Getty Kimberly Williams at a Hallmark Channel event.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams are sisters in real life and now they get to play them onscreen as well.
The Williams sisters will both appear in two new Hallmark films airing one week apart, “Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday” (airing December 5th) and “Sister Swap: Christmas in the City” (airing December 12th). Although both women appear in both films, each movie focuses on one of the sisters as the lead.
Kimberly revealed to PEOPLE that her husband, country musician Brad Paisley, wrote a song for “A Hometown Holiday.” “It’s such a good song,” Kimberly said. “So people should look out for that. That’s going to be amazing.”
Kimberly has been married to Paisley since 2003. “A lot of married couples would rather do anything but spend the evening together. That’s not the case in our house,” Paisley told PEOPLE in April 2021.
What Are the ‘Sister Swap’ Movies About?
In the two new “Sister Swap” films, Kimberly plays Jennifer, a single mom living in Salt Lake City raising her teenaged son and running a restaurant she opened with her late husband. Ashley Williams plays Meg, who still lives in her hometown of Hazelwood and helps run the family business: a bakery.
In “Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday,” Jennifer and her son Simon return to Hazelwood for Christmas. A beloved local theater called The Madison, previously owned by Jennifer’s recently deceased Uncle Dave, is for sale and in need of fixing up. Jennifer and Simon become nostalgic for the many memories made at the theater during past holiday seasons.
In “Sister Swap: Christmas in the City,” the focus is on Meg, who is off in Salt Lake City helping run Jennifer’s restaurant while she’s in Hazelwood. Meg prepares for a contest among local restaurants in which the winner earns money to give to the charity of their choice.
Kimberly and Ashley Have Always Wanted to Work Together
In an interview with PEOPLE, Kimberly and Ashley dished on the dream come true of getting to work together. “We’ve been wanting to work together since you were born,” 49-year-old Kimberly told 42-year-old Ashley in the interview.
“We used to do shows growing up, but I was always the director, producer, star,” Kimberly said. “She was very bossy,” added Ashley. Kimberly went on to say that the “Sister Swap” films were Ashley’s idea.
Ashley said that the sisters in the films have a similar relationship to her real-life one with Kimberly. “The plots weave in and out of each other. And it’s a lot like the way that Kim and I function in our relationship, which is we both are moms and we’re businesswomen, but we’re also best friends. And so our lives intersect a lot. It was fun to be able to weave that into Meg and Jennifer’s storyline,” said Ashley.
Ashley also revealed that both she and her sister’s characters have “romantic connections” in the films. Well, what else would we expect from a Hallmark Christmas movie?! But the Williams sisters are proud to report that the new films are more about sisterhood than romance.
“For the two of us, these movies were really about women supporting women and that was a really fun thing. That’s a really important part of our relationship,” said Ashley.
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