over her husband’s death, she has also clearly created a warm and fulfilled life for her son despite their loss. Nora has consciously made joy a priority in their lives and the mother/son bond between these characters is beautiful. Even when Josh Hill (Ian Harding) enters the picture as a second chance to love Nora.

“It’s super easy to play Sebastian’s mom and create that bond because he’s a really great guy and everyone loves him.” She then addressed her co-star directly, saying, “And you’re so kind and generous and you’re such a great actor.” It was so easy. Billingsly-Rodriguez responded warmly: “You are just warm and loving and just amazing!”

“This brilliant boy would have these monologues and he would get grades. The directors would give him notes like “okay on this line, think about this and on this line, think about that,” and he did it every time. He’s incredible,” Cahill added.

On vacation tells the story of each of these families across eight episodes, allowing more room to let the stories breathe and develop. This gives the writers the opportunity to create more layers than we usually see in a 2 hour holiday movie.

“I read the script. I literally laughed and cried and felt like I had to tell this story. And then I hit the jackpot and I got Sebastian and Ian and I was like this can’t get any better. It’s so fresh. It’s so real. Our showrunners and writers really did an incredible job creating such funny laughs and also such serious moments, I was so impressed.

Despite her young age, Billingsley-Rodriguez already has more than a dozen major credits under her belt. It can also currently be seen on the big screen in The best Christmas competition everplaying the son of 13 In progress 30It’s Judy Greer. But as for playing Theo in this heartwarming series, well, he considers himself “very lucky.” Adding that it was “one of my favorite films, one hundred percent.”

The first two episodes of On vacation are already streaming on Hallmark+ and a new episode will be released every Thursday for the next seven weeks.