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

[renatae]

I'm currently watching a rerun of "The Christmas Shepherd" and I guess I'm extra cranky today. I don't remember feeling this way before, but when Sally goes to see if the dog Mark found is really Buddy, Mark gets all huffy and says he doesn't want to tell his daughter they have to give up the dog. He acts as if it's *his* dog and she needs his permission to take back her own dog! His daughter has "been through so much."

Well, so has the veteran's widow who has only her dog, which she owns and has lived with for years, not just two weeks. I didn't catch it this time, but I think there was some connection with her husband as well. His dog, his service dog or something. I know it's just a vehicle to get them together, but otherwise my reaction is, "Get your daughter her own dog!"

Ho, ho, Merry Christmas, LOL.

Edited November 26, 2019 by renatae

[GeorgiaRai]

10 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I'm half way through A Christmas Duet and it's not grabbing me even though the leads are fine.  I will likely finish with it in the background while I work or read but I doubt I shall say more on the subject.

---
I didn't need a sequel to Cherished Memories even though I liked the lead from the time she played a sidekick in Love At The Thanksgiving Day parade.

Totally agree on both counts.  I usually love EVERYTHING, but found both of these to be total snoozers - even considering that (1) I liked Chaley Rose in Nashville, and (2) I liked the original A Gift to Remember.

[sistersledge]

8 hours ago, redpencil said:

Quote

I'm watching A Gift to Remember right now because I've somehow never seen it and saw there was a sequel. I wish they would have aired them back to back- I would have watched both. 

I have no memory of the first movie (though I'm sure I watched it). And I'm really annoyed tha

Haha this is funny because that's basically the premise of the first movie. I tried watching 10 minutes and turned it off. Snoozer!

[Mittengirl]

ION tv had a commercial last night saying their Christmas movies would start either December 1 or 2.  

[DanaMB]

On 11/3/2019 at 11:07 PM, seasons said:

I LOVED "Christmas Scavenger Hunt". Was fun and different except for the hometown boyfriend storyline, lol! I guess i loved the scavenger story part of it. 

I was feeling too cynical for the movies this year, but I really enjoyed this one so now I have hope. I thought it was really cute. 

I did notice Tom Arnold sounding stuffed up the whole time, and it made me think about his drug abuse in the past. Not sure Hallmark would appreciate me making that connection. 🤭

Edited November 27, 2019 by DanaMB

[ECM1231]

Holiday for Heroes must have passed the test b/c I record and watch much later and I did not fall asleep once. Plus I like the lead, Mark Blucas. The female lead was a bundle of energy and I was thinking she might be drinking her coffee shop coffee all day long to keep her going! 😁

[MissyPoo]

I just spotted The George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol free to watch with ads over The Roku Channel in case anyone wants to see it. The Alistair Sim version will probably be over at TCM but I have to check the schedule to see when.

I saw Christmas 9 to 5 and I actually ended up liking it! It probably helped that one of my soft spots for these movies is department store settings (no idea why) in addition to the book/publishing themes. It also probably helped I was cooking while watching so it gave me some nice background viewing. I'll probably add it to my rewatch list because I had a pleasant time. I still wished the male lead was different but I'm chalking it up to one of those times where your friend is into some dude that you can't really see the attraction but...you just let them do them.

[Kaoteek]

I didn't hate Christmas 9 to 5, mostly due to the setting, too, and the supporting characters, but aside from the so-so writing & love interest, I've realized that one of the problems I had with it was Tiya Sircar. Don't get me wrong, she's likeable, dynamic, and competent, but I've realized that although she's perfectly fine 90% of the time, there's always those 10% where her acting feels slightly forced and hollow, where she just doesn't feel genuine and sincere, and that just ends up bothering me more than it probably should (i remember having the same issue w/ Good Sam, and chalking it up to awkward writing, but...).

[Was-MArsenault]

I'm surprised that ION Television didn't start showing Christmas movies in November.

[In2You]

1 hour ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

I'm surprised that ION Television didn't start showing Christmas movies in November.

I don't think ION is trying to compete with Lifetime and Hallmark. 

[formerlyfreedom]

52 minutes ago, Ashforth said:

Is there a Small Talk room in this section? This is a fun idea! 

We went ahead and split this out into it's own topic for the game!

[Spartan Girl]

Just watched a Chatlie Brown Thanksgiving for the millionth time, and you little bastard, Snoopy, you could cook turkey the whole time!

[Misslindsey]

16 hours ago, Kaoteek said:

I've realized that one of the problems I had with it was Tiya Sircar. Don't get me wrong, she's likeable, dynamic, and competent, but I've realized that although she's perfectly fine 90% of the time, there's always those 10% where her acting feels slightly forced and hollow, where she just doesn't feel genuine and sincere, and that just ends up bothering me more than it probably should (i remember having the same issue w/ Good Sam, and chalking it up to awkward writing, but...).

You are much more logical than I am, because while I like Tiya Sircar I have a problem separating her character in these sort of movies from her The Good Place character.

[twoods]

A Very Vintage Christmas was okay. It was a little low energy at first, but picked up and I liked all the actors. I did not like how wishy washy Tia’s character was to Jesse’s character (I always love what he’s in). I wish Patricia Richardson had more of a storyline like she did in Snow Bride instead of just at the end. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by twoods

[Irlandesa]

Tia Mowery and Jesse Hutch were good in a Very Vintage Christmas but the overall movie let them down.

On the other hand, The Christmas Club was charming as fuck. I think it might be my fave of this season. Cameron Mathieson and Elizabeth Mitchell played really well off of one another and both of the actors and the script understood the art of flirting.  I found myself smiling a lot throughout the movie because the dialogue actually felt kind of fun and witty.

There were two moments of "tension" in the movie.  The first ended up leaning into a flirtatious contention and the second led to some mature conversations where both parties shared their perspectives. Even the traditional "one person has to move" storyline wasn't about him giving up a job or even a big city as Minneapolis has a major airport which will let him continue to do what he does--just with a different city home base.

The movie even recognized Hanukkah.  Of course the fact that it was the one main black female character cracked me up because of course Hallmark would double up with the diversity. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by Irlandesa

[bmoore4026]

Well, I'm watching the Macy's Pre-Parade Musical showcase and they just had the cast of Beetlejuice sing a horrid, horrid song about Thanksgiving and I want to punch out the composer now.

[kirinan]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

On the other hand, The Christmas Club was charming as fuck. I think it might be my fave of this season. Cameron Mathieson and Elizabeth Mitchell played really well off of one another and both of the actors and the script understood the art of flirting.  I found myself smiling a lot throughout the movie because the dialogue actually felt kind of fun and witty.

There were two moments of "tension" in the movie.  The first ended up leaning into a flirtatious contention and the second led to some mature conversations where both parties shared their perspectives. Even the traditional "one person has to move" storyline wasn't about him giving up a job or even a big city as Minneapolis has a major airport which will let him continue to do what he does--just with a different city home base.

The movie even recognized Hanukkah.  Of course the fact that it was the one main black female character cracked me up because of course Hallmark would double up with the diversity. 

Doesn't it figure, I was so disappointed with the Christmas Inn movie that I didn't even bother to watch this one. After reading your post I'm going to set it to record, because it sounds very promising. Thanks for the review!

[geauxaway]

Is there a separate thread for the parade?  Al needs a seatbelt on his little Rokermobile!  OMG it’s giving me anxiety every time they show him on that thing, he looks like he is going to fall right off.  It’s the first thing I said when he hopped on.  
 

We love the parade, my day won’t start until I see Santa, then it’s ON!   Hope everyone is safe, happy and warm (we have snow showers setting in and I am NOT happy)!  

[chitowngirl]

TBS has The Wizard of Oz on tonight-a Thanksgiving tradition!

[chitowngirl]

4 minutes ago, geauxaway said:

Is there a separate thread for the parade?  Al needs a seatbelt on his little Rokermobile!  OMG it’s giving me anxiety every time they show him on that thing, he looks like he is going to fall right off.  It’s the first thing I said when he hopped on.  
 

We love the parade, my day won’t start until I see Santa, then it’s ON!   Hope everyone is safe, happy and warm (we have snow showers setting in and I am NOT happy)!  

I bumped the Macy’s Parade thread.

[geauxaway]

3 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

I bumped the Macy’s Parade thread.

I’m thankful for you!

[Dr.OO7]

32 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

TBS has The Wizard of Oz on tonight-a Thanksgiving tradition!

Yep, a movie that has nothing to do with the holiday.

(Yes, I know they air it because it's the kind of family-friendly thing appropriate for the day)

[chitowngirl]

It used to be the ONLY time to see it as it was shown once a year on Thanksgiving.

[bmoore4026]

Just now, chitowngirl said:

It used to be the ONLY time to see it as it was shown once a year on Thanksgiving.

And on CBS.  Just wasn't the same after they lost the rights.

[Dr.OO7]

The 1999 version of "A Christmas Carol" will air on TNT Thursday night.

[PennyPlain]

8 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

It used to be the ONLY time to see it as it was shown once a year on Thanksgiving.

I was just talking about this with someone the other day.  How there was a time, not so very long ago, that you saw Wizard of Oz once a year and you saw all the Christmas shows once - and only at Christmas.

[Scarlett45]

I just saw “A Christmas Wish” with the cast of One Tree Hill on Lifetime. I admit I enjoyed “The Christmas Contract” a bit better (The OTH reunion movie last year) for stronger supporting Characters but I wanted this couple together, they won the couple race. ALSO the costume design was spot on because the protagonist really looked like an art teacher. 
 

Now I’m watching Christmas 9-5 on Lifetime, it seems cute and I love my city in movies (Chicago). 

[DanaMB]

The Mistletoe Secret- Good god, Kellie Pickler is such a bad actress. She’s the reason I didn’t even make it through 30 minutes of the Graceland movie last year. I think Tyler Hines and my complete exhaustion from the day is the only reason I made it to the end of this one. Why does she keep getting cast? Is she a huge draw and I’m just out of the loop?

[twoods]

For some reason Kellie’s movies tend to be TV ratings gold.

You guys were right- I really enjoyed Christmas in Louisiana. I love Percy Daggs from Veronica Mars and I liked the humor in the movie along with the easy chemistry between the leads. Plus, Moira Kelly rocks.

[maggiegil]

I know we're nowhere near the end of Christmas movie season but I would like to nominate Tia Mowry's tiny hat in A Very Vintage Christmas for every award possible and I want the hat to get its own spin off movie next year. It was on screen for less than a minute but its all I thought about the rest of the film  "when is the tiny hat coming back"

Great from every angle

[Kaoteek]

On 11/28/2019 at 5:28 AM, Misslindsey said:

You are much more logical than I am, because while I like Tiya Sircar I have a problem separating her character in these sort of movies from her The Good Place character.

I see what you mean, and I also wonder if part of that isn't the fact that, even in rom-coms such as those, her character has some sort of colder, calculating edge to it (as in, she's a stubborn, undercover reporter lying to get her story, and so on). Anyway.

I rewatched A Gift to Remember, and I enjoyed more than the first time... which made AGTR 2 that much more of a disappointment.

I barely made it through : where the first one was fun, light-hearted, and mostly avoided the usual Hallmark tropes (probably because the Christmas setting had little to no relevance to the plot), here, we have the cute kid w/ absent military parents that get back just in time for Xmas, the family secret/heirloom, the rec center that's threatened by an evil real estate whatever, the musical "aren't we all having christmas fun in this ice maze" montage, the cooking, the cookie contest, the secret gift, the mean business rival, the christmas party, yadda yadda yadda...

It's as if HM saw the first movie, and decided that what it needed was more Christmas, more feelings, more platitudes and more clichés.

As a result, there's no energy, there's no fun, it's just flatter and more formated on all fronts, and I can't help to wonder if that's the result of this one not having a book to rely upon, and one of the writers (the non-Hallmark regular) not coming back.

(I still like the Liebert/Porte pairing, though, they deserve a better movie)

Edited November 29, 2019 by Kaoteek

[anniebird]

I just watched what is possibly the worst Christmas movie ever made - Christmas at the Chateau on Showtime. The story is a mess, barely makes any sense at all and the quality of the movie is laughable. I think this was someone's film school project and how it made it to Showtime is a mystery. There's also a hilarious editorial mistake where a guy who's already sitting down, in the next cut sits down and there's dialogue playing but his mouth's not moving. It's almost worth seeing just because it's so bad.

[mikeb]

I haven't watched Hilarie Burton's Lifetime A Christmas Wish yet, but in her twitter stream today, she mentioned the idea of the supporting characters including a gay married couple was hers and that she had fought for this on 'other networks' and was shut down.  Maybe this is part of reason why she hasn't appeared in a Hallmark movie in a few years (in addition to the fact that Lifetime has been letting her cast former One Tree Hill castmates in last couple movies).

[sistersledge]

And yet she's fine with shilling for pharmaceutical companies.

I turned A Christmas Wish off after 5 minutes. I prefer to keep my propaganda out of my Christmas movies.

[Chas411]

Speaking of Hilarie burton, I’m currently watching Christmas on the Bayou and the kid is driving me nuts. 

[Was-MArsenault]

Look what’s on tonight!

[Irlandesa]

21 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

I just saw “A Christmas Wish” with the cast of One Tree Hill on Lifetime. I admit I enjoyed “The Christmas Contract” a bit better (The OTH reunion movie last year) for stronger supporting Characters but I wanted this couple together, they won the couple race. ALSO the costume design was spot on because the protagonist really looked like an art teacher. 

I'm glad you mentioned this movie.  I was a little hesitant because they were strongly billing it as a "one Tree Hill" reunion and I didn't watch OTH so why would I care but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot.  It was clearly for lifetime (Hi, Winter Storm Megan) but it was better than most of their entries this year--probably due to Hilarie's involvement.

[In2You]

Checking the movies scheduled for this weekend. Why is ION premiering A Christmas Princess at 10pm on a Sunday? I got work the next morning so I'll DVR it because I like to be in bed by 11pm. 

[Ashforth]

I'm generally liking Lifetime's Christmas movies much more than the Hallmark ones.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, In2You said:

Checking the movies scheduled for this weekend. Why is ION premiering A Christmas Princess at 10pm on a Sunday? I got work the next morning so I'll DVR it because I like to be in bed by 11pm. 

That’s weird. Where are you seeing that? Their website lists it as premiering at 7pm on Sunday.

[In2You]

37 minutes ago, Dani said:

That’s weird. Where are you seeing that? Their website lists it as premiering at 7pm on Sunday.

For some reason when I did a search it was only showing the later airing. 7pm sounds much better. 

[DanaMB]

UpTV Christmas Cupcakes- I thought I was going to enjoy this one, but when I looked up and realized only an hour had passed, I knew that was a bad sign. I still have over 30 minutes left and I’m so tempted to just stop. I hate to do that, though, because I like to finish. However, I did not finish Rock N Roll Christmas (also UpTV) so it’s not unheard of. I couldn’t believe the daughter in that one was the lead in A Gift Wrapped Christmas. I feel like she wasn’t as charming and charismatic. Plus, she looked different. 
 

Write Before Christmas (Hallmark)had THREE kisses between the leads. I’m shocked I tell you. One was supposedly fake, but still.  Are we heading into PG territory?!? 😂

Edited November 30, 2019 by DanaMB

[anniebird]

3 hours ago, DanaMB said:

I hate to do that, though, because I like to finish.

I used to be that way but now, if a movie doesn't grab me in the first 30 minutes I'm done. 

[In2You]

I watched Christmas 9 to 5 with my sister and the entire time we were wondering two things: How the lead was played by an obviously Indian woman but the mom and dad were black and white. And how they expected us to buy the love interest as anything more than the gay best friend. 

[Ashforth]

10 hours ago, DanaMB said:

Write Before Christmas (Hallmark)had THREE kisses between the leads. I’m shocked I tell you. One was supposedly fake, but still.  Are we heading into PG territory?!? 😂

That sounds like straight up porn! [clutches pearls]

[absnow54]

On 11/29/2019 at 5:47 PM, mikeb said:

I haven't watched Hilarie Burton's Lifetime A Christmas Wish yet, but in her twitter stream today, she mentioned the idea of the supporting characters including a gay married couple was hers and that she had fought for this on 'other networks' and was shut down.  Maybe this is part of reason why she hasn't appeared in a Hallmark movie in a few years (in addition to the fact that Lifetime has been letting her cast former One Tree Hill castmates in last couple movies).

Didn’t Chad Michael Murray’s Hallmark Christmas movie have a same sex couple in it last year? Road to Christmas? I could have sworn one of the brothers had a husband, or maybe he was still a boyfriend. 

[Jenniferbug]

3 minutes ago, absnow54 said:

Didn’t Chad Michael Murray’s Hallmark Christmas movie have a same sex couple in it last year? Road to Christmas? I could have sworn one of the brothers had a husband, or maybe he was still a boyfriend. 

I think they were intentionally vague about it, but that was the subtext that most of us picked up on. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Jenniferbug

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Jenniferbug said:

28 minutes ago, absnow54 said:

Didn’t Chad Michael Murray’s Hallmark Christmas movie have a same sex couple in it last year? Road to Christmas? I could have sworn one of the brothers had a husband, or maybe he was still a boyfriend. 

I think they were intentionally vague about it, but that was the subtext that most of us picked up on. 

Yeah. They were business partners. I think the actors played it like they were a couple but nothing in the movie confirmed it. 

[Dr.OO7]

I watched "Christmas In Rome" tonight. It was pretty typical, but at least it was filmed in Rome (the outdoor things anyway), rather than on a soundstage.

[Ashforth]

I liked Hip Hop Holiday on BET, the cast was great, especially the leads (but Jesus save us from the awful pink wigs sported by Leesa J - even though they were eventually kind of a character in the story). The script was fairly formulaic (successful woman gets put in her place for being ambitious instead of needing a man), but was set in today's modern world instead of the 'it's 2019 but really 1950'  vibe I get from most of the Hallmark offerings. There was a lesbian couple that was presented as totally usual, no big deal. That was nice.

I think Hallmark may have bitten itself in the ass with its onslaught of carbon-copy Christmas movies.