Christmas Under The Northern Lights | 2024 Christmas Movies

When I saw that Great American Family was airing a movie titled Christmas Under The Northern Lights, I wondered if there was more to it than just being about the northern lights. Well, the answer is “not really.” I’m still in November and Great American Family movies are already boring me to death. This may be the last year I watch GAF movies.

Erin (Jill Wagner) needs inspiration for her next book. Her father, Doug (Bruce Boxleitner), suggests they go visit his hometown of Aurora. He has to sell his parents’ house and maybe the Aurora Borealis will give Erin the inspiration she needs.

Yep, this movie is all about Erin chasing the northern lights across a small town with tour guide Trevor (Jesse Hutch). Sure, he takes her on some adventures but there are also adventures that she won’t do and, honestly, this movie is so freaking boring. Instead of a “will they or won’t they” romance story, we get a “will they or won’t they” see the northern lights story. It’s not a good conflict, the CGI for the lights wasn’t all that good, and the story progressed at a snail’s pace. I know that GAF tends to put a lot of their bad movies in November. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted December to arrive so much.

Rating: I felt it in my gut that this would be bad.

Bringing Christmas Home | 2023 Christmas Movies

Great American Family’s Bringing Christmas Home is the first of the military-related movies this year. OK, I don’t know there are more military-related movies coming but there is usually at least a couple of them. It’s a pretty safe bet.

Russell (Paul Greene) runs an antique store with his sister, Jules (Jess Brown). When he finds a World War 2 uniform in a pile of donated items, Russell decides that he must get the uniform back to the soldier’s family. He enlists the help of Caroline (Jill Wagner), a retired military officer who is now a military history professor. Can they find the soldier’s family before Christmas?

I wish this move was more interesting. They could have easily made this a mystery movie but they didn’t. The movie spends more time following Caroline around and on her emotional journey than it does on the actual uniform. I don’t need to see Caroline buy and decorate a Christmas tree. I need to see them actually translating the cryptic letters and doing actual research. For someone with a master’s degree in military history, Caroline kinda sucks at it.

There have definitely been some good military Christmas movies in the past. Why do they have to keep giving us this crap? We can honor our soldiers without making them look dumb.

Rating: Lost to time

A Merry Christmas Wish | 2022 Christmas Movies

I know I harp on the stupid titles that some of these Christmas movies have. And I know that there is a limit to what they could name them. After all, all of the movies need to have something holiday related in the title, right? With a title like A Merry Christmas Wish, you would think it had something to do with wishes in some way. Nope. There is no wishing here. This should have been called A Merry Christmas Inheritance or Winter Wonderland Down On The Farm or something like that. This title gets a -100 out of 100 from me.

Janie (Jill Wagner) is a New York marketing executive. Recently, her great-uncle passed, leaving her the family farm and a letter. In the letter, he asks her to hold the farm’s Winter Wonderland festival one last time before selling the property. With the help of her childhood friend, Dylan (Cameron Mathison), she not only holds the festival but falls back in love with the farm and the town.

For once, I don’t know what to say about a movie. Usually there’s something I can was nice or was terrible but this one just was. As a matter of fact, the only memorable scene in this entire movie was a kid saying the cookies she made sucked and the face Janie made when she bit into one. Indeed, the cookies did suck. So they had to have a whole new scene where they were making completely different cookies. I guess that makes it two memorable scenes…

You can watch A Merry Christmas Wish if you really want to but be warned that you already know what will happen. This movie is extremely predictable and boring. Even the big conflicts in it are boring. If the writers had made any of the side characters at least a little unlikeable, that would have made it slightly more interesting. But nope, everyone is just fine. I kinda hate it.

The Angel Tree | 2020 Christmas Movies

While watching this movie, I found out that Hallmark paired with the USO this year. Maybe that is why there are so many military references in this year’s Christmas movies.

Every year in Pine River, a tree appears in the town square. Residents place their Christmas wishes on the tree. Like magic, an unknown person known only as Angel grants everyone’s wishes.

The Angel Tree is an adorable movie. The idea that a group of people get together secretly every year to make Christmas magic happen for their fellow townsfolk is a perfect Christmas movie plot.

Rebecca (Jill Wagner) grew up in Pine River and was devastated when her Angel Tree wish wasn’t granted. (I mean, her wish was to stop her parents from moving out of town…) As an adult, she decides to write an article about the Angel Tree and is pressured by her editor to find out who is granting all of the wishes. Matthew (Lucas Bryant) is her childhood best friend who still lives in the town. He makes it his mission to keep Rebecca from finding out Angel’s identity while also helping Angel grant wishes. As Rebecca and her daughter, Cassie (Cassidy Nugent), help Matthew and his nephew, Owen (Oscar Farrell), grant Angel Tree wishes, they find out how good it feels to make other people’s wishes come true.

This movie is practically perfect in every way. I already said I liked the plot. The acting is very good. Even Matthew’s stupid coffee puns add to the feel-good mood. Owen’s mom is a soldier deployed overseas but they actually fit it into the story. It doesn’t feel like it was jammed into the script just to have a character related to the military.

You should absolutely watch The Angel Tree. Even if you aren’t into Christmas movies, this is less about Christmas and more about giving back to your community. A great movie for pretty much anyone.