This Time Each Year | 2024 Christmas Movies

What do you do when you are Hallmark and you want to have a movie about a very serious subject but you can’t really say the name of the serious subject? Call it This Time Each Year and throw it on the Hallmark Mystery channel. It’s a mystery if you don’t actually say the word, right?

Lauren (Alison Sweeney) and Kevin (Niall Matter) are having marriage troubles. They have been separated for a year but Lauren still hasn’t told her mother. When her mother comes to visit, Lauren asks Kevin to pretend nothing has happened. Will this bring them together or break them farther apart?

This is a movie about alcoholism that doesn’t want to actually be about alcoholism. Kevin was successfully working as a bartender and not drinking when his boss randomly fires him because he doesn’t want to tempt Kevin with holiday parties? Kevin walks everywhere (even though we don’t see that) because he lost his license the year prior, though they don’t ever say how or why he lost his license. (If it was drunk driving, you rarely lose your license in the US after only one instance.) This Time doesn’t want to make Kevin out to be a bad guy. He has to get back with Lauren, after all. But it really is disingenuous to only give him vague alcoholic stereotypes that don’t seem to have any actual consequence.

If you overlook this giant shadow hanging over the movie, it’s still pretty boring. Lauren spends the entire movie feeling bad for herself. One of the big problems they have is a house the couple bought before they split. It’s a gorgeous house that they claim is a money pit but, again, they only give vague things that needed to be fixed in the house. When we actually see various parts of the house, there isn’t anything that seems wrong. I know that you can’t always see the bad parts of a house but they literally named things like “the staircase” and “the roof” but neither needed work. Anyway, Lauren blames herself for buying the house and putting their family in financial strain and it is just so lame. Neither of these people are interesting and the movie neuters the parts it wants to make interesting.

Rating: Just sell the house already

Holiday Hotline | 2023 Christmas Movies

When I’m going through my list of Christmas movies, I try really hard to not learn a lot about the movies before I watch them. All I knew about Holiday Hotline was only what was shown in the commercials. I didn’t even know who the male lead was until I saw the opening credits. I’m glad I was able to keep this surprise for myself.

Abby (Emily Tennant) is a chef in London. When her chef-boyfriend takes the credit for her work, Abby quits her job and her relationship and goes to Chicago for a break. She falls into a job in Chicago answering phone calls from people needing help cooking their turkeys properly. Using an American accent and the name Peggy, she connects with single father John (Niall Matter). Soon the two become more than friends.

I was surprised to find that Holiday Hotline is a really good movie. Tennant and Matter work so well together. This may be the first couple of the season that actually shows some chemistry. Not only that, the story was interesting! I don’t think we’ve ever had a hotline worker as a career trope. For once, we were able to see Abby/Peggy and the other workers actually doing their jobs. We almost never see anyone actually working! And I really loved the way they showed the calls. This is a movie I wouldn’t mind watching again. A very pleasant surprise from Hallmark.

Rating: Let’s Talk Turkey

When I Think Of Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Hey, guess what? It’s another movie about singers! When I Think Of Christmas isn’t only about one singer though. We have three singers in this one!

Sara (Shenae Grimes-Beech) is a New York lawyer who has returned to her hometown to help her mother, Anna (Beth Broderick), move into a smaller home while celebrating the holidays. At one of the town festivities, she finds out that her ex-boyfriend and ex-singing partner, Josh (Niall Matter), is producing the town holiday concert. Will they spark a new love for music along with reigniting their love for each other?

When I Think Of Christmas is an interesting movie. There are a couple of conflicts that keeps the audience interested in staying tuned instead of just the big conflict with the main couple. Yes, I said main couple. This movie also has a secondary will-they/won’t-they couple! And each of the main characters have multiple conflicts. Does Hallmark want our brains to explode?

Here’s a quick rundown of the conflicts: Sara and her job, Josh and his job, Sara and Josh romantically, Anna and Sara’s history, and Sara and her romantic interest George (Mark Humphrey). While I wouldn’t necessarily call it a conflict, there’s also a big plot point about Anna and Sara remembering their deceased father/husband. We don’t normally get this much going on in a Hallmark movie. It’s nice to have stuff going on outside of romance. I know, I know. Romance is supposed to be all we think about. I don’t think I can roll my eyes any harder.

With all of that said, the script isn’t fabulous. There are a few weird things that no real human being would ever say to another but I will allow it this time. I will call When I Think Of Christmas a watchable movie that most people will enjoy. Go forth and sing thee thine carols!

A Christmas Together With You | 2021 Christmas Movies

A Christmas Together With You could have easily been a non-Christmas movie. I actually think that this was written as a regular Hallmark romantic movie but then someone somewhere decided they needed another Christmas flick so they added some Christmas stuff to this one. And that is OK.

Megan (Laura Vandervoort) runs a small café in town. Frank (Harry Lennix), one of her regular customers, tells her about his long lost high school sweetheart. Since neither of them have holiday plans, Megan decides that they are going to track down Frank’s sweetheart, Claire (Liza Huget), so he can profess his love to her.

If you tune into the Hallmark Christmas movies to be inundated with Christmas decor and festivities, you aren’t going to find them here. Sure, there’s a Christmas tree getting decorated and there is one scene where they go caroling but that is pretty much it. A Christmas Together With You focuses more on the search for Claire than it does Christmas. As someone who isn’t a giant fan of Christmas, I’m glad they toned down the holiday cheer for this one.

On the romance side of things, the movie mostly revolves around Frank and Claire. We do get a little romance from Megan and Steve (Niall Matter) but they aren’t the main couple in the movie. They honestly don’t interact all that much so I’m not really sure why they fell in love. Unless Megan just likes his dog a lot. I’m not sure they would even know each other’s names if it wasn’t for the dog.

The down side of this movie is the inaccuracies in the script. Frank shows us a black and white photo of him and Claire from high school. While we couldn’t see her full outfit, it looked like the two of them were dressed rather formally. He was in a tie and jacket and she seemed to be wearing a nicer dress. Then Frank claims this is 1971. I’m not sure the photo is time-period appropriate. It looked like it was more 1950s than 1970s. Also, Megan talks about going to culinary school but we don’t see her make anything more difficult than a green bean casserole. (Please note: you can get the recipe for a green bean casserole off of the back of a can of green beans.) She talks about wanting to own a restaurant but we don’t actually see her having any of those skills. Yes, she cooks a dinner for 30 people. That does not make one a chef.

With all of that in mind, I’m not sure A Christmas Together With You is worth watching. I mean, I would watch it because I’m a fan of Niall Matter. I don’t think there’s another reason to watch it unless you are into slow-burning storylines. Because this one does run slow.

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater | 2020 Christmas Movies

Just when you thought that Christmas movie titles couldn’t get any stupider, Hallmark throws this at us. Is there a longer title than Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater? I don’t think so.

Maggie (Ashley Williams) is a single mom who will spending Christmas alone. Until she accidentally injures Lucas (Niall Matter) and invites him to stay in her art studio until he heals.

Yes, Lucas is actually wearing an ugly Christmas sweater the first time Maggie meets him. Of course, that’s about as far as the title relating to the plot goes. The rest of the movie is about Maggie and Lucas volunteering at a holiday camp for children of military parents. And….that’s about it.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to say about the movie. The acting is subpar. (My husband actually commented about the delivery of one of Williams’ lines: “She doesn’t sound like she believes that.” ) The story is dull. Everything is just bland. Though I suppose one positive point is that no one has a weird obsession with hot chocolate. They straight up say they drink coffee. (Yes, I’m getting tired of everyone raving about hot chocolate or cocoa.)

I would say to skip this one. Or turn it on in the background while you’re running the vacuum. Sadly, this is another movie not worth watching.

Advent Day #17: Christmas Pen Pals

Aha! A Christmas movie with an interesting take on romantic matchmaking! I’m really glad to finally have a movie that isn’t the same old tired formula.

Hannah (Sarah Drew) is one of the founding members of the dating app, Perfect One. However, the company begins to tank right a few weeks before Christmas. In order to find a solution to her problem, Hannah heads home to celebrate the holidays with her family. Once there, she finds out that the town is pulling out an old tradition where people sign up to get matched with a secret pen pal. In order to get her widowed father back in the dating game, Hannah agrees to sign up as well. Will she meet her soulmate?

We’ve already seen movies where the leading woman runs a dating app. (Hi, Mingle All The Way.) This time around, the plot doesn’t revolve around the app so much. It’s basically a device to show that Hannah is super techy and she doesn’t do ‘normal’ things like writing letters. But once we establish that the town doesn’t do things like wifi or grande lattes with all of the syrup squirts, the tech thing is pretty much thrown to the wayside. There are a few calls between Hannah and her business partner but that’s about it.

The interesting thing about the movie is how the writers go about connecting Hannah with her pen pal. We only see them trade a few letters but they are very open with each other right from the beginning. Of course, her pen pal/true love turns out to be her high school ex-boyfriend, Sam (Niall Matter). That isn’t really the important part though. It’s her journey to reconnect with him and how sweetly he treats her, even though he doesn’t know it’s actually her… OK, the plot falls apart a little bit. I mean, he does send her on a scavenger hunt for some earrings before he knows who he is matched with but, whatever, it’s TRUE LOVE.

It was definitely a cute movie. I did spend way too much time trying to figure out who he dad was (he’s Michael Gross from the 80s show Family Ties)…that’s just my own senility rearing it’s ugly head. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It was an interesting take on ‘how to update online dating.’