Holiday Mismatch | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hallmark has reunited Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick from the 1990s sitcom, Sabrina The Teenage Witch. They aren’t witches in Holiday Mismatch but they bicker almost as much.

Barbara (Broderick) has recently retired. She decides to volunteer to work on the town’s Holiday Committee to help plan festive events. There she meets Kath (Rhea), a long-standing member of the committee who isn’t quite as organized as Barbara. Meanwhile, each of them sets their adult child up on a date. When they realized that their kids are dating each other, the women decide to try to break the new couple up.

I love when Rhea and Broderick work together. They have such great comedic timing and they play off of each other so well that sometimes it’s difficult to believe aren’t rivals. Honestly, Holiday Mismatch should have been entirely about them. The romantic subplot was boring and unoriginal. If Hallmark really wanted to leave a romantic plot in, they should have made the kids dislike each other as much as their mothers did. It would have definitely been more interesting. As it is, get rid of the kids and leave the moms to form an unbreakable friendship. It doesn’t have to be all about romance, you know.

Rating: The kids ruin the fun, as usual.

Debbie Macomber's A Mrs Miracle Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

Sometimes not watching Hallmark Christmas movies before 2018 bites me in the butt. For example, A Mrs. Miracle Christmas is the third movie in this series. However, the first two came out in 2009 and 2010. That was so long ago! Well, despite not being familiar with the franchise (or the books they are based on), I watched the newest entry.

Laurel’s (Kaitlin Doubleday) family is suffering from loneliness and grief this Christmas season. The baby she was fostering with her husband, Will (Steve Lund), was returned to his mother. Her grandmother, Helen (Paula Shaw), recently injured her wrist, leaving her to sit home alone. Since Laurel and Will both work full time, they hire Gloria Merkle (Caroline Rhea) to help Helen during the day. But Mrs. Merkle ends up helping more than just Helen!

Before I started watching Hallmark movies every year, I thought that this was what they were going to be. A religious-but-not-too-religious movie about lost faith and regaining the Christmas Spirit. As you know, a majority of the movies are not that. They are more about the romance then about actual Christmas. That said, this was a nice breath of fresh air in the world of Hallmark movies. It was almost like a Mary Poppins for Christians. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed it!

It can be difficult to pin down exactly why one likes a movie. I think that it was the downplayed magic of Mrs. Miracle that I loved the most. Her blue handbag (in the picture above) carries anything and everything. When grumpy Helen is looking for a reason to get rid of Mrs. Merkle, Laurel asks for references. Mrs. Merkle pulls out three giant stacks of references and reviews. In another scene, she pulls out a pair of ballroom shoes, even though there’s no way they would fit in that tiny bag! Add into that Mrs. Merkle’s low-key way of pointing the family in the right direction. In any other movie, the things she says would come off as cheesy or eye-rollingly annoying. But the way Caroline Rhea says these things…she makes me want to change the direction of my life!

If you are looking for a sweet, slightly religious, feel good movie, definitely watch A Mrs. Miracle Christmas. I can’t speak for the other two movies in the series but this one is worth your time and attention. I might watch it again when I need to cleanse my movie palate from other Hallmark movies.

Advent Day #13: A Christmas In Tennessee

OMG. A Christmas In Tennessee is everything that Welcome To Christmas wanted to be. It is almost exactly the same premise but a million times better.

Matthew (Andrew W. Walker) is a consultant for a real estate developer who rolls into White Pines, Tennessee to try to get the townspeople to sell their property so they can put a ski resort there. Allison (Rachel Boston), a single mom, owns the local bakery. She is also one of two descendants of the town founders. Matthew only needs one of them to sign the contract but will they?

Tennessee also has a couple of subplots going on. One involves Allison’s daughter, Olivia (Kate Moyer), wishing the bakery made more money. Santa and Mrs. Claus order a ton of cookies. When Olivia’s tale of Santa’s favorite cookies goes viral, the bakery is busier than ever. A second subplot involves Allison’s mother, Martha (Patricia Richardson), resuming her life after the death of her husband. She is the musical director at the local church but she doesn’t want to sing anymore. And there’s a bit of a love story between Martha and the town mayor.

Unlike Welcome to Christmas, this movie is packed with personality. The only character that gets sidestepped a bit is Matthew’s evil assistant, who doesn’t even get a credit on the show’s IMDB page. (I even forget her name…Rebecca, maybe?) While I didn’t want her to be more involved, she is the cause of the big problem at the end of the movie and we never see her getting her comeuppance. I mean, the lady literally forges a signature. It would have been nice to see her get arrested or something.

I found myself actually charmed by Tennessee. Considering a groaned inwardly when I saw that this was another real estate movie (does big-Christmas-television think that this is an interesting concept? Because it isn’t.). Thankfully, the casting director hired some amazing actors that were able to bring this all together. You’ll definitely enjoy Caroline Rhea as Mrs. Claus. Whoever decided to cast her needs a raise!