Pretty much every Christmas romance movie I have seen that features dogs has been terrible. Actually, they are worse than terrible. I would like My Christmas Guide to be better but I’m not very hopeful.

Trevor (Ben Mehl) is a blind college professor with a young daughter, Annie (Ava Weiss). Peyton (Amber Marshall) trains guide dogs. When she sees dog-less Trevor picking Annie up from school one day, Peyton makes it her mission to get Trevor a guide dog.

I am not seeing impaired nor do I know anyone who is. So my opinion on a lot of this doesn’t count for much. I thought it was awfully presumptuous of Peyton to just assume that Trevor wants or needs a guide dog. To the point that she didn’t actually stop and talk to him. No, she left paperwork at Annie’s school saying something like “Hey, you know that kid with the blind dad? Can you give this to her?” What the hell, lady.

As I said, I can’t speak on whether the guide dog parts are accurate but I can speak about the romance. For most of the movie, Peyton has an awful boyfriend named Chad (Justin Nurse). Chad is such an awful person that I have no idea how Peyton stayed with him for ten months. (Yes, they say they have been together for TEN MONTHS.) While we do get to see the romance blossoming between Trevor and Peyton, I would have really liked it if Chad didn’t exist at all. Peyton is a strong woman that owns her own business. Why did we have to give her a boyfriend that demeans and ignores her at every opportunity? He’s completely unnecessary.

Thankfully, My Christmas Guide wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s actually something I would probably watch again.

Rating: Can I get one of those puppies?

Do you remember those EnChroma glasses that went viral like five years ago? The ones that allowed color blind people to see color? Well, Hallmark made an entire movie about them. And, yes, they called it The Most Colorful Time Of The Year.

Michelle (Katrina Bowden) is an optometrist. Ryan (Christopher Russell) is an elementary school science teacher, who happens to teach Michelle’s daughter, Bailey (Ava Weiss). When Michelle finds out that Ryan is color blind, she enrolls him in a study to test glasses that will fix color blindness.

This movie is so ridiculous. When they show Ryan in his color blind state, he literally sees zero color. Everything is in black, white, and grey. That can happen but it is very rare. From Color Blind Awareness: “Achromatopsia is extremely rare, occuring only in approximately 1 person in 33,000 and its symptoms can make life very difficult. Usually someone with achromatopsia will need to wear dark glasses inside in normal light conditions.” So even if he did have this, he probably would be wearing sunglasses a lot. And I don’t think the EnChroma glasses would help him a whole lot.

I also hated that Michelle keeps getting harassed by her ex-boyfriend, Mark (R Austin Ball), throughout the entire movie. When he finally convinces her to talk to him, he asks to go to her kid’s elementary school chorus concert? I’m sorry but that is creepy. For some reason, Michelle relents and let him attend instead of throwing him out of her house. At the concert, Mark asks Ryan how much money he makes? What the hell is wrong with this guy? He really didn’t need to be a part of this movie. There could have been a better misunderstanding than forcing a woman to try to rekindle a terrible relationship.

Despite having a silly plot, The Most Colorful Time Of The Year wasn’t a bad movie. The acting wasn’t terrible, though Russell was a bit of a wet blanket. I know his character is supposed to be a bit Grinchy in the beginning but he never gets any better. Overall, it’s fine to watch if you are interested to see how they handle Ryan’s color blindness. Just be ready to shake your head a lot.