Betty White fans are going to have to wait a bit longer to see the legendary actress in her next project, as Lifetime has announced that their upcoming holiday movie starring White has been delayed to next year. Previously, it had been reported that White's Christmas movie, which is still untitled, would be premiering on the small screen at the end of the year. Citing safety concerns for the cast and crew, Lifetime has now confirmed that the Betty White Lifetime Christmas Movie has officially been delayed by at least a year.

"We're all still dreaming of a White Christmas with Betty White - unfortunately we will have to wait until 2021," Lifetime said in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly, adding that the movie was getting pushed to next year due to ongoing filming restrictions.

In the movie, White stars in the lead role as a helpful woman who assists Santa Claus impersonators prepare for the holiday season. Meanwhile, the mystery looms that the character just might be the real Mrs. Claus. If she does turn out to in fact be from the North Pole, it wouldn't be the first time White has played Santa's wife. She voiced Mrs. Claus in the animated holiday special The Story of Santa Claus in 1996 as well as the 2010 short Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa. White also made a special appearance in the role for an episode of the children's program Noddy.

This year has been detrimental for many, and fans of White have been spending 2020 worrying about the Hollywood legend. Through her publicist, White had let everyone know that she was staying healthy and doing just fine in isolation. Now that many movie and television productions are starting back up, the plan may have been to shoot White's Christmas movie for Lifetime in the near future. As we've seen recently with Robert Pattinson and The Batman, however, returning to work is still a risk. Considering she will turn 99 years young in January, it's certainly for the best that White waits a while longer before going back to set.

White has been in the business for eight decades, and might be best known for playing Rose Nylund on the classic comedy series The Golden Girls. She also memorably starred on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Hot in Cleveland, and has appeared in a wide variety of movies. White has earned eight Emmy Awards over the course of her career and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fans of the iconic actress are always happy to see White whenever she takes on any kind of new project, so there had been a lot of excitement surrounding her Christmas movie as well.

For what it's worth, those looking forward to new Christmas movies this year will still have plenty to anticipate. A whopping 30 new titles are still heading to Lifetime this winter, with many of them completing filming before the nationwide shutdown. We'll just have to wait until next year to get our White Christmas. This news comes to us from Entertainment Weekly.