Our Christmas Journey really shouldn’t be a Christmas movie. It should stand on its own without having to battle against all of the romantic Christmas movies. Especially since Christmas doesn’t play a huge part in it anyway.

Lena (Holly Robinson Peete) is a single mom trying to raise an autistic son, Marcus (Nik Sanchez), and a talented pianist daughter, Mia (Hilda Martin). When the family, along with her mother - Robin (Aloma Wright), and her ex-husband - Rick (Lyriq Bent), goes to check out a facility where Marcus can learn to live independently. Lena has a difficult time letting Marcus leave the nest, much to the aggravation of Rick. Can Lena learn to let go?

This really was a sweet movie. I’m a little sad that it got stuck in the middle of all of the other Hallmark Christmas movies. (This was on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, which doesn’t get as much traffic as the Hallmark Channel itself.) It highlighted the difficulties a mother goes through when she has a child who is different from other children. Lena wants to protect Marcus from all of the harm in the world but at what cost to Marcus? He will need to learn how to live on his own. It can be difficult to let your child do things that you know might hurt them, even though it will help them in the long run.

I don’t want to talk about the movie too much because I do think that everyone should watch it. Maybe even watch it with a loved one. And you might want to make sure you have a box of tissues nearby. Just in case….

Lifetime finally jumps into the Christmas fray this year with An Ice Wine Christmas. Let’s see if they start off strong.

Camila (Roselyn Sanchez) is one of the top sommeliers in Philadelphia. However, her heart really lies with the Ice Wine Festival and harvest in her hometown of Evergreen, NY. When Camila finds out that Henry (Richard Fitzpatrick), the owner of the vineyard, is retiring, she does everything she can to make him change his mind. Henry turns to Camila’s sister, Beth (AnnaMaria Demara), and scientist Declan (Lyriq Bent) to figure out how to predict the annual frost in order to harvest the grapes for the ice wine. Whose prediction will be correct - Camila or Declan?

I don’t think I understand why wine-making ends up in Christmas movies. Are they trying to hone in on the “moms drink a lot of wine” trope? Newsflash: Drinking wine and making wine are two different things.

Anyway, An Ice Wine Christmas tries to throw a couple of different plots together and I’m not sure how well they work. As always, there is a Christmas festival to plan. They make it sound like this is both an annual event and an event that hasn’t happened in awhile. They also make it sound like Henry planned the whole festival himself in previous years but now it’s too much work for a committee of 6 people. Please pick one. Either way, the movie spends the least amount of time focused on the festival as possible. There are vague conversations about decorations and Camila convinces Declan to fix the town’s bell….because he can weld? I feel like you need more skills than just welding to fix a giant bell. Even when the festival is going on, they are like “Hey! Here’s Ice Wine! It’s delicious! Christmas!” What is the point of the festival if it isn’t going be festive?

But the main plot in the movie is trying to figure out when the frost will come so they will know when to harvest the grapes. And, apparently, they need tons of volunteers to come out in the middle of the night to pick the harvest. Now, as I have said, Henry has been doing this for years. He knows how to predict the frost. He has been doing it successfully the entire time and he taught Camila how to do it so it is something that can be taught. So why, all of a sudden, is Henry like “Nope, we gotta find a new way. This won’t work for Beth.” WHY? (Well, so they can bring in Declan and he can fall in love with Camila, duh.)

Finally, there’s the “Teaching Christmas” plot. Declan’s family doesn’t celebrate Christmas in a traditional way so Camila takes it upon herself to teach him about the spirit of Christmas. Except she doesn’t really teach him anything. She tells him some stories about her past Christmases but there’s nothing that would make someone be like “I get it! Traveling the world for Christmas is a trash idea. We should all be at home decorating trees and cookies together!”

I want to classify An Ice Wine Christmas as “not bad, just boring” but that doesn’t feel right. No, it’s not a bad movie. Yes, it is boring. I think the reason it’s boring is the reason it doesn’t belong in that category. They want to do too much but don’t focus on anything. There’s a festival but all we really see from it is a silent auction, a few Christmas lights, and ice wine. A festival should have more festive things. Add some carolers or a children’s choir (no, there are no children in this movie) and it would have upped the enjoyment of the festival. Even the ice wine harvest is dumb. Why is your most important harvest of the year completely relying on volunteers showing up? Shouldn’t you have employees - even temporary seasonal employees - to do this?

Ah, just skip it. There isn’t anything worth watching here. Unless you are really curious about ice wine, I guess.