'Twas The Date Before Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Ah, the first Christmas movie of the 2024 season. Hallmark’s ‘Twas The Date Before Christmas. It better be a good one!

Jessie Chamberlain (Amy Groening) has been rather unlucky in love recently. When her mother tells her that they are cancelling the annual Chamberlain Family Christmas Olympics this year, Jessie quickly tells her that she is bringing someone and they will miss out on meeting him. The festivities are reinstated but now Jessie needs to find herself a date at the last minute.

Supposedly this is based on a true story. If that is actually true, this is a crazy story. Jessie meets a man, Bryan (Robert Buckley), on a dating app and their first date is her family’s wacky holiday traditions. And she doesn’t tell her family that this is a first date for quite awhile. That is a perfect story for a movie, not so much for real life.

As for the movie itself, it wasn’t bad. The acting was somewhat decent, except for maybe the kids which I forgive because they are kids. I think the only real problem I had with it is that the story does progress kinda slowly. I wanted Jessie and Bryan to have more fun interactions during the events. Or for the events to be a little longer or something. It was missing that little “oomph” to make it a better movie. Especially for a movie about Christmas competitions. Those are almost always good movies.

Rating: A sad backstory that should make you sad but doesn’t really.

Miracle In Bethlehem PA | 2023 Christmas Movies

I live about an hour from Bethlehem, PA. When I saw that there was a Christmas movie called Miracle In Bethlehem, PA, I was intrigued. It wasn’t actually filmed in Bethlehem, of course. It was filmed in Canada. Ah well.

Mary Ann (Laura Vandervoort) is a lawyer who is waiting to adopt a baby. After months of waiting, a baby in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania becomes available. Mary Ann drives to pick her up but gets stranded in Bethlehem due to a severe snowstorm. With no room in any of the local hotels, the new mom and her baby end up staying with Joe (Benjamin Ayres), a mechanic who has lost direction in his life since his father’s death.

While I understand that this movie was supposed to be an analog to the story of Jesus, it was a little offensive that a white woman so intent on adoption was insisting on adopting a baby. There are a lot of children in the system and, as they get older, it’s harder and harder for them to get adopted because people only want to adopt babies. Maybe we don’t normalize only adopting babies.

Obviously, since this is the story of Jesus, it is very heavy handed with its use of God and church. It’s a little annoying but, considering Jesus was the point of the movie, it’s understandable. It does make it a little less appealing to certain demographics though. Or maybe this was Hallmark’s way of saying they haven’t completely dumped God for LGBTQ+ stories.

Rating: At least it’s not a manger

The Santa Summit | 2023 Christmas Movies

The Santa Summit is a bit like Cinderella thrown into Christmas season. Maybe masquerade parties are bad ideas…

Three teachers: Jordin (Hunter King), Ava (Amy Groening), and Stella (Stephanie Sy) decide to have some fun and maybe brighten their dreary love lives by attending this year’s Santa Summit. Since all of the participants wear Santa suits as they travel around town, Jordin has a difficult time reconnecting with the mysterious man she met at the first stop of the day. At the same time, Ava is trying to find her crush so she can confess her feelings and Stella needs to find her passion for life again. Will their Christmas dreams come true?

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this movie at first. Stella seemed like such…well…a bitch, for a lack of a better term. She didn’t want to do anything besides go home and sleep. But the adorableness of Ava and Jordin kept me pushing through. In the end, this was a really fun jaunt that made me want to try to find a Santa Summit-esque event in my town. If only we could all have a Hallmark movie event like this in real life. It would be pretty darn awesome.

Rating: Getting down at the silent disco

A Dash of Christmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

Sometimes I wonder what writers are thinking of when they write these scripts. A Dash of Christmas is one of those times.

Megan (Laura Osnes) is a marketing executive who has recently lost her job. Luckily, another job prospect pops up but she needs to film a video of her baking in order to land it. Aaron (Christopher Russell), a local bakery owner, helps her learn how to bake so she can land her dream job.

So. Megan is in marketing. Why do these movies think that marketing people need to be able to do the thing they are trying to market? They don’t. They need to know how to get people to click on the link or get into the shop or read the article or whatever. They don’t have to actually DO the thing. This movie should have gone with Megan being sad because she lost her job so she takes a baking class to try to make herself feel better. In the class, she meets Aaron and they find out that, with her marketing skills, they can take his bakery to the next level and find love along the way. That is so much more interesting.

Rating: Leave the fruitcake alone

We Wish You A Married Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Channel dominates the beginning of the Christmas movie season. I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Anyway, the second movie they give us this year is We Wish You A Married Christmas. It’s a little weird to get a married couple story this early in the season but, hey, what do I know.

Becca (Marisol Nichols) and Robby (Kristoffer Polaha) are a married couple having difficulty connecting with each other. Their marriage coach suggests a vacation to Gracious, Vermont. Thanks to a few setbacks, they end up having to stay longer than they planned. Will that help or hurt their marriage?

WWYAMC started out extremely boring and confusing. It was difficult for me to tell if these two were married and having problems or if they were just business partners. Honestly, it was worse when I figured out they were married. They have the most boring marriage problems. Instead of actually fighting over anything, they just ignore each other. Yes, that is their problem. They don’t “see” each other. And while that is a real life problem actual married couples have, it makes for very boring television.

Annoyingly, the movie doesn’t actually pick up until it’s almost over. Even when Becca and Robby were spending time together, it was still boring. Picking up items for the bed and breakfast they are staying at, shopping at the Christmas market, watching the shortest parade in the world…the most interesting thing they did was bartend at the employee Christmas party at the bed and breakfast. Even that was done as a montage. It would have been much more interesting if they had reconnected a little earlier. We could have seen a much happier couple giving romantic advice to the new couple - either the two townspeople that get together or the new couple sent by the marriage coach. Like a wink to the camera sort of thing.

If you really want to watch a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, WWYAMC isn’t terrible. It’s just boring. So maybe pop it on while you clean the house or cook dinner or some other household task. It’s not worth your complete attention but maybe your half attention.

Tis The Season To Be Merry | 2021 Christmas Movies

I think my least favorite Christmas movie titles are ones using the main character’s name. Once in awhile there is a witty title with a character’s name in it, ‘Tis The Season To Be Merry is not one of them.

Merry (Rachael Leigh Cook) writes books giving romantic advice. In her recent book, she lies and says she is engaged. When her publisher, Sonia (Karen Malina White), gushes about how authentic Merry’s relationship is, Merry freaks out and runs away to her co-worker/friend Darlene’s (Amy Groening) family’s house in Vermont. Little did Merry know that Darlene’s brother, Adam (Travis Van Winkle), has returned from a 2-year trip to Guatemala. Can Merry figure out how to fix both her love life and her professional life?

There were pieces of Tis The Season that I thought were really cute. At the big Christmas tree auction, when Adam had Merry co-host with him and he would keep handing her cards when she had no idea to say. If there is one thing Cook is good at, it’s playing an awkward women who trips over her words. I’m glad Hallmark played into that strength.

In addition to the main Adam/Merry couple, there are two other couples introduced. I would have liked to have seen a little more of their interactions. We do see Sonia’s budding relationship with Joe (Paul Essimbre) but we really only see them when Merry happens to see them around town. It would have been nice to jump over to them to see how they were doing. There’s also a late romance between Joe’s son, James (Adam Hurtig), and Darlene. Even though they were childhood friends, we don’t see a lot of interaction between them until James confesses his feelings about Darlene to Merry. I would have liked to have seen more of James pining after Darlene instead of it appearing that James has a thing for Merry.

Tis The Season isn’t a terrible movie. It’s not boring, which is a step up from most movies, but it wasn’t particularly interesting either. If you watch it, watch it for the acting not for the story. Maybe one day Cook will get put into one of the really good Christmas movies. Until then, this will scratch the itch to see her on screen.

Project Christmas Wish | 2020 Christmas Movies

Christmastime means granting Christmas wishes, right? At least that is what Hallmark thinks.

Every year, Lucy (Amanda Schull) collects and grants Christmas wishes from her community. This year, Max (Averie Peters) wishes to have a Christmas like she did before her mother passed away. As Lucy tries to fulfill this wish, Max changes her wish to helping her father, Lucas (Travis Van Winkle), find love again.

The main plotline of Project Christmas Wish is granting Christmas wishes. Unlike The Angel Tree, we don’t actually see Lucy granting any wishes. She talks about it. She talks about it a LOT. But we don’t actually see any wish granting going on. It is a little disappointing.

Another annoying part is Lucas’ parenting style. In the beginning of the movie, he is the worst helicopter parent. He chides his parents for bringing donuts without asking him first. Whenever he goes into public with Max, he always tells her to stay within his sight. While I understand being careful, in the world of Hallmark movies, this is overbearing.

As is the norm for this season, I can’t recommend watching Project Christmas Wish. It is the worst kind of boring. The kind where nothing actually happens. If you want to watch a movie where they grant Christmas wishes, The Angel Tree does it much better. And they are both on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.