13 Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Easter Eggs In Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown

There’s an abundance of Christmas rom-coms to enjoy at this time of year, but none quite as zeitgeisty as Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story. The film follows Alana, a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs devotee, as she falls in love with the man evaluating her family for the team’s Fan of the Year contest.

Ethically questionable? Sure! But it’s also adorable and timely. While the film (which premiered on Nov. 30) doesn’t concern a romance between a pop star and football player, it does tap into a sense of whimsy that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s coupling has brought to the NFL, even for those who weren’t big fans before.

As screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe told Today, “I honestly feel like everything about this movie was meant to happen when it happened. It was meant to be.” The “magic” of Swift and Kelce’s relationship, she said, got people in a romantic spirit that paved the way for Holiday Touchdown.

Even though Swift isn’t involved herself, her penchant for a good Easter egg hunt can be felt throughout, with references — some overt, and others admittedly a stretch — that you’ll have fun searching for on a rewatch as Holiday Touchdown airs throughout the season. Here are 13 of them.

Casting Connection

While not a traditional Easter egg, there is quite a meta-casting connection hidden in Holiday Touchdown. Alana is played by Hunter King, sister to Joey King, who starred in Swift’s “I Can See You” music video. It premiered during Swift’s Kansas City Eras Tour stop on July 7, 2023. “Almost exactly a year later,” Holiday Touchdown began filming, Hunter told Today. “It really is a full-circle moment for me.”

Travis Kelce also attended Swift’s concert that weekend, prompting a sequence of events — dominoes cascading in a line, if you will — that led to the pair’s headline-making romance.

That 1989 Polaroid

At the beginning of the film, Alana tells the story of how the Chiefs brought her family together. A throwback Polaroid captioned “XMAS 1989” — yes, it looks like a certain album cover — captures the year they fell in love at Arrowhead Stadium.

A Swiftie Surname?

Alana’s love interest is (of course!) the Chiefs’ director of fan engagement. His name is Derrick Taylor (Tyler Hynes). It isn’t exactly the most unusual surname, but it does feel significant in a movie about a Chiefs romance.

Donna Kelce

Donna Kelce plays the manager of local barbecue spot Norma and Nic’s — an apparent nod to Norma Hunt, the late widow of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt.

A Sweet Message For Mom

Donna’s jersey has a note from Travis on it, E! notes. The “love you mommy!” message was something she “put a lot of thought into” including for her film role, King told the outlet.

Swiftie Numerology

Granted, this might be the point in Holiday Touchdown where I start seeing Easter eggs in places they don’t really exist... or do they? The restaurant table-number cards next to Donna are 13, 66, 44, and 89. Thirteen and 89 are obvious — Swift was born on Dec. 13, 1989, and both numbers are pretty central to her creative image.

There were 44 songs in the first iteration of Swift’s Eras Tour, and she announced her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, at the 66th Grammy Awards earlier this year.

Oui Oui

Derrick says he wishes he hadn’t waited so long to try Kansas City barbecue — a sin Donna says is “like living in Paris and never having a baguette.” Not only is the French capital featured in Swift’s “Paris,” but it was also there that Donna attended Swift’s 87th stop on the Eras Tour. Aww!

Fellow Fans

One of the Chiefs enthusiasts competing against Alana’s family for the Fan of the Year contest is Catrick Mahomes: a real cat named after the quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, whose family Swift is pals with. (Given Swift’s love for cats, you know she’d be all about this little guy even without the team connection.)

Some Motherly Advice

One of the most self-referential moments in Holiday Touchdown is when Donna observes Alana’s mom and grandma trying to meddle in her love life. The Kelce matriarch advises, “Don’t force it, ladies. Just let it happen! Trust me on this one.” The playful comment parallels her laissez-faire approach to her family’s headline-making relationships. As she once told The Cut of her sons’ love lives, “Let me tell you right now, they’re not coming to me. They’re not asking me anything. It’s just the way it is.”

Hall(too well)mark

Toward the middle of the movie, Derrick is hanging out with Alana’s family when snow serendipitously starts to fall. She hands him a cozy red scarf, and the family toasts to the first snow of the season. Of course, there’s a special scarf in “All Too Well.” Plus, the iconic, wistful lyric: “I still remember the first fall of snow, and how it glistened as it fell.”

So Make The Friendship Bracelets...

Naturally, several Swiftie-esque bracelets can be seen throughout the film.

A Swift Ride

To make it to the field for her family’s Fan of the Year celebration, Alana catches a ride on a golf cart — a familiar sight for Swifties who are used to watching the “So High School” singer get around the same way on game day.

All The ‘Fits

From Alana’s long blonde tresses to her endless combination of Chiefs-coded blazers and merch, Holiday Touchdown seems to channel Swift’s sidelines style throughout the movie.