Christmas 2024 Wrap-Up

And now it is time to wrap up the 2024 Christmas season. It felt both hectic and laid back at the same time. I’m not sure how that happened!

This year I watched 74 Christmas movies. That is probably why this season felt more laid back. This was the the lowest number of movies I have watched since I moved from my advent calendar format. 2023 was 92 movies, 2022 was 127, 2021 was 78, and 2020 was 86. I think this is because Hallmark moved some of their new releases to their Hallmark+ streaming service, which I did not subscribe to this year. That cut at least seven movies from the schedule. It was also frustratingly difficult to find new movies this time around. Great American Family continues to change their movies after they have released their schedule. Movies they have announced to air on one date will be replaced by a different movie and air on a different date. It was so frustrating.

Speaking of Great American Family, I am going to cut them from the list of movies next year. While I wanted to continue to watch Candace Cameron-Bure and Danica McKellar, almost all of the movies on the channel are so boring and difficult to sit through. I hope that their 2025 movies don’t turn political but it feels like that is the way the channel is heading.

Since I am going to cut out GAF, I am going to spend more energy trying to find movies on other streaming channels. I didn’t watch anything on Roku, Disney+ (though I did watch one Hulu movie), or Peacock. There was also a locally-made movie released in theaters that I was hoping to go see but I couldn’t make it in time. And, who knows, maybe I will sign up for Hallmark+ this year. We’ll have to wait and see what their streaming-only releases are.

As always, please feel free to let me know if there is a streaming channel that you’d like me to cover. I know there are a million of them out there now. There has to be a channel with some great Christmas movies that I don’t know about.

Worst Christmas Movies of 2024

While I don’t normally like to start the year out on a negative note, I want to get the worst movie list out of the way so we can talk about the good movies this year! A lot of the movies this year weren’t bad, just boring. I’d hate to put them on the worst list for being boring. With that said, let’s get into the worst Christmas movies of 2024.

A ‘90s Christmas - When you link your movie to a specific decade, the viewers are looking for nostalgia. This movie only gives confusion.
Five Gold Rings - A mystery movie that completely fell apart by the second ring.
Christmas On The Alpaca Farm - This was a movie written by people who heard of alpacas but never actually saw one.
Tails Of Christmas - Never, ever make dogs the focus of your movie. It always ends up making your movie bad.
Mistletoe & Matrimony - I wasn’t sure about putting this on the list because it wasn’t completely terrible. Then I remembered the bride wanted to book a horse-drawn carriage at the last minute for a Christmas Eve wedding in Chicago.
Christmas By Candlelight - Bad script, bad plot, bad acting. There isn’t much more to say.
Christmas With The Singhs - This one wouldn’t have been on the list if the writers didn’t make the Singhs so unbearable. It’s possible to make a “sucky in-laws” movie without making them whiny babies.
Leah’s Perfect Gift - I almost rage-quit this movie. We need a sequel where Leah leaves the awful family before she marries their son and finds someone awesome who actually loves her.

Dishonorable Mentions:
Deck The Walls - While this movie wasn’t awful, the product placement was so bad and so in-your-face that it gets a dishonorable mention.
Sincerely, Truly Christmas - When the main female character acts like a child, it’s an immediate ‘no, thank you’ from me.

There you have it. These are the movies I thought were the worst this year. Let me know if you want a separate list for the movies I thought were the most boring. There were a lot of them! Coming up next: The BEST movies!

Trading Up Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

There are only a few more days left until Christmas. That means there are only a few more Christmas movies left to watch! The last movie from Hallmark Mystery is Trading Up Christmas. Did they end on a high note?

Keri (Meredith Forlenza) is a single mother desperately in need of a house. Her sister, Michelle (Italia Ricci), read the story of a boy who traded a red rubber band for a house. Michelle decides to try the same thing except she will trade a family heirloom stocking for a house for her sister. When the local newspaper catches wind of Michelle’s story, reporter Dan (Michael Xavier) gets assigned the story. Can they manage to get Keri a house before Christmas?

While this is a very sweet story, the execution is so boring. I didn’t hate the movie but I wasn’t very captivated by it. I was hoping that they would make the trading stuff more interesting. Also, the little conflicts between Michelle and Keri were kind of annoying. Despite the fact that they keep saying Michelle is the “dreamer” of the family and that she always makes her dreams come true, Keri was very negative about the whole trading idea. I get that she’s supposed to be a realist but she didn’t have to be so against it that she tells Michelle to stop trying. Like, let Michelle do her thing. If she gets you a house, great. If she doesn’t, you are in the same position you were before.

Rating: Will someone trade me something for this movie?

All I Need For Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

The title for All I Need For Christmas reminds me of those Blake Shelton Time For Christmas movies. Thankfully, this is not in that series. So let’s see what it is.

Maggie (Mallory Jansen) is a singer/songwriter who is having trouble getting her career off the ground, blaming technology for making all music sound the same. After her touring gig has been cancelled, she returns to her family’s Christmas tree farm for the holiday. There she meets Archer (Dan Jeannotte), a man with family troubles whose tech company is about to launch two new apps for musicians. Maybe the two of them can help each other in more ways than they originally thought.

When I turned this movie on, I didn’t think I would like it. Boy, was I surprised. In these sort of movies, one of the main characters is usually kinda terrible and they get turned around by the others. On the contrary, both of these people are fairly nice. Sure, Maggie is a little mean to Archer at the beginning when she finds out he runs a tech company but she quickly learns that she was wrong and actually apologizes to him. TWICE! And Archer tries everything he can to stay a normal, even-keeled person, even when his sister, Piper (Emily Tennant), tries to push his buttons.

Despite All I Need For Christmas airing on the subpar Hallmark Mystery channel, I do recommend watching it. It has the perfect synergy between cheesy, saccharine, and conflict. I think this is one that almost anyone would enjoy.

Rating: Can I pet them pigs?

A Dance In The Snow | 2024 Christmas Movies

So let me get this right - The Christmas Quest, a movie about an actual mystery, is on the main Hallmark Channel while A Dance In The Snow, a movie about an autistic girl and her mother, is on Hallmark Mystery. Make it make sense, Hallmark!

Jenny (Vanessa Burghardt) is an autistic high school senior. Her mother, Melanie (Erica Cerra), does everything she can to make Jenny’s life easier, including opening a center for autistic people. When the school’s winter dance rolls around, Jenny doesn’t want to go due to a bad experience the previous year. As a surprise for Jenny, Melanie, with some help from Jenny’s literature teacher Daniel (Mark Ghanimé), decides to join the dance planning committee in order to make the dance more accessible for everyone. Meanwhile, Jenny and her friends decide to plan their own winter dance as a surprise for Melanie. Love begins to bloom for both women but, thanks to the secrecy, their relationship falters a little.

This was a pretty sweet movie. It was nice to see an autistic actor (Burghardt) playing an autistic character. Usually the directors give some lame excuse about how difficult it is to find someone or work with them. A Dance In The Snow proves those excuses wrong.

With that said, I don’t know that this movie is for everyone. The plot does move pretty slowly and there isn’t a ton of action happening. However, it really is a nice break from the insanity that is the traditional Hallmark Christmas movie.

Rating: There’s no Christmas but there is snow

Christmas Under The Lights | 2024 Christmas Movies

Alas, we are still in the Bad Movie Era. Hallmark Mystery’s Christmas Under The Lights has some cute animals but that is about it.

After her mother passes away, Emily (Heather Hemmens) returns to the family’s animal rescue ranch to help her brother, Nick (Antonio Cayonne), and his friend, Luke (Marco Grazzini), plan the annual Christmas Carnival.

This movie was so boring. I know that a lot of the movie is Emily’s journey through her grief and childhood trauma and it’s awful to say that her journey is boring. But this is a movie. There needs to be something interesting to keep me from looking down at my phone. And, to be honest, I lost interest so often that I had a difficult time telling Nick and Luke apart. I really hope that a better movie shows up soon.

Rating: At least the alpacas were cute?

A Novel Noel | 2024 Christmas Movies

You know, I still hate when the movies on Hallmark Mystery don’t have a mystery in them. A Novel Noel is another non-mystery on the Mystery channel. Why must they do this?

Harper (Julie Gonzalo) is a book editor that has lost her love for her job. When she gets an offer from Sawyer (Brendan Penny) to work at his bookstore in Maine for the month of December, she jumps at the offer. Hopefully, this will help her find her passion again.

I wanted to like A Novel Noel so much. There was so much they could have done to make this an interesting movie. They could have gone deeper into the cute Christmas events the town was running. Or they could have gone deeper into the secret-editor-helping-writers plot. She basically ignored all of the other writers, including the one that inspired her to start the writing group, to solely focus on Sawyer. Blech. Like every other Hallmark Mystery movie, it’s fine. I just wish there was more.

Rating: WHAT DID BETH WRITE?!

A Reason For The Season | 2024 Christmas Movies

Now we’re heading back over to Hallmark Mystery with A Reason For The Season. Is it a mystery? Not really. But I’ve now resigned myself to the knowledge that this is the channel Hallmark uses for all of the non-traditional romance movies. Which is fine.

Thirty-five years ago, Elizabeth Lane (Taylor Reid in the flashback, Sarah-Jane Redmond in the present time) suddenly gave birth to her daughter, Evie (Taylor Cole), in a small town diner with the help of six strangers. Now, realizing that her adult daughter doesn’t appreciate the wealth she has built, Elizabeth sends Evie back to that small town to find the six strangers and grant their Christmas wishes. With the help of Kyle (Kevin McGarry), the only lawyer in town, Evie sets her sights on completing her mother’s challenge.

This is one of those movies that could have gone very wrong. We get a lot of “spoiled rich girl goes good” type of Christmas movies. And a lot of them are bad. Thankfully, I didn’t think A Reason For The Season was that bad. It’s a Hallmark movie so of course there is some terrible dialog and a handful of cheesy acting. But I thought that the actors got the message across well enough.

I suppose, if I had to find something bad with the movie, I would say that it was a little unbelievable that someone with access to THAT much money wouldn’t have gotten a credit card or driver’s license in their fake name instead of pretending they keep forgetting their stuff all over the place. It wouldn’t have been that difficult for Evie to get everything she needed to make herself successful. Especially if she was just giving away $1,000 diamond tennis bracelets. But, to be honest, this is a small nitpick. It was a little annoying that she had to keep hiding her real name but it didn’t ruin the movie. In the end, it was still decent.

Rating: Can I get my Christmas wish granted too?

Five Gold Rings | 2024 Christmas Movies

Woah, Hallmark Mystery has actually given us a mystery movie! Sadly, Five Gold Rings isn’t the type of movie that we, the viewers, can solve along with the characters. But it is a mystery!

As a child, Audrey (Holland Roden) would watch her grandmother return lost items to people during the Christmas season. After her grandmother passed, Audrey was tasked with finding the owners of five gold rings to return the valuable items. Her grandmother insisted that Audrey get help from Finn O’Sullivan (Nolan Gerard Funk), the first person that had a lost item returned. The pair fall in love as they find the owners of the rings.

Five Gold Rings started off as a decent movie. I thought we would get some really good sleuthing. Instead, we keep getting sidetracked with Audrey's failing art career and a grumpy rival shop owner and making Finn’s mother feel better about her art. There was so much going on that wasn’t trying to find the owners of the rings. Obviously, they find all of the owners but it all seemed a lot easier than it should have been. I get why writers think we need useless side plots to keep us entertained but sometimes we don’t really need that. We just need a good story.

Rating: The fifth ring was the lamest story of all.

My Sweet Austrian Holiday | 2024 Christmas Movies

I don’t think I understand how Hallmark chooses which movies are going on the main channel and which are going on the Mystery channel, which was rebranded from Movies & Mysteries. My Sweet Austrian Holiday is on the Mystery channel but there are no mysteries to be found.

Charlotte (Brittany Bristow) runs her family’s chocolate shop in Vienna. Unfortunately, the shop is in danger of closing because a real estate developer wants to buy the location. Little does Charlotte know that her new friend and love interest, Henry (Will Kemp), recently took over that same real estate company. Will Charlotte have to shut down her shop and return to the United States?

Ugh, this was such a terrible movie. Charlotte is a newbie chocolatier. Yet she never makes a single bad chocolate. Everyone raves about every piece that she makes. There are multiple times that she tries out a new recipe and not once does that recipe fail. I hate it.

On top of that, there is nothing interesting between Charlotte and Henry. She only complains and he doesn’t have anything to add at all. I think they may be the most boring couple I have ever seen. Well, until the end when the both magically know how to do a super choreographed waltz. Yeah, this movie is ridiculous. It isn’t worth your time.

Rating: 2020’s Christmas In Vienna is better