Make Or Bake Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Ooh. I don’t think we’ve had any baking Christmas movies this year, have we? Make Or Bake Christmasshould fix that! Right?

Emma (Jasmine Aivaliotis) works for Leslie (Vivica A. Fox), a lifestyle business mogul. When she hears about up-and-coming family bakery Sugar Bakers, run by Denise Sugarbaker (Jackée Harry), Leslie sends Emma to go undercover as a seasonal employee to convince the family to sell the business.

Man, this movie isn’t about baking. It’s about corporate espionage. Well, on the bright side, it was a fairly interesting movie. I think my favorite part is when all of the employees went out for karaoke night and they all sang like normal people. They didn’t make anyone an outstanding singer. It gave the movie a touch of normalcy.

The worst part really was how awful Leslie was to Emma. We all know terrible corporate bosses. We don’t really need them in our Christmas movies. And we didn’t really get a “come to the light” moment for her. She seemed less awful at the end but we don’t know that she isn’t still a horrible boss to everyone else.

Overall, it’s not a terrible movie. I have seen worse. But I don’t think I would watch it a second time.

Rating: Come for the cookies, stay for the karaoke

A Christmas Intern | 2023 Christmas Movies

Time to head over to Lifetime to take a look at A Christmas Intern. It doesn’t seem like an interesting movie but who knows what’s going on anymore…

Alexis (Ciarra Carter) runs her own small business called CYBER SANTA. When her retired mother, Cecilia (Jackée Harry), sees that Alexis needs some help, she jumps on a plane to be there. Since Alexis can’t afford to pay her, Cecilia becomes an unpaid intern for the company.

First off, everyone knows unpaid internships are awful. People should get paid for their labor, no matter what. College credit will not pay your bills. Unpaid internships should be done away with forever.

Looking beyond that, this is a fairly cute movie. Harry does A LOT of the heavy lifting though. If it wasn’t for her charisma, the movie would be terrible. Most of the other actors aren’t great at reading their lines. There’s a lot of cardboard acting going on. They should all be very appreciative of Harry’s talents and take a few lessons from her.

Rating: If a marketing class doesn’t tell you to do offline marketing, RUN AWAY

A Cozy Christmas Inn | 2022 Christmas Movies

I believe there are two Jodie Sweetin Christmas movies this season. It’s a little unusual for a known actress to be in more than one Christmas movie per year. Perhaps she’s trying to steal the Christmas season from Candace Cameron Bure. Well, let’s see if A Cozy Christmas Inn is any good.

Erika (Jodie Sweetin) is a real estate executive working for Sharon (Vivica A. Fox). Sharon sends Erika to a small town in Alaska to purchase a local inn. When Erika arrives, she finds that the inn is owned by her ex-boyfriend, Andy (David O’Donnell). Will Erika be able to make the offer before she falls in love again?

To be honest, I didn’t expect a lot from A Cozy Christmas Inn. Generally speaking, movies about inns or bed and breakfast places aren’t usually good. For some reason, they spend too much time on the hotel instead of the couple. While the romance shouldn’t be the sole focus of the movie, it should have a leading role.

Surprisingly, this hotel movie was quite good. It balanced Erika’s hesitancy at reconnecting with Andy, giving each of the interesting townspeople a small spotlight, and the actual rekindling of the romance between Erika and Andy very well. Both Erika and Andy had their “I know better than you” moment but neither of those moments were mean about it. Sometimes romance movies make one part of the couple snarky about knowing something more or being better at something than the other person. In this case, Erika cooks Andy a meal and Andy gives Erika a pair of real boots (as opposed to dress boots). There is a little bit of fun ribbing - Erika kinda makes fun of Andy’s diet and Andy kinda makes fun of Erika thinking that dress boots are appropriate for Alaska - but it’s never in a mean way that would make the other person feel bad. It’s moments like this that make them feel like an actual couple.

While there isn’t a ton of Christmas in A Cozy Christmas Inn, this is a really good movie. There is some holiday spirit and a winkwinknudgenudge that says Andy might be Santa’s son. But even if you love tons of Christmas in your Christmas movie, I think you would enjoy this one. I almost want to say it’s the perfect Christmas romance movie. Almost.