Holiday TV Movies & (Non-Rankin Bass) Holiday Specials - General Discussion

[ShelleySue]

.

Edited December 14, 2015 by ShelleySue

[Kromm]

- Northpole 2... eh. The cast was fine, but I couldn't help but feel they just took the Thanksgiving House script, refurbished it, Xmas'd it, and added some expensive sfx, et voilà. The Northpole franchise could be akin to the old-school Disney or ABC family Christmas movies, but in the end, it's just another generic Hallmark script with Clementine the Elf shoehorned in. (I liked the fact that they replaced Robert Wagner as Santa, though)

My bar for the "magical" (non-realistic) variety of Christmas movies is pretty low, and the FX were actually substantial, but as low as that bar is the script for this was SO horrible. The story as told, the sequence, barely even make SENSE. I mean you have this character who they say they aren't supposed to tell about magic, then mid-stream they change their mind about that and tell her. She gets to meet Santa and go to the North Pole in the MIDDLE of the story (where the beginning or the end is what works for stories like this), THEN after she "knows" they cobble some threadbare reason for her to leave anyway, and then she changes her mind because... I dunno. Reasons.

The only magic I saw in this other than CGI was how Lori Loughlin pulls off playing characters that the woman who played her pseudo-niece through marriage a generation ago also plays in other movies on the same channel (and even CCB is too old now to play those roles). They don't even have to use a particularly soft filter on Lori (and the rumor factory on such things claims she probably hasn't had any serious plastic surgery, or regular Botox).

[TVFan17]

 Did anyone see this amusing article on Yahoo TV, comparing Mayim Bialik's movie with Candace Cameron Bure's latest movie? - https://www.yahoo.com/tv/comparing-lifetime-and-hallmarks-delayed-flight-205604103.html.

 

Now I am especially eager to see the "squishy snow" Lifetime movie as well as How Sarah Got Her Wings!

 

 

Why wouldn't she move to Chicago?  Both of them want a bigger market than Harrison.  After ten years, she's getting that opportunity. 

 

I like Alicia Witt but if she's in a bad movie, she can't make it better.  But if she's in a good movie, I like her just fine.  As for Nashville, the show is a mess.  They keep bringing on new characters and giving them airtime fans would rather have devoted to their already large cast.  If Alicia isn't accepted, the least of her issues would be her acting. 

 

I heard the same thing that twoods heard -- she said she wasn't taking the new job, and her existing boss insisted that she stay on and continue to work for him, even though she was going to resign. 

 

There haven't been any TV movies that Alicia Witt was in that I thought were bad... so far.   I really liked I'm Not Ready for Christmas, but it seems that quite a few other people (not just here, but elsewhere) had issues with it.  I even liked it more the second time I watched it.  If a different actress had played the role that Alicia played, I might have thought it was a bad movie.  She was largely the one who sold it for me.  I haven't disliked any of her other made-for-TV movies (Backyard Wedding, A Very Merry Mix-Up, Snow Globe Christmas or Christmas at Cartwright's), so I don't know if I like them because she is in them or because I would like them anyway, no matter who was in them.  But whatever the case, I think that she brings a bit of extra talent to the TV movie table that some of the other actresses don't bring.  In feature films, however, I have no clue.  I don't remember her in Dune or in Mr. Holland's Opus, or in that movie with Madonna, etc.  She could be awful in those movies, but I think that as far as 'Christmas TV movie actresses' go, she's pretty good, and I have liked all of the movies so far (some more than others, of course).

 

I think I watched the first 2 episodes of the first season of Nashville, and then I got bored and stopped watching.  I never looked back.  I might tune in to the first Alicia Witt episode to see what they do with her, but that show pretty much lost me early on and I can't see myself becoming a regular viewer again..

 

Irlandesa, she mentioned that she didn't accept the Chicago job because it was given on false pretenses with her secret Santa story that ended up being about herself. She mentioned it to her boss towards the end of the movie.

All this talk of Mistle-Tones makes me want to watch it again. I started watching Let It Snow and still love the movie. I liked that the lead's Christmas wish was spending it with her dad, not getting the guy.

 

I think that Let It Snow is the best Candace Cameron Bure Christmas movie, for sure.  She is very charming in it, as she is discovering the joys of the season and the joys of ice fishing.  She is cute with Jesse Hutch.   Her dad is so grumpy throughout the movie, and even though it is utterly predictable that he is going to come around by the end, it is still very touching when it happens.  Plus, I just love that little lodge and all of the Christmas traditions from other countries.

 

The Mistle-Tones needs to come out on DVD -- I would definitely get it.

 

I'm very disappointed.  I had my DVR set to record "Family for Christmas" on Hallmark and "Dashing Through the Snow" on Hallmark Mysteries and movies last night.  The descriptions for both said that they were new.  Then I realized that there was a hockey game I wanted to watch. I can't record two things and watch a third at the same time.  So I un-DVRed Dashing because Family had already started recording, and set the DVR to record Dashing next week.  After the hockey game I decided to watch Famiy for Christmas.  Even though it said that it was new, I knew that I had seen it before.  I looked on imdb and it said that it had aired in July.  So it had been one of the Christmas in July movies.  Why did Hallmark say that it was new and run it on a Sunday night, when the new movies are playing?  So now I'll have to wait for Dashing which I had really wanted to see.

 

A lot of people most likely missed Family for Christmas when it aired in July, as it only aired once or twice and a lot of people don't buy into the whole Christmas in July thing.  It was likely new to a lot of people when it aired last night.  It was supposed to be a 'sneak preview' of sorts in July, but I think it was originally intended to be a totally new movie in the Countdown to Christmas.  So Hallmark sneak previewed it as part of Christmas in July, but on a very limited run.  The main premiere -- the "Winter Premiere" -- was last night.

 

I suspect that Hallmark will do a similar thing in July 2016 -- they will most likely whip out one new Christmas movie for the July event, and then run it only once or twice, with the Winter Premiere late in the year.

 

I like Andrew Walker in Hallmark movies... and I like cute puppies... but I was a tad disappointed by Dashing Through the Snow.  It wasn't as bad as the last Debbie Macomber story-turned-movie, Mr. Miracle, but it wasn't nearly as good as Trading Christmas or Mrs. Miracle either.  I might have to give it another shot at some point.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Sherry67

[twoods]

I lasted 10 minutes through that Christmas Reunion movie on Ion that had Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon. They both were so botoxed that my eyes couldn't handle it, plus it was boring. Will try Becoming Santa tonight. At least Jesse Hutch isn't botoxed and much more nice to look at!

[Spartan Girl]

ABC Family had The Bells of Fraggle Rock and Emet Otter's Jug Band Christmas over the weekend. I love Muppet Christmas specials.

[Myrrhine]

After reading about it here, I had recorded A Very Merry Mix-up (actually, a couple of times because I didn't realize I'd already recorded it), and it was really cute. Probably not in the category of "I must watch this every year!" but I still liked it. I kind of wish they hadn't spoiled the twist in the title, though, because I thought they did an excellent job of setting up the situation in a way that seemed quite plausible and not blazingly obvious. If it hadn't been for the title, I'd have thought they were doing a twist on While You Were Sleeping, where she falls in love with the brother she's not engaged to, and it might have been a surprise that it was the totally wrong family. As it was, because of the title I kept noticing all the things they did to set up the situation.

I liked the leads and liked their connection, and I loved the "wrong" family. There was actually a decent "comedy" element to the romantic comedy, and it all looked nice and Christmassy. I'm not normally a fan of the Evil Significant Other trope, but I think this was handled reasonably well, in that we could see in the beginning that he wasn't always such a jerk, and he did most of his mustache twirling behind her back. However, it might have worked better without the actual engagement, if she was just a girlfriend, and the visit to the family for Christmas was meant as a test/tryout before getting engaged because she seemed to be pretty aware of all the red flags from the start, with the way she was clearly unhappy about his proposal and then hesitant before accepting. If they're not yet engaged, then she looks like less of an idiot for accepting the proposal of someone who's pretty obviously not right, and meeting what she thinks is his family would make her feel better about him.

Yes, I liked that he wasn't *too* evil more that they were poorly suited to each other, which they both eventually appreciated as I recall.

As Sherry67 noted, I also found the speedy bonding of the main couple in this one more believable. I think part of it was that they thought they were going to be in-laws, so it made sense to adopt a more friendly, open, and confiding attitude toward each other than one might with an absolute stranger.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Myrrhine

[methodwriter85]

I really enjoyed Love at the Christmas Table. Danica McKellar really pulled off being younger, and she had wonderful chemistry with Dustin Milligan that felt like they were peers, not her being a cougar.

[Irlandesa]

That's a movie I enjoyed as well.
 

 

I like Andrew Walker in Hallmark movies... and I like cute puppies... but I was a tad disappointed by Dashing Through the Snow.

I think I liked it more than you did.  I like Andrew.  I also like Megan.  There was a cute puppy and some awesome scenery.  There were some things that cracked me up like the lead character's name being Dash and the name of the movie (Dashing Through The Snow).  There was also no snow.  She was headed towards Seattle which she spoke of as it were her hometown but the ceremony her father put on sounded like something from a small town.  I highly doubt ALL of Seattle comes out for a tree lighting ceremony and hay rides.  If she said she was from a different town, I must have missed it.

 

I took a nap during Wish Upon A Christmas.  It was a pleasant background movie but I don't feel compelled to rewatch it.  Been there done that.

[TVFan17]

I lasted 10 minutes through that Christmas Reunion movie on Ion that had Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon. They both were so botoxed that my eyes couldn't handle it, plus it was boring. Will try Becoming Santa tonight. At least Jesse Hutch isn't botoxed and much more nice to look at!

 

 I don't know when the Christmas Reunion movie was filmed in relation to when Christmas Trade was filmed (that's Denise Richards' other Christmas movie this year), but in Christmas Trade I was noticing how frail she seemed to be (which was kind of concealed beneath baggy clothes).  Did she appear that way in Christmas Reunion too?  In the promo pictures I saw of Christmas Reunion, her hair seemed to suddenly be a very bright shade of blonde.   In any case, she is a beautiful girl and seems to be a good mom to her kids, so I hope she is not ill.

 

Yes, I liked that he wasn't *too* evil more that they were poorly suited to each other, which they both eventually appreciated as I recall.

As Sherry67 noted, I also found the speedy bonding of the main couple in this one more believable. I think part of it was that they thought they were going to be in-laws, so it made sense to adopt a more friendly, open, and confiding attitude toward each other than one might with an absolute stranger.

 

 

That's a good way of looking at it, which I hadn't even thought of.  "Alice" and "Matt" in A Very Merry Mix-Up probably could be friendlier and more open because they thought they were about to be family.  That makes sense, now that you put it that way.  I just knew that their speedy bonding didn't bother me quite as much as it bugs me in some other movies, but I wasn't sure why.  That scenario was a little more acceptable.  There are some movies where the leads seem to only have 2 scenes together and then they're in love.  In AVMMU, it seemed as if they spent a lot of quality time together over the course of a couple of days.

 

And I also liked that her fiancé wasn't made out to be an awful person -- I think he just didn't really understand Alice and understand the things that were most important to her, and that their goals and plans in life didn't line up.  He was kind of jerky when he finally went to collect her from the wrong Mitchum family and made a crack about growing up in a house like that, but otherwise I think it was just that they were a bad match.  He was raised in a kind of cold family, and Matt was raised in a fun, loving family.

 

That's a movie I enjoyed as well.

 

I think I liked it more than you did.  I like Andrew.  I also like Megan.  There was a cute puppy and some awesome scenery.  There were some things that cracked me up like the lead character's name being Dash and the name of the movie (Dashing Through The Snow).  There was also no snow.  She was headed towards Seattle which she spoke of as it were her hometown but the ceremony her father put on sounded like something from a small town.  I highly doubt ALL of Seattle comes out for a tree lighting ceremony and hay rides.  If she said she was from a different town, I must have missed it.

 

I took a nap during Wish Upon A Christmas.  It was a pleasant background movie but I don't feel compelled to rewatch it.  Been there done that.

 

Is Wish Upon a Christmas the latest Lifetime installment?  I didn't catch that one either.

 

I think Debbie Macomber was being quite clever with the title, and the fact that the leading man is Dash.  What I also like is that they can be "Ash and Dash" as a couple.

 

If it had just been a straight road trip movie -- with these 2 strangers forced together because there is only one car available -- I would have enjoyed it more.  I didn't care about the mistaken identity and the thieves and any of that mess.  I don't need a Christmas caper.  I'm fine with just a nice Christmas time romance with a 'dash' of comedy.

 

I liked all the puppies!  In fact, the one she took wasn't even the cutest one.  The one that the biker guy was holding was cuter, but all puppies are cute.

[Irlandesa]

I liked the FBI angle because it made it different from the other road trip movies. 

 

Yes, Wish Upon A Christmas was the latest Lifetime.  I didn't completely fall asleep so I technically watched it but I wouldn't force time in your schedule unless it's a plot twist you really enjoy.  (Although we don't always agree and you may like it more than I did.  It was far from terrible and the cast was rather decent.)

[twoods]

I agree- Wish Upon A Christmas was pleasant but nothing stuck out as to wanting to watch it again. The leads didn't have enough bonding scenes and there was too much time wasted on the Santa arc. What a waste on two decent leads that could act.

[TVFan17]

I forgot to say that I am surprised at Lifetime for using such terrible fake, squishy snow.  I have yet to watch Becoming Santa to enjoy the wonders of the squishy snow myself, but I guess I assumed that Lifetime had a slightly bigger budget for their movies than Hallmark has, and certainly a bigger budget than UP or ION.  I guess not.  It seems that no one has been able to master the fake snow and get it right.

 

On that same note, if you want to see some other really, realllllly bad snow, take a peek at UP's low-budget movie from last year, The Tree That Saved Christmas.  Towards the beginning of the movie, when we see what is supposed to be Lacey Chabert as a child, running through a tree farm or the woods or something, there are patches of cotton strewn about on the ground.  When I first saw the cotton I thought, "Oh, maybe the family in the movie put that cotton there to make it look wintry around the trees."  In other words, I was giving this movie too much credit -- I thought that maybe we were supposed to know that the family in the movie was intentionally using fake snow for a wintry atmosphere.  And then I realized that, no, those patches of cotton were supposed to be actual snow in the forest.  It was bad.

 

Most of the fake snow in these movies is too neatly formed in spots, and it doesn't look like a natural snowfall.  Brooke Shields is working on a mystery movie for the Movies & Mysteries Channel right now, and it's supposed to take place in winter.  Apparently there was no actual snow where they are filming right now, so they had to drag out the fake snow -- which looks exactly like what it is -- sheets of cotton flat on the ground.

[Irlandesa]

I agree- Wish Upon A Christmas was pleasant but nothing stuck out as to wanting to watch it again. The leads didn't have enough bonding scenes and there was too much time wasted on the Santa arc. What a waste on two decent leads that could act.

The male lead is in another Lifetime movie called "Maid for Murder" that I spontaneously DVRd and am saving to watch when I need to cleanse my Christmas cheer/cheese palate.

 

I forgot to say that I am surprised at Lifetime for using such terrible fake, squishy snow.  I have yet to watch Becoming Santa to enjoy the wonders of the squishy snow myself, but I guess I assumed that Lifetime had a slightly bigger budget for their movies than Hallmark has, and certainly a bigger budget than UP or ION.   -- which looks exactly like what it is -- sheets of cotton flat on the ground.

I think they do.  I think you can see the money in the movie with the cast and I think even the set looks imaginative.  It's just this scene.  And it's almost impossible to describe if you don't see it for yourself.  I feel for them because I think it would be difficult to shoot.

[JAYJAY1979]

I miss the old days when there wasent such a saturation of holiday movies.. there are so many, it's hard for any to really stick out to me.

http://www.chicagonow.com/confessions-coffeeholic/2015/12/top-10-list-of-christmas-tv-movies-1980s-1990s/

[EyewatchTV211]

That's a movie I enjoyed as well.

 

I think I liked it more than you did.  I like Andrew.  I also like Megan.  There was a cute puppy and some awesome scenery.  There were some things that cracked me up like the lead character's name being Dash and the name of the movie (Dashing Through The Snow).  There was also no snow.  She was headed towards Seattle which she spoke of as it were her hometown but the ceremony her father put on sounded like something from a small town.  I highly doubt ALL of Seattle comes out for a tree lighting ceremony and hay rides.  If she said she was from a different town, I must have missed it.

 

I took a nap during Wish Upon A Christmas.  It was a pleasant background movie but I don't feel compelled to rewatch it.  Been there done that.

I also enjoyed Dashing Through the Snow for the most part. I didn't mind it being a little different with the FBI mix up, but I wish the boss dude wasn't quite so narrow-minded and blind when there were other legitimate leads to look into sooner. However, I understand why they went that way for the storyline.

 

Regarding the Seattle thing: I'm not from anywhere around there, so I don't know if this is the case there. However, I live close to DC right now. People who grow up in suburbs or towns outside of DC are notorious for saying they are "from DC" when they are not actually from the city itself. People just like the apparent prestige of being from the city. So it is possible that the character really meant that she was from the Seattle area, even if she did not say it that way.

 

Also agree with whoever said she didn't even pick the cutest puppy (even though all puppies are cute). They seemed to say something about how that dog was the right match - guess he responded to her the most or the best. 

 

On a nitpicky note - I don't know if these writers truly don't know grammar or if they think having characters talk this way makes them more relatable. Several of these movies have characters saying, "Anyways" and it drives me crazy. If it does not truly have an important purpose, I wish they would have the characters demonstrate correct grammar. Someone on a board for a TV show here complained about a character sometimes speaking in third person. I don't mind that so much because it is clearly played for humor. I don't get why these movies have people saying, "Anyways," though.

Edited December 15, 2015 by VMepicgrl

[Shanna Marie]

Working my way through the DVR, I watched A Princess for Christmas last night, and it seemed like it could have been written for the Disney Channel. It had the precocious little girl, the potential tween heartthrob boy, the very chaste romance that seemed to center around bonding with the children, the conflicts were all really low-key and resolved ridiculously easily, and all the adults other than the leads seemed like cartoon characters. Way too much slapstick, accompanied by the blatant "wacky hijinks" music on the score. I wasn't sure why they bothered creating a fake European country when the grandfather was a duke, not a prince or king, and everything was so very, very British. You could have moved the story to England without changing anything and it would have made more sense (though I guess there would have been fewer royals at the ball, and when the second in line to the throne in England married a commoner, it's hard to buy all the other ball guests being so appalled at the idea of marrying someone without a title). I also didn't think they'd developed all that much of a relationship before her heart was supposedly broken by what she overheard. Oh, and the costume design was awful. Those were some of the ugliest dresses ever at the ball.

 

But I liked the lead guy. He really reminded me of Jesse Spencer, which I found amusing when he was playing the violin (since Jesse Spencer plays violin). And it actually looked like winter.

[TVFan17]

I don't think I have ever seen so many articles about the Holiday Programming Phenomenon before this year.   Here is yet another one -- http://www.avclub.com/article/hallmark-channels-countdown-christmas-movie-event--229545.

 

Hallmark has been doing this specific, branded Countdown to Christmas for several years at this point, though it does get bigger every year, but it is picking up such steam and becoming such a 'thing' that it is now drawing all kinds of attention that it might not have drawn back in, say, 2011 or so.  It's one of those situations where people who love this type of content will tune in, and people who don't love it will tune in -- just for snarking purposes or to have a good chuckle.

 

They do make a point of mentioning in this article that one of the keys to the successful formula is original programming, and not having a bunch of movies that can be seen on other channels.  They also reference the decidedly different tones of the content on the regular Hallmark Channel and on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel.

 

In just about 2-1/2 weeks, we will be done with the Hallmark Christmas movies.  It's hard to believe time has flown by that quickly.  If the goal is, indeed, to aim for 28 or 29 new movies across both channels by 2018, then I would imagine there will be a couple of new ones added into the 2016 line-up, so it will be interesting to see where and how those fit in.   There will probably be a new one for Christmas in July as well.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Sherry67

[SmithW6079]

ABC Family had The Bells of Fraggle Rock and Emet Otter's Jug Band Christmas over the weekend. I love Muppet Christmas specials.

I missed Emmett Otter? Oh, the humanity!

[Kaoteek]

Just finished On The Twelfth Day of Christmas. It was fine. Very predictable, but not annoyingly so, thanks to the likeable lead couple. I didn't quite buy the initial 10 years time jump, though (it wasn't particularly believable, since they didn't even bother trying to age the actors, or anything). Still, a decent holiday movie.

[TVFan17]

Just finished On The Twelfth Day of Christmas. It was fine. Very predictable, but not annoyingly so, thanks to the likeable lead couple. I didn't quite buy the initial 10 years time jump, though (it wasn't particularly believable, since they didn't even bother trying to age the actors, or anything). Still, a decent holiday movie.

 

That was my main issue with it -- but otherwise I liked it very much.  A 10-year time jump is a long enough period of time to warrant some sort of change in appearance.  Maybe they wouldn't look drastically different, but something would be different -- slightly different hair, different clothing/style, not as svelte, etc.  They looked exactly the same 10 years in the past as they did in the present day.

 

All in all, it was a sleeper hit in this Countdown to Christmas, I think.  It flew under the radar and appeared without much fanfare or information but it was good.  The supporting cast was decent too, and not overly annoying or distracting (as supporting casts can sometimes be).

[twoods]

I look pretty much the same from 10 years ago, except more gray hair and I don't get carded anymore- so it is plausible :)

I laughed, then laughed some more, at the squishy show in Becoming Santa. Thanks for the heads up everyone. I did like the movie- I like the actress because she was on Hart Of Dixie, but Jack Frost bugged me. I've seen him in other movies and he's bugged in those, too. Jesse Hutch is too adorable.

[methodwriter85]

 

But I liked the lead guy. He really reminded me of Jesse Spencer, which I found amusing when he was playing the violin (since Jesse Spencer plays violin). And it actually looked like winter.

 

That's Sam Heughan, who's currently starring as Jamie Fraser on Outlander and looks radically different with his long auburn hair. I tried watching it, but wow, the female lead was so unappealing and I couldn't stand anything about it.

 

As for the old-school ones...you gotta love Ebbie, and Susan Lucci trying to play twentysomething in her near-50's. And of course, I love A Very Brady Christmas.

 

As for the current way in which these movies are cranked out...it's not a bad thing. Soaps are dying, t.v. sitcoms are not as steady as they used to be, and theatrical movies are getting made less and less, and this keeps actors employed.

[Shanna Marie]

After reading so much about it here, I DVRd Love at the Christmas Table when it was on and finally watched it last night. It was really quite good and even made me cry. They did a really good job of casting the main characters as kids and teens because I had a hard time telling when they switched to the adult actors from teen actors. With just a slightly bigger budget, this one could almost have been a mainstream big-screen movie. It didn't have that cheap, cheesy look that most of these films have. I also think it could have benefited from the extra half hour or so it would get away from TV because the main flaw was that the relationships needed a little fleshing out. It took me a while to figure out just who Lea Thompson's character was supposed to be and that they were at her house. The "Christmas Miss Havisham" thing didn't work so well since we only saw them at Christmas and it wasn't obvious that she was stuck in Christmas year-round. It also seemed like all the things the guy said to the girl in their big fight near the end came out of nowhere. If he only saw her at this party once a year, how did he know this stuff? And we couldn't tell how right or wrong he was because we hadn't seen enough of her normal life and her relationship with her father to know if he was on target or off-base. In fact, it was so out of the blue that I wonder if maybe this was originally intended to be a longer movie and was cut to fit into the TV slot because it felt like something was missing.

 

However, I loved the relationship, I loved the way they interacted with the kids at the kids' table. I thought her female friend was a potentially fun character I'd have liked to see more of (and loved when she got the kids to help her "kidnap" the heroine, using tinsel to bind her, to make her go out in the year when the guy didn't come home). There was some great dialogue. I was dying when she was using the Han Solo lines from Star Wars on the phone to keep him from coming over.

[TVFan17]

And the articles just keep coming.  This one is from the Wall Street Journal - http://www.wsj.com/articles/hallmarks-feel-good-diet-draws-viewers-advertisers-1450261803.

 

As I mentioned yesterday, I don't think I have ever seen so many articles about the popularity of Holiday TV programming -- with a heavy emphasis on Hallmark -- as I have this year.  This Countdown to Christmas has been around for a while, but as it begins to gain more viewers (whether the viewers love the content or hate-watch the movies) and get bigger in terms of the number of new movies, it is drawing more attention from various media sources. 

Edited December 16, 2015 by Sherry67

[Irlandesa]

I'm going to be cynical here but I think what all these articles mean is that Hallmark has a better publicist.

In other news, I am getting a new DVR that will let me record up to 6 shows at a time. A little late but I won't have to choose which movies to record ever again.

[ClareWalks]

These movies are cheesier than a Wisconsin pizza, and what they lack in realism they make up for with predictability. Yet, I cannot resist. So far I have watched Becoming Santa, The Flight Before Christmas, and Dashing Through the Snow. If I had to pick a fave, it would be Becoming Santa, because Laura Bell Bundy is adorable enough to save it. The lead females in the other two movies...let's just say if I had to spend time in a stuck elevator with either one, I'd take my chances jumping down the shaft.

[Spartan Girl]

Nothing beats the original Elf movie, but I do admit to enjoying the Buddy's Musical Christmas.

[Myrrhine]

I have recently watched the Plum Pudding Mystery one. I liked it pretty well. I thought the baker had a reasonably pretext for most of her investigations. Unlike the garage sale series where Lori Loughlin's character just barges around interrogating complete strangers with no better justification than being a nosy Parker. Anyway, I liked the main character but thought her police boyfriend was way too bossy. Ugh.

Today I watched Dashing Through the Snow. I really liked the scenes with the main characters. I generally enjoy Andrew Walker's made for TV movies, and this one was no exception. I liked that they had a lot of time together vs tons of scenes apart. Maybe not quite enough to declare that they were in love, but long enough to get interested. I didn't hate the idea of the fbi plot, but I thought the pace really ground to a halt every time they cut to that (or the penniless barista). Anyway that was another of my favorites for whatever reason.

[Kaoteek]

That Becoming Santa movie was really... something. I enjoyed the main couple, they were likeable, and had fine chemistry... but the rest... eh...

 

I don't know what bothered me the most : the fact that it felt like a rejected draft for a potential The Santa Clause 4 : The Next Generation movie, especially with that Jack Frost rivalry, that wedding clause, those children elves supervised by an older, grumpy, sarcastic chief elf, and so on ; the way the lead male character was written ("what ? I've been drugged and brought to the North Pole ? What ? You're Santa's daughter, you talk to animals, and you've been lying to me all that time ? What ? If I want to marry you, I need to become Santa, face Jack Frost's jealousy & criticism, and you've secretely been training me for that job without telling me ? Okay, let me apologize for reacting like a normal human being, I shouldn't have freaked out, I'm weak, sorry sorry sorry.") ; or the fact that, once again, Lifetime seems unable to produce a "Santa is real" movie that is earnest, and doesn't feel like some network execs thought the whole concept of a Christmas movie is so cheesy that it has to be overacted (everything at the toy company, the chief elf, Frost), underproduced with the cheapest budget ever (the toy company billboard, the fake snow, the awful rear projection in the car scene, Gross's fake beard, the toy dog, the limited sets...), and never really taken seriously by the writers.

 

In the end, just like in Last Chance for Christmas, it gives the impression the "magical" part is half-assed, and deliberately über-cheesy, which in turn clashes with the more serious, romance part, and undermines both.

 

(really, though... that fake snow !!! ^^)

Edited December 17, 2015 by Kaoteek

[Shanna Marie]

I watched Nine Lives of Christmas from the DVR tonight, and y'all were right, it was really good. I'm not much of a cat person (allergies bad enough that watching the movie made me wheeze, though I do like the occasional kitty snuggle if I have Benadryl handy), but those were cute cats, and remarkably good cat actors. They responded to the people really well. The guy ditched the evil girlfriend halfway through the movie, and it wasn't as though he ever thought she was a nice person -- you got the impression he was with her because she was awful and that meant there was no risk of getting involved with her. You could see why the main couple would fall in love. The "I saw you at a party with a woman" final complication was a bit contrived, but at least that part of the movie was short. I also liked that they didn't bother throwing cotton balls around and pretending there was snow when it was so obviously not winter. Not every place has snow on the ground at Christmas, and it just looks even worse when they do fake snow in the spring. As it was, the newly leafed-out trees were a little distracting in the background, but it would have been worse if they'd been faking snow.

[methodwriter85]

I'm rewatching Holiday Engagement on Hulu, where Bonnie Somerville has Jordan Bridges pretend to be her (ex) fiancee in order to impress her nagging mom played by Shelley Long. I'm again struck by how frickin' cute Jordan is.

Edited December 17, 2015 by methodwriter85

[TVFan17]

Okay, I am currently -- as I type this -- watching Becoming Santa.  Luckily, the golden scene of the couple staring at the Northern Lights and sitting on the squishy snow is in the first half hour of the movie, so I didn't have to wait long for it!  And... hee hee.  Lol.

 

Honestly, and here I go giving a movie more credit that I probably should again, that snow is SO bad.... I mean, so, so sooooooo fake... that I had to wonder if they were intentionally making it look as cheesy as possible and not even trying to pretend that the snow was real because the viewers all know it's fake anyway.  I know I have seen better attempts at supposed snow on Lifetime before.  Even Hallmark's movies -- with the abundance of fake snow -- don't highlight the squishy snow quite as much as this Lifetime movie did.  They might have the actors walking around it and maybe even on it, but you usually can't quite see the snow bouncing back after someone pushes into it.

 

I also caught the second hour of the UP movie, My One Christmas Wish, with Amber Riley.  While it's not the sort of movie I would watch to be 'entertained' -- it's not funny or fun or anything like that -- the concept of it is not a bad one (finding the family on Craigslist), and I think it's based on a true story.  The message of the movie and the overall meaning behind it is fine.  I mean, really, what Amber's character does in the movie is wonderful and touching.  I think that it's a movie that's fine for the person who wants to watch a Christmas story that means something, and isn't just about Santas, elves, romance, magic gone awry, etc.  Personally, I prefer either the more upbeat movies or the more romance-oriented movies, but the movies with meaning and substance can be good too.

 

I just wish that the majority of UP movies didn't feel so slow.  The first hour of MOCW drags on.  The budget is always so low for these movies that there is no choice but to focus on the message and the story.  For example, the movie Angels in the Snow -- another message movie with a little twist, but so slow and no-frills.

 

I will also mention how amusing I find it that one of the commercials running on the Hallmark Channel quite often recently is the Estee Lauder ad with the song Lady Marmalade.  Lady Marmalade = not a very Hallmark-appropriate message or theme.  I find it hilarious that the ad is running, but some of the super conservative viewers will complain, as they complain about drug ads and lingerie ads.  They also complain if there is a commercial for an R-rated theatrical movie.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Sherry67

[twoods]

I'm rewatching Holiday Engagement on Hulu, where Bonnie Somerville has Jordan Bridges pretend to be her (ex) fiancee in order to impress her nagging mom played by Shelley Long. I'm again struck by how frickin' cute Jordan is.

I absolutely love the scene with both of them are singing together while he plays the piano- brings tears to my eyes every time. Good movie.

Caught a bit of Desperately Seeking Santa and may watch the rest later- sort of remember the story but it kept me intrigued so hopefully it's decent. Haven't watched it in years.

Edited December 17, 2015 by twoods

[dalek]

I am probably more judgy than I should be about holiday movies because (a) I'm Jewish and I occasionally get really annoyed at all the relentless Christmas cheer and why can't the muzak in stores play something good like Carol of the Bells instead of something annoying like All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth and (b) I'm happily single and intend to stay that way (to quote/paraphrase Rita Rudner, at this point I'm basically a bear with furniture and a lot of books) and the movies tend to be about romance and the women never get to have it all, which may be realistic, but I don't see why the men can't be giving stuff up and it is perfectly possible to be happy without moving to the suburbs and having large numbers of children, not that's anything wrong with that if it's what you really want.

 

This is the first year my cable company has given me Hallmark and Hallmark Mysteries as part of the basic plus package.  I've been enjoying a number of the older movies such as Christmas With Holly, The Christmas Secret, Christmas at Cartwrights, and A Season for Miracles.

 

For me, it is very hit and miss which sentimental movie will push my buttons in a good way and which will do it in a bad way.  For instance, I like most versions of A Christmas Carol, but along with the rest of my family, I loathe It's a Wonderful Life.  Best version of the latter is the Married With Children version when Sam Kinnison shows Al Bundy how much better off his family would be without him and he decides to live to spite them.

[TVFan17]

I absolutely love the scene with both of them are singing together while he plays the piano- brings tears to my eyes every time. Good movie.

Caught a bit of Desperately Seeking Santa and may watch the rest later- sort of remember the story but it kept me intrigued so hopefully it's decent. Haven't watched it in years.

 

It's coincidental that you mentioned Desperately Seeking Santa.  I didn't see your comment about it until now, but I just happened to record it overnight and watched it today.  I saw it in the cable listings and wondered how it had escaped me in the past.

 

You may enjoy it more than I do.  All of these movies are, of course, predictable, and we all know exactly how they will end.  So it's not the ultimate outcome I am interested in as much as the path the movies take to get to that outcome.  I guess it was fine, but I didn't find either of the two leads very compelling.  I knew they'd end up together, but I guess I just wasn't as interested in how they'd end up together.  It wasn't a bad movie.  I just didn't feel the need to watch it again.

 

As far as movies I have watched again and again, yesterday and today have been good days for my favorites.  Snow Bride was on earlier this morning.  A Bride for Christmas just ended.  A Very Merry Mix-Up is on right now.  And Nine Lives of Christmas is up next.  The Christmas Ornament was on yesterday.  The Most Wonderful Time of the Year was on late last night.  All I need is a little Let It Snow to cap it off, but that's not on the schedule for today, sadly.

[KLovestoShop]

Has anyone seen Ebbie this season?  Seems like it's been one of those movies they show every year, but I haven't seen it listed anywhere.  I'm still pissed that the Christmas List isn't on, along with Borrowed Hearts.  

[StaceyNotStacie]

I think I've hit the wall in regards to Christmas movies.  There are so many that are on every weekend and I just can't keep up.  I ended up deleting a bunch of them off of my DVR because I knew I wouldn't watch them.  I watched Becoming Santa and The Christmas Truce over the weekend and still have Dashing Through the Snow on my DVR (mostly because I like the actors and I usually like the Debbie Macomber movies).  I just don't have time to watch all of these movies.  I have the new Lifetime and Hallmark movies for this weekend set to record, but I have no interest in watching the rest of last week's batch.  If I happen to catch on during another airing, I might watch, but otherwise, I'm done.  

 

 

Has anyone seen Ebbie this season?  Seems like it's been one of those movies they show every year, but I haven't seen it listed anywhere.  I'm still pissed that the Christmas List isn't on, along with Borrowed Hearts.

 

I'm surprised that I haven't seen this one yet, considering that it was originally a Lifetime movie and Susan Lucci is on Devious Maids.  It's been a few years since I have seen it on tv and I'd probably stop and watch it.  

 

It's been a few years since anyone has done a Christmas Carol-type movie.  I'm surprised that one of the networks hasn't added this into their recent movies (I know Hallmark did one about 4-5 years ago) since they have so many movies in their lineup.

[Shanna Marie]

My DVR watching for tonight was one from Lifetime, Kristin's Christmas Past, and it was surprisingly good. It's along the lines of Peggy Sue Got Married, with a woman revisiting her teenage self, but unlike that one, she doesn't become her teenage self. It's more like she's time traveled and is visiting her teenage self. A 34-year-old woman whose life hasn't quite worked out the way she hoped is facing spending Christmas alone, since her male best friend is going to be with his girlfriend and she's estranged from her family. After drinking a magical bottle of champagne (this is Lifetime, not Hallmark), she wakes up in her teenage bedroom, next to her teenage self. Then she tries to talk her teenage self out of making the same mistakes she made. It's rather funny and at times touching. It's not really a romance, though re-meeting her best friend when he's a teenager gives her new insight into his adult self and her feelings for him. But the focus is more on her relationship with her mother and seeing her through adult eyes.

[TVFan17]

Has anyone seen Ebbie this season?  Seems like it's been one of those movies they show every year, but I haven't seen it listed anywhere.  I'm still pissed that the Christmas List isn't on, along with Borrowed Hearts.  

 

I can't recall if I saw Ebbie in the cable listings over the past month or not.  It's not in the listings now, so if it already aired somewhere then it must have run its course for the year.  I may be remembering incorrectly, but it seems like I stumbled upon it on a channel that was not Lifetime last year.  It might have been picked up by other affiliate channels or independent channels -- which is also where I think I saw The Christmas List in the cable guide either last year or in 2013.  TCL was on a random, obscure, possibly independent local affiliate channel of some sort, and on at some odd hour of the night.  I remember skimming through the cable guide and seeing The Christmas List, and thinking "Oh... there it is.  So many people ask about that movie."  Whatever channel it was, it was a channel where I didn't even think to look for Christmas movies so it wasn't one of the obvious places like ION, UP or even INSP.

 

I think I've hit the wall in regards to Christmas movies.  There are so many that are on every weekend and I just can't keep up.  I ended up deleting a bunch of them off of my DVR because I knew I wouldn't watch them.  I watched Becoming Santa and The Christmas Truce over the weekend and still have Dashing Through the Snow on my DVR (mostly because I like the actors and I usually like the Debbie Macomber movies).  I just don't have time to watch all of these movies.  I have the new Lifetime and Hallmark movies for this weekend set to record, but I have no interest in watching the rest of last week's batch.  If I happen to catch on during another airing, I might watch, but otherwise, I'm done.  

 

 

I'm surprised that I haven't seen this one yet, considering that it was originally a Lifetime movie and Susan Lucci is on Devious Maids.  It's been a few years since I have seen it on tv and I'd probably stop and watch it.  

 

It's been a few years since anyone has done a Christmas Carol-type movie.  I'm surprised that one of the networks hasn't added this into their recent movies (I know Hallmark did one about 4-5 years ago) since they have so many movies in their lineup.

 

In 2012 Hallmark did a movie called It's Christmas, Carol (it starred Carrie Fisher).  I don't think it was one of the big hits of that year, so maybe they decided to put that basic plot aside for a while and then revisit it in the future.

[Shanna Marie]

It's been a few years since anyone has done a Christmas Carol-type movie.  I'm surprised that one of the networks hasn't added this into their recent movies (I know Hallmark did one about 4-5 years ago) since they have so many movies in their lineup.

I think some of this may be that it's really hard to do that kind of story in a romance, and almost all of these movies are romances. If one of the characters is an utter jerk who needs to be reformed, he/she isn't going to be someone a good person would be falling in love with, and even after the sudden reformation at the end, a smart person would be a little wary and wait to see if the reformation is going to stick. Also, most of the story takes place in the dream/ghost visits, so nothing is really happening in the present other than the beginning and end, which makes it hard to develop a relationship. The original story is not a romance. No one is falling in love with Scrooge. When they've done this plot in a romance form, like Hallmark's It's Christmas, Carol, that was a bad weak spot in the story. The guy was the "Scrooge" character's ex, and they were able to show them happy together in the past, while their present interactions were strained or even hostile, and then after she learned her lesson and showed up on Christmas morning, it was like a switch flipped, and it didn't ring in any way true (even for a Christmas movie).

 

There are similar problems with a lot of the "person needs to be magically reformed" stories. It's hard to make a romance work when one person is so awful he or she needs magical intervention to be reformed. At least in I'm Not Ready for Christmas, the intervention that forced her to change happened early in the movie, so he fell for her improved self, and then she had to make the change stick on her own -- and the relationship still didn't quite work. This kind of story needs more of a hopeful romantic ending, like where the person meets someone you suspect may be right at the end or you get the sense they might start working things out, rather than the standard big kiss with a flash forward to the wedding.

 

Though I'm all for having at least one of these movies not be a romance. Let it be more about family or friends-as-family. As a happily single person, I'm irked by the message that the absolute worst thing ever is to go through Christmas without being in a romantic relationship. There's a big difference between "alone" and "single." Or at least do an ensemble piece where maybe the main couple gets together, but they have at least one friend who's single and okay with it rather than everyone being all "I have to find a date by Christmas or I'll die alone and unloved."

[izabella]

Though I'm all for having at least one of these movies not be a romance. Let it be more about family or friends-as-family. As a happily single person, I'm irked by the message that the absolute worst thing ever is to go through Christmas without being in a romantic relationship. There's a big difference between "alone" and "single." Or at least do an ensemble piece where maybe the main couple gets together, but they have at least one friend who's single and okay with it rather than everyone being all "I have to find a date by Christmas or I'll die alone and unloved."

 

I feel for you!!  Before getting together with my SO a few years ago, I felt exactly the same way as you.  I had a moratorium on all rom coms and romances for a long time, which left me with crime, medical and spies and they'd still force romance into those. 

 

The UP and ION holiday movies, and even Lifetime, are lighter on romance, so I've been dipping into those holiday movies more in the last week or so.  I get tired of the holiday movies that are entirely focused on romance.  One of my favorites is the "The Town Christmas Forgot" about a family stranded in a snowy mountain town and finds the true meaning of Christmas while engaging with the locals.  I also like "Unlikely Angel" with Dolly Parton - there is a little bit of romance in it, but it's mostly Dolly trying to get into heaven by helping a single dad with his kids.

Edited December 18, 2015 by izabella

[TVFan17]

I, too, am happily single and I can tell you that I would be bored to tears if a lot of the holiday movies were about family and more meaningful topics!  Lol.  I think it's just a matter of different strokes for different folks.  I want to be entertained -- though the occasional meaningful movie is okay now and then -- and what entertains me is generally the more lighthearted or whimsical fare, which often includes some sort of romance happening in the story. 

 

Honestly, though, even the more meaningful "message movies" on any channel usually involve a new romance or a relationship/marriage that needs to be saved.  Romance/marriage is in almost every single Christmas movie on every channel in some way.  Very rarely are there no romantic relationships of any kind featured in a TV movie at all. 

 

At the same time, there are not a whole lot of holiday movies on any channel in which the lead actress is specifically seeking out love.  Love usually just happens during the course of whatever else is going on, but sometimes there is a heavier focus on the romance in some movies than in other movies.  I agree that in some of the movies there is an overall sense that being without romance over the holidays is the worst fate in the world, but it doesn't bother me too much.    These movies also make it seem as though being without a family over the holidays is the worst thing in the world too -- but it is a reality for some people, for various reasons. 

 

I'm always kind of sad at this time of year, knowing that the wave of Christmas movies is going to come crashing in soon and it will all come to an end.  But it has been hard to keep up with everything on all the channels -- which is a good problem to have -- and I know it's necessary to have a long break from the merry movies for a while, to build up interest in next year's assortment.  I will tune in for Hallmark's Winterfest movies and Countdown to Valentine's Day movies, as well as whatever they offer up for June Weddings, but I find that I usually like the Christmas/holiday movies more than the non-Christmas/holiday movies.  I don't know why -- it might just be as simple as the fact that I love this season, and I like seeing pretty decorations and hearing Christmas songs in the background.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Sherry67

[twoods]

I heart Mistletones so much! At least I have my go to movie to put me in a good mood if I try to watch a stinker Christmas movie. The time always flies by and love the singing. I really like the lead and don't know why he's not in other movies.

[TVFan17]

I heart Mistletones so much! At least I have my go to movie to put me in a good mood if I try to watch a stinker Christmas movie. The time always flies by and love the singing. I really like the lead and don't know why he's not in other movies.

 

It was just on earlier today!  It's such a delightful, upbeat movie, and the music is a very strong reason why it's so good.  I cannot understand nor comprehend why ABC Family-soon-to-be-Freeform has not put it out on DVD, seeing that it is 3 years old at this point.  It debuted in 2012, didn't it?  I know it wasn't 2013, and certainly not 2014.  It's not even part of one of their compilation DVDs -- packaged with multiple other ABC Family movies.  Very weird.

 

I couldn't recall the name of the lead guy (Jonathan Patrick Moore) in The Mistle-Tones, so I just looked him up on IMDB.  I was pretty sure that he had never been in a Hallmark movie, and it looks like that is accurate, but he has done a few TV movies, scattered here and there.  Oddly, one of the movies he did was Christian Mingle -- which is an UP movie starring Lacey Chabert (and directed by Corbin Bernsen)!   I saw that movie and did not even realize he was in it (the movie bored me) -- I guess it had been so long since I'd seen The Mistle-Tones that I'd forgotten what he looked like when I saw Christian Mingle.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Sherry67

[Irlandesa]

I, too, am happily single and I can tell you that I would be bored to tears if a lot of the holiday movies were about family and more meaningful topics!  Lol.  I think it's just a matter of different strokes for different folks.  I want to be entertained -- though the occasional meaningful movie is okay now and then -- and what entertains me is generally the more lighthearted or whimsical fare, which often includes some sort of romance happening in the story.

I also am happily single.  I'm such an introvert that I have zero interest in being not-single.  I don't think Hallmark has some subversive message that you need to be paired to have a good Christmas.  Fluffy, whitewashed romance is what they do whether it's a Christmas movie or a Valetine's Day movie or a Mother's Day movie.  Every once in a while they'll have a dog movie or a family movie but they've established their brand and it's why I watch their movies.  It's the perfect romance for me. I can live it for two hours but don't have to deal with it any longer than that. 

 

UP and INSP do more family movies.  There's also uplifting movies like Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors.  It's not a Christmas movie but it did deal with family, marriage and faith.  If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it.  (And I'm an agnostic but felt the faith aspect was less heavy handed than the INSP movies. )

[snarktini]

I'm going to be cynical here but I think what all these articles mean is that Hallmark has a better publicist.

Exactly. Their PR engine has cracked the code. (That's not even cynical, really. Press coverage is rarely accidental.)

 

Yet another article -- this one talks about their marketing group boosting "integration" and partnerships. That generates a lot of media coverage. http://www.adweek.com/news/television/hallmark-channel-christmas-most-wonderful-and-lucrative-time-year-168275

Edited December 19, 2015 by snarktini

[twoods]

It was just on earlier today! It's such a delightful, upbeat movie, and the music is a very strong reason why it's so good. I cannot understand nor comprehend why ABC Family-soon-to-be-Freeform has not put it out on DVD, seeing that it is 3 years old at this point. It debuted in 2012, didn't it? I know it wasn't 2013, and certainly not 2014. It's not even part of one of their compilation DVDs -- packaged with multiple other ABC Family movies. Very weird.

I couldn't recall the name of the lead guy (Jonathan Patrick Moore) in The Mistle-Tones, so I just looked him up on IMDB. I was pretty sure that he had never been in a Hallmark movie, and it looks like that is accurate, but he has done a few TV movies, scattered here and there. Oddly, one of the movies he did was Christian Mingle -- which is an UP movie starring Lacey Chabert (and directed by Corbin Bernsen)! I saw that movie and did not even realize he was in it (the movie bored me) -- I guess it had been so long since I'd seen The Mistle-Tones that I'd forgotten what he looked like when I saw Christian Mingle.

Yes! No idea why it's not on DVD when Snowglobe and other ABC family movies are.

I did recognize the actor in a movie called Back To Christmas that I saw on Ion- it was pretty boring but I was wondering where else I saw him in. He would make a good Hallmark lead.

[Shanna Marie]

I, too, am happily single and I can tell you that I would be bored to tears if a lot of the holiday movies were about family and more meaningful topics!

Oh, I definitely prefer the romantic comedies and don't want the tearjerkers about people discovering the real meaning of Christmas as their family members die, or homeless single parents find a home, etc. But it does seem like the "if you aren't in a romantic relationship at Christmas it's the worst thing ever and you'll die sad and alone" message gets repeated a lot in these movies. Even when the heroine isn't looking for romance, the people around her are telling her she should be, and the fact that the happy ending is that she does end up in a romance seems to validate their stance. Take Nine Lives of Christmas -- the heroine's sister and best friend were horrified by the idea that she might be single and wanted to set her up and make her join dating services, and the hero's work colleagues were telling him his life would be awful if he didn't get married. They might have been somewhat right about him, since he was dating terrible women he didn't even like out of a fear of commitment, but in her case, her stance made a lot of sense. She was working her way through vet school and doing volunteer work that mattered to her. She didn't have any kind of unhealthy stance on relationships. Her life wasn't empty and meaningless. She was busy and had her priorities in order.

 

While you won't have a romantic comedy without the romance part, so the main characters are bound to end up paired off, it might be nice if occasionally there's a friend or family member in the group who is happily single and not being pushed into a relationship -- kind of like a Love Actually situation with a few overlapping stories, and one of the stories involves someone who's happy outside a romantic relationship. Or the heroine's best friend/sister be happy being single and not pushing the heroine into dating.

 

That Kristin's Christmas Past movie I mentioned did a decent job of this, where the reason the heroine was sad and alone had nothing to do with romance and was because she was estranged from her family. That attitude spilled into the rest of her life and was holding her back. Getting a different perspective on her family allowed her to get a different perspective on everything, which included a relationship, but it was more about her reconciling with her family and finally getting past her teenage rebellion that had lasted into her thirties.

 

But otherwise, you could have "heroine worries she'll end up dying alone because she doesn't have a boyfriend at Christmas" and "best friend/family member is worried about heroine because she's single at Christmas" on your TV Christmas Movies bingo card (if this doesn't exist, it should).

[TVFan17]

Tonight is the big Mariah Carey Hallmark Channel night!  Will this movie -- A Christmas Melody -- sink or swim?  I really like the combo of Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott (they were great together in All of My Heart this past February), and supposedly Mariah's role is not that prominent (though she did put her dog in the movie, and bumped out Lacey Chabert's dog from the scenes that had already been shot!  Lol).  However, Mariah did direct it.  And there is a Mariah Christmas special on right after the movie.   Lots of Mariah tonight. 

 

Tonight is also Lifetime's final new movie of the season, The Spirit of Christmas.   And tomorrow night is the final new Hallmark Countdown to Christmas movie of the year, Christmas Land.  I think that UP and ION are done with their new movies, from what it appears.

 

Tomorrow is another showing of How Sarah Got Her Wings on ION so I will catch it this time.   But this is why I love what Hallmark does for the holidays -- they repeat and repeat and repeat movies again and again, which is awesome for the purposes of trying to watch or record something at a time when it is convenient.   All of the other channels showing Christmas movies don't repeat them often enough, so if I miss something the first 2 times it airs, I have to wait 2 weeks for it to be shown again, IF it is shown at all -- and then that 3rd showtime might be at a time when something else is on that I want to record.  Meanwhile, if I find myself with pockets of time in which I can watch movies, I want to get caught up on the ones that I missed -- but because they are not repeated often enough I have to wait for them to be shown again.

 

At least Lifetime had the sense to put their new Christmas movies in the On Demand selection, so that's how I have watched them.  Just this morning I watched Wish Upon a Christmas, with Larisa Oleynik.  You know, it wasn't a bad movie at all.   The idea behind it was a good one -- someone who has to lay people off right before Christmas.  The mysterious Santa man was pleasant.  The lead guy -- the dad -- was pleasant.  The kid was a bit irritating at times.  The whole mess with finding the lost magical bauble was totally unnecessary.  I don't know why Alan Thicke was even in the movie -- there really seemed to be no point in him being there.  But, all in all, it was fine.  It wasn't super exciting, but it was worthy of watching -- especially On Demand, without commercials.

 

I am finding that the movie -- out of all the movies I have watched this season up to this point -- that is standing out for me, and the one that I have enjoyed watching a 2nd and 3rd time is..... On the Twelfth Day of Christmas!   That sleeper of a movie just may end up rising to the top of this year's ranks and being my favorite of the batch.  I have not intentionally set out to watch it multiple times, but when I have noticed that it was starting or currently on, if the timing was good I sat down and watched it and enjoyed it each time.  I liked it the first time I saw it, but it didn't reach out from the TV and smack me across the face so that I instantly said, "I love this movie!!!"  Rather, it kind of sneaked up on me.

 

To be fair, my TV movie viewing this season has been hit or miss because my upstairs neighbors are just too loud, and when they're home I can't concentrate on anything.  So, when I am able to sneak in a movie it is usually a matter of me trying to get through it as quickly as possible, before the neighbors wake up or come home.  This year I have not been able to relax and focus on most of the movies as much as I have been able to in the past, and that lack of concentration has likely impacted my perspective and opinion on everything I have watched. 

 

 

I also am happily single.  I'm such an introvert that I have zero interest in being not-single.  I don't think Hallmark has some subversive message that you need to be paired to have a good Christmas.  Fluffy, whitewashed romance is what they do whether it's a Christmas movie or a Valetine's Day movie or a Mother's Day movie.  Every once in a while they'll have a dog movie or a family movie but they've established their brand and it's why I watch their movies.  It's the perfect romance for me. I can live it for two hours but don't have to deal with it any longer than that. 

 

UP and INSP do more family movies.  There's also uplifting movies like Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors.  It's not a Christmas movie but it did deal with family, marriage and faith.  If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it.  (And I'm an agnostic but felt the faith aspect was less heavy handed than the INSP movies. )

 

 

Even the dog movies and the family movies will involve some sort of new romance, some sort of marriage proposal or saving a marriage from divorce!  Lol.    All of them -- even the ones on UP and INSP -- have some element of that in all movies.  On Lifetime, there could be kids in need of a home, a woman trying to rebuild her life after a divorce, or a library in need of being saved, and romance will happen!

 

Like you said, it's why I watch.  Some of the movies are more about the romances than others, and some of them just include a small love component, but it's always there.  Thank the heavens for that!  I would be bored beyond belief if all of the movies were just serious message movies and no one was hooking up!

 

I haven't seen Coat of Many Colors -- it wasn't at the top of my list of movies to see, and there was no room for it on the DVR when it aired, but I wonder if it's On Demand.  I'm willing to watch it, and be receptive to the possibility of liking it.

 

 

 

Yes! No idea why it's not on DVD when Snowglobe and other ABC family movies are.

I did recognize the actor in a movie called Back To Christmas that I saw on Ion- it was pretty boring but I was wondering where else I saw him in. He would make a good Hallmark lead.

 

 

Oh, you know, I saw Back to Christmas on ION last year -- it is one of those kooky movies that has a different name on IMDB or wherever it is listed.   I think the other name for it is Correcting Christmas, or something very un-catchy like that.  I remember at that time thinking that it was pretty decent, but... one year later, I don't think I could tell you one thing that happened in it, other than the lead actress going back a year (was it one year?) to do something over.  So it must not have left a lasting impression on me!  Lol.  And, once again, I don't remember that actor in it, just like I didn't even realize he was in Christian Mingle.  Lol.

 

 

Oh, I definitely prefer the romantic comedies and don't want the tearjerkers about people discovering the real meaning of Christmas as their family members die, or homeless single parents find a home, etc. But it does seem like the "if you aren't in a romantic relationship at Christmas it's the worst thing ever and you'll die sad and alone" message gets repeated a lot in these movies. Even when the heroine isn't looking for romance, the people around her are telling her she should be, and the fact that the happy ending is that she does end up in a romance seems to validate their stance. Take Nine Lives of Christmas -- the heroine's sister and best friend were horrified by the idea that she might be single and wanted to set her up and make her join dating services, and the hero's work colleagues were telling him his life would be awful if he didn't get married. They might have been somewhat right about him, since he was dating terrible women he didn't even like out of a fear of commitment, but in her case, her stance made a lot of sense. She was working her way through vet school and doing volunteer work that mattered to her. She didn't have any kind of unhealthy stance on relationships. Her life wasn't empty and meaningless. She was busy and had her priorities in order.

 

While you won't have a romantic comedy without the romance part, so the main characters are bound to end up paired off, it might be nice if occasionally there's a friend or family member in the group who is happily single and not being pushed into a relationship -- kind of like a Love Actually situation with a few overlapping stories, and one of the stories involves someone who's happy outside a romantic relationship. Or the heroine's best friend/sister be happy being single and not pushing the heroine into dating.

 

That Kristin's Christmas Past movie I mentioned did a decent job of this, where the reason the heroine was sad and alone had nothing to do with romance and was because she was estranged from her family. That attitude spilled into the rest of her life and was holding her back. Getting a different perspective on her family allowed her to get a different perspective on everything, which included a relationship, but it was more about her reconciling with her family and finally getting past her teenage rebellion that had lasted into her thirties.

 

But otherwise, you could have "heroine worries she'll end up dying alone because she doesn't have a boyfriend at Christmas" and "best friend/family member is worried about heroine because she's single at Christmas" on your TV Christmas Movies bingo card (if this doesn't exist, it should).

 

 

I saw Kristin's Christmas Past two years ago and didn't like it, for some reason.  I may revisit it again in the future and give it another chance (probably not this year), but it didn't make a big first impression on me.  I was bored early on and could barely get through it, but I got through it. 

 

I don't think the movies have to be about romance, per se -- but just about every single Christmas movie (or really, TV movies in general, on any subject), comedic or dramatic (even if it is about something else, technically), includes a new romantic connection being formed, an existing relationship advancing to marriage, a failing marriage being saved, or something like that.  It's unavoidable!  Lol.  There might be just a small, fleeting scene in which it is implied that 2 people will get together, but it's an element that is always there, sometimes in the background, sometimes on the sidelines, and sometimes at the forefront.   A story could be about saving a tree farm  or a pumpkin farm from going under, and a romance will still pop up or a marriage will be saved!  There is no escaping it -- it's on every channel.

 

I don't mind it, though -- even if the main message were that it's the worst thing ever to be without a partner at Christmas, it doesn't bother me.  I just go along for the ride and enjoy the movies.  In fact, I prefer the movies where a good couple hooks up -- if they have chemistry -- instead of the lead actress staying unattached.  Then again, I wanted Carrie and Mr. Big to get together in the series finale of Sex and the City, and I wanted Samantha to stay with Smith in the first Sex and the City movie, whereas a lot of other people felt differently.

[Shanna Marie]

I saw Kristin's Christmas Past two years ago and didn't like it, for some reason.

Oh, it wasn't the best ever, and it was hard to get into because the heroine was so awful at first, but it grew on me throughout, and I liked the way it worked out.

 

Today's DVR viewing (since I have a cold and was indulging myself by becoming one with my sofa):

Snow Bride -- I've seen a lot of love for this one here, but it was a little hard for me to take, and I might not have watched more than 30 minutes without the high praise. It was hard to get past the fact that the heroine was the deadly combination of an awful person and too stupid to live when she rushed off into the mountains in the snow with no preparation, wearing shorts and a tank top, with no plan in place, and her friend's wedding gown in the trunk, in order to chase a tabloid story. I liked the other characters and I liked the guy, and the relationship ended up being okay with nice chemistry, but it was hard for me to watch it knowing that she was deceiving them and was such an idiot.

 

Tis the Season for Love -- Flames on the sides of my face! Hate! Really, they gave this woman a guilt trip for ditching a volunteer gig directing a small-town children's play that she got thrown into at the last minute for a chance at Broadway, even as an understudy? I'm from a small town, so all the "small towns are perfect and wonderful, and you must return to your hometown" stories irk me. I also didn't like the guy at all. He wasn't that great an actor, so all his lines sounded like he was sounding them out while reading from cue cards, though I guess it would be hard to act a non-character who had no defining traits or personality. He was blander than the usual Hallmark hero, and he wasn't even that attractive.

 

I may have to start digging into the OnDemand options because my DVR is almost empty.