According to IMDb, A Christmas Blessing used to be titled Blessings of Christmas. Blessings of Christmas would have been better, honestly. There are a lot of movies named A Christmas Blessing.

Mandy Gilmore (Lori Loughlin) is leaving her cooking show to travel the world, dining at every Michelin star restaurant. Before she can leave, she has to stop in Milwaukee to sign the deed to her late aunt’s food pantry over to Adam (James Tupper), who owns the business next door. As she is getting ready to sign, she is visited by Otto (Jesse Hutch), who reminds her of her aunt’s seasonal goodwill toward those in need. At the last minute, Mandy tries to get together one last holiday food pantry and feast.

This is on Great American Family, of course. It is a little heavy-handed with the religious overtones but I don’t think they ever blatantly say this is “God’s doing” or whatever. I was waiting for some sort of pun on Otto’s name but, if there is one, I didn’t catch it.

Anyway, it’s a decent enough movie. A little too saccharine for my tastes but I’m sure this is right up the alley for some other people.

Rating: Watch out for the ice!

Another staple of holiday romance movies is “women who chose careers over family and are now miserable.” That is the basic premise of this movie. It’s probably my least favorite of the storylines.

Maddie (Lori Loughlin) has sold her popular shoe company. Now that she doesn’t have anything to do, she goes home to celebrate the holidays with her family, who happens to own a wood-working company that makes furniture. Her high school sweetheart, Carter (Victor Webster), works for the family company. Even though they are barely on speaking terms, Maddie and Carter have to work together to plan the high school’s winter dance.

I have issues with this movie. They aren’t giant issues but they are there. A lot of the “tension” in the movie is a result of two things: Carter didn’t move to New York with Maddie and Maddie didn’t stay in Claremont with Carter. The two of them harbor so much resentment over the fact that their high school relationship didn’t continue after graduation. I don’t think they state how old the characters are supposed to be but Lori Loughlin is 54 years old and Victor Webster is 45 years old. That is an awful long time to hold onto an ex. I can get into a “They were The One” plot as much as anyone but it just doesn’t work well here.

Also, Maddie frequently tells Carter how talented his woodwoorking is and how he should have his own business. Carter isn’t interested in owning a business and he’s not convinced that anyone would buy his work. Well, one - not everyone would be a good business owner. Just because he is good at making things doesn’t mean he would be good at selling it or keeping the books or any of the other things required to be a business-owner. Two - Carter makes the furniture for the family business! It may not be super creative like the wooden ornaments or miniature houses he made but they are the entirety of the family’s business and it is doing well enough that Maddie’s dad had retired before he passed away and now her mom is retiring. Most business-owners don’t get to do that!

If you can look past some of the problems in the movie, it’s not completely terrible to watch. It is more of a ‘turn on in the background for noise’ rather than a movie you can actually enjoy. I guess this is the first real dud for the Hallmark Channel.