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?

All Saints Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Hallmark isn’t known for having tons of movies with people of color in leading roles. PoC are usually delegated to “best friend” or “coworker.” All Saints Christmas not only features an entirely black cast, it also takes place in a New Orleans R&B club. Now we just have to see if it’s actually a good movie…

Lisette (Ledisi) is a popular singer about to return home to New Orleans for Christmas after a two year absence. Before she can head home, she gets photographed at a Christmas market with her ex-boyfriend, Matthew (Roger Cross). It looks like he is proposing to her when he’s really picking up a ring she dropped. With the story of their engagement in the press, the two decide David will come home to New Orleans with Lisette and they will pretend the engagement is real for the publicity.

I’m a little torn on All Saints Christmas. Ledisi is a gorgeous singer. Every scene featuring her vocals is a delight. But her acting is a little wooden. Instead of seeming like a normal person, she acts as if the director has been yelling at her the entire shoot for not knowing her lines or something. Poking through her IMDb page, she has portrayed some very big names. So I’m not sure if she just needs some more training or if it was a directing problem. Either way, I would really love to see her do better. If she could get a role that features her singing and she knocked the role out of the park, it would be chef’s kiss.

Thankfully, some of the other actors do make up for Ledisi’s missteps. Lucia Walters as Lisette’s arch-nemesis, Gia, is pretty perfect. Walters is able to give Gia the shell of a mean girl with the inner core of emotionally hurt high schooler. Also, Miranda Edwards as Lisette’s sister, Taborah, brings a nice emotionally stable presence to the adult children of the family. They were probably my two favorite characters in the movie.

If you like R&B music, you will definitely like All Saints Christmas. There is enough singing that you should be able to look past the acting troubles. However, if you are looking for a great Christmas movie, this probably isn’t it. I would still recommend watching it though. The music really is that good.

A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado | 2020 Christmas Movies

I’m not sure if I don’t know how towns get their official Christmas trees or if this movie doesn’t know how it happens. Why not both?

Erin (Rochelle Aytes) works at the office of the mayor of Brooklyn, Colorado. When the town’s official Christmas tree plans fall through, Erin finds the perfect tree on the property of a local firefighter, Kevin (Mark Taylor). He doesn’t want to give his tree to the town. So it’s up to Erin to convince him otherwise.

There are so many weird things in this movie. Erin’s father (Peter Bryant) is the mayor of the town, as was his father before him. He keeps saying that it’s Erin’s destiny to be the next mayor…but that’s not how it works. Mayors are elected officials. She doesn’t get to inherit it.

Then there’s this little tidbit they threw in about her professional life. She has a teaching degree. After she graduated, she got a teaching job in Denver. But then her dad offered her a job in the mayor’s office so she decided to give up the Denver job and stay in Brooklyn. WHY. If you didn’t like teaching, why did you finish out the degree? You should have switched majors. If you liked teaching, why did you give up a job? YOU GOT A TEACHING JOB.

I will give props to Hallmark for having people of color as the main characters. There is also a gay couple as side characters. Oh, and let’s not forget the single father adopting an “older” child. (I think they said she was 5 when he adopted her. We’re not talking teenager-older but not-baby-older.) Hallmark isn’t usually known for its diversity. This is a step in the right direction.

Is it a good movie? Not really. Erin kept talking about how Kevin’s house is in the former town square and she kept harassing him to cut down his tree. Why wouldn’t she ask if they could trim the tree where it stood and have the whole event there? Why talk about how historical the site was if only to use that bit of information as the “last minute savior” moment?

Should you watch it? Eh, if you want to. It’s fairly boring. But I would like Hallmark to have more diversity in their movies. I think that if this doesn’t get good ratings, Hallmark will decided that consumers don’t want to see people of color in lead roles. We do. We just want to see them in GOOD roles.