A Cinderella Christmas Ball | 2024 Christmas Movies

It feels like a lot of Danica McKellar’s Christmas movies involve either a prince or dancing. Well, A Cinderella Christmas Ball has both! Though I’m not sure why they titled the movie that way. This has nothing to do with the Cinderella story at all. (After some research, it was originally titled A Royal Christmas Ball and they changed it.)

Chelsea (McKellar) owns a dance studio in Chicago. When she finds a photo that may be of her birth mother, who was also a dancer, in Havenshire, her students fly her out so she can find out more. Once in Havenshire, she gets hired to teach Phillip (Oliver Rice), the prince, how to dance a very specific variation of the waltz. However, he is very unwilling to learn. That is a lot on her plate for her short four day trip.

I think Great American Family’s theme for this year’s movies is “A couple steps below Hallmark.” The plot for A Cinderella Christmas Ball is stupid. Chelsea’s mother died in an accident when she was five years old yet she doesn’t know who her mother is. I don’t remember her ever saying that her mother gave her up for adoption before that so her mother’s identity would be information that is available to her. This movie would have been a whole lot better if she was like “I want to emotionally connect with my mother more” and just made the whole visit to Havenshire a sight-seeing vacation to maybe visit the same places her mother did. Instead, this is all about Chelsea getting information about her birth parents.

In the end, it’s fine to watch. I think the Hallmark and Lifetime movies are way more interesting than anything GAF has put out so far this year but I’m also not really their target audience.

Rating: Can I look away like Chelsea does when she’s dancing with Phillip?

A Royal Date For Christmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

I think Danica McKellar is the last of the “Christmas divas” to have her movie air. I’m still not happy that she moved to Great American Family, by the way. Well, let’s see if A Royal Date For Christmas is any good.

Bella (Danica McKellar) owns a fashion boutique. When the Stefan, Duke of Tangford (Damon Runyan), loses his luggage, he turns to Bella to dress him for his holiday events. Also needing a “plus one” for these events, he asks her to accompany him as well.

There were a lot of things I disliked about this movie. Movies with a royal main character frequently make the paparazzi the bad guys. Understandably. Paparazzi are awful. However, it’s the reactions the royals have to them. Stefan throws a fit every time Bella suggests they try to change how he is viewed by the paparazzi. Then he wonders why Bella randomly leaves him. It’s frustrating. There are ways to have the “bad paparazzi” response without throwing a tantrum about it.

I also hate Bella’s idea of a “mobile fashion boutique.” Not because it’s a dumb idea. It would be great for retirement homes or hospitals. Places where people can’t get out to go shopping. However, you could accomplish the same thing with a van. You aren’t going to take your entire shop on the road. THAT is a dumb idea.

Thankfully, the relationship between Bella and Stefan is sweet. It’s probably the one saving grace of the movie. Too bad they don’t know how to talk to each other.

Rating: Is it really styling someone if you only put them in blue and they’ve already only been wearing blue?

Christmas At The Drive-In | 2022 Christmas Movies

Danica McKellar is one of the actors that left Hallmark for Great American Family after last year’s Christmas season. Let’s see if the switch changed the tone of the movies she’s doing now.

Sadie (Danica McKellar) is a property lawyer who left her big law firm in Chicago to teach in her hometown. When she hears that her high school boyfriend, Holden (Neal Bledsoe), is selling his late father’s drive-in theater, Sadie takes up the fight to keep the drive-in open.

Well, Christmas At The Drive-In suffers from the same problem as McKellar’s Hallmark movies. She is a wonderful actress stuck with a rather terrible script. For example, all of Sadie’s ideas to save the drive-in consist of “throw more Christmas at it.” I don’t know that putting up more Christmas lights will bring more patrons to the theater. Some of the other ideas were wonderful: the food truck and moving the Christmas tree sales to the drive-in. However, a lot of the ideas revolved around simply adding more decorations.

Thankfully, McKellar was paired with Bledsoe this time around. He’s not the best of the romantic male lead actors but he was able to hold his own against McKellar. Their pairing made Christmas At The Drive-In a little more watchable.

Do I recommend watching it? Eh, if you are a McKellar fan, definitely. She is the bright spot in the movie. Maybe get a bowl of fresh popped popcorn and pretend you are at your own personal drive-in while watching. It might not make it any more interesting but, hey, popcorn!

You, Me, and the Christmas Trees | 2021 Christmas Movies

Hallmark begins their Countdown to Christmas with a bit of a sad note. You, Me, and the Christmas Trees is Danica McKellar’s last Hallmark movie for awhile. She has signed a deal with the new GAC Family channel, which runs through 2023. I believe her first GAC Family movie will premiere in January 2022.

Jack (Benjamin Ayres) runs his family’s Christmas tree business. When the needles start falling off the trees within hours of being cut, he turns to famous evergreen arborist Olivia (Danica McKellar). Can she save his trees before the Christmas deadline?

On one hand, this was an interesting take on the Christmas tree romance trope. Usually the tree salesperson (usually a man but not always) is big into the Christmas spirit and deems it necessary to school the romantic interest about “what Christmas is really about.” On the other hand, the movie was still fairly boring. Let me elaborate.

Olivia is a scientist and she does sciency things in the movie. However, science takes time. So there are way too many times where Olivia has to say “Now we wait 10 hours.” or “We can do a test! But it will take two weeks…” I don’t think the traditional Hallmark viewer would want to see the science behind solving tree problems but I think it would be more interesting than watching Olivia and Jack build gingerbread trees or use science to come up with the best Christmas drink.

Even though You, Me, and the Christmas Trees wasn’t the best Christmas movie ever, it was quite watchable. I enjoy watching McKellar on the screen. She didn’t seem to have a ton of on-screen chemistry with Ayres so the movie does rely on her heavily. He’s a bit…bland, to say the least. I don’t think there was ever a point where he actually showed an emotion.

I know there is a group of people that really don’t like Danica McKellar. Those people probably shouldn’t watch this. But if you enjoy her acting, this is for you. Don’t expect a whole lot from the rest of the cast though.

Christmas She Wrote | 2020 Christmas Movies

Around the time Christmas She Wrote aired on Hallmark, Danica McKellar dropped some TikToks showing the behind-the-scenes magic of making a Hallmark Christmas movie. I don’t know if this changed what I thought about the movie but it definitely changed how I watched it!

Kaleigh (McKellar) is a romance columnist in New York. She goes home to Pineberry, CA when the newspaper’s new managers fire her. Realizing they made a mistake, the newspaper owner sends the new editor, Tripp (Dylan Neal), to Pineberry to hire her back.

Hallmark and Lifetime tend to rotate the same group of actors through all of their Christmas movies. Danica McKellar has done her fair share of these. (I gave up counting at six.) Thankfully, she is a delight as an actress. She makes even the worst script enjoyable to watch. Dylan Neal, on the other hand…not so much.

Normally, when we get a story about a writer, they are looking for a big scoop or they need to write their next big article. Having her get fired is a nice change of pace. The story can focus more on Kaleigh as a person instead of making her character solely about her job. Her job is important to her but it’s not the end of her life.

Tripp, meanwhile, isn’t as rounded of a character. He isn’t the type that is sighing and groaning about having to follow orders but he also isn’t particularly personable. I don’t quite understand why everyone in Pineberry likes him so much. The writers even throw in a past boyfriend to compete for Kaleigh’s heart but he is barely in the story so he’s not really competition.

Is it worth watching Christmas She Wrote? Absolutely. I think Danica McKellar’s bright star can outshine all of the problems in the movie. I look forward to seeing what Christmas movie she is in next year.