Under The Christmas Tree | 2021 Christmas Movies

Usually, when we get a Christmas movie with a gay main couple, that couple is male. Lifetime changes it up with Under The Christmas Tree. Women rule this time around.

Charlie (Tattiawna Jones) is a tree whisperer. With her partner, Rohan (Shawn Ahmed), she is looking for a Christmas tree for the state capital. She finds the perfect tree on property owned by Alma (Elise Bauman) and her parents. Can Charlie convince Alma to let her cut down the tree?

I was intrigued to see where Under The Christmas Tree was going to go. After all, it was written by the guy that wrote 2020’s The Christmas Setup, which was really good. Thankfully, this one wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t quite as good as Setup but it wasn’t boring. Instead of trying to force the two women together, they were allowed to have the “love at first sight” moment that so many straight movies have. The first time Alma sees Charlie, she stumbles over her words. Charlie is a little more confident so she gets the “you know you want to be with me” personality. It was really nice to see this change. Having to watch women be stereotypically female all the time in Christmas movies sucks. I liked seeing all of the women have very different personalities.

With that said, I wouldn’t say this is the best Christmas movie. It still has some very slow parts and the main tree conflict is stupid. They also keep trying to throw Ricki Lake into scenes for no real reason. I think they wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth casting her.

Despite the slow parts, it was a decent movie to watch. It didn’t fully capture my attention but I was able to pay more attention than I have in the other movies I’ve watched this month.

Single All The Way | 2021 Christmas Movies

Single All The Way has been making a big splash around social media lately. It’s not the first Christmas movie with a gay romance as the main story but it is getting a lot of talk right now. With stars like Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Najimy, and Barry Bostwick, I have high hopes.

Peter (Michael Urie) is always “the single one” at the family Christmas gathering. When he finds out that his current boyfriend, Tim (Steve Lund), is actually married to a woman and has children, he is understandably upset. He asks his roommate/best friend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to go home with him to New Hampshire to pretend to be his boyfriend. Nick agrees to go with him…but not fake a romantic relationship. If Peter’s family has any say in the matter, it won’t be a fake relationship anyway.

I loved Single All The Way so much. Peter and Nick had the right amount of awkwardness when they each wanted their relationship to go further but were afraid to talk about it. James (Luke Macfarlane), the blind date that Peter’s mother Carole (Kathy Najimy) arranges for him, has the perfect amount of likeability that makes you want him to date Peter. While everyone is perfect in their roles, not every character is perfect. Aunt Sandy (Jennifer Coolidge) is completely oblivious to how blasphemous her Christmas pageant is. She brings the right amount of wackiness to the movie to keep it from being stale.

It is looking like Netflix is the place to be for Christmas movies. Definitely head over and watch Single All The Way. Then watch it again for the hilarious antics of Jennifer Coolidge. And one more time for Kathy Najimy’s mom-attempting-to-be-woke. They all deserve it.

Happiest Season | 2020 Christmas Movies

Now that I finished all of the Christmas movies form Hallmark and Lifetime, I can dive into the movies from Netflix and Hulu. Hulu gave us just one movie this year, Happiest Season, but it’s better to have one really good movie over 100 terrible ones.

Harper (Mackenzie Davis) has invited her girlfriend, Abby (Kristen Stewart), to her family’s house for Christmas. Unfortunately, Harper has not come out to her parents. Abby spends the next five days with Harper’s crazy family pretending that she is only Harper’s roommate.

Happiest Season has a lot of big names attached to it. It was written and directed by Clea DuVall. The cast has bigwigs like Kristen Stewart, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Alison Brie, Mary Steenburgen, and Victor Garber. It would have been difficult to make a bad movie with this sort of talent attached.

Thankfully, this was a wonderful movie. I don’t think I could have stood another bad movie. There are a few weird moments but these were true to life. Life isn’t always easy and sometimes there are moments you have to traverse that are weird. I think the characters handled it better than I would have.

This is definitely a movie you should watch. Actually, this might be a good annual movie as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Christmas Setup | 2020 Christmas Movies

As I have said before, Christmas 2020 is the season of inclusivity. The Christmas House is the “movie that broke Hallmark” because it featured a gay couple. Well, Lifetime did them one better with The Christmas Setup where the main couple is gay.

Hugo (Ben Lewis) is a New York lawyer trying to make partner. When he comes home to Minnesota, he meets Patrick (Blake Lee), a former tech entrepreneur. With a little meddling from his mother, Kate (Fran Drescher), and his best friend, Madelyn (Ellen Wong), Hugo finds what is really important to him.

The Christmas Setup is the best movie that Lifetime has aired this season. It might possibly be the best movie on television this season. In most romance movies, we don’t see that awkward stage where the couple likes each other but doesn’t know if the other person likes them back. Amazingly, we get that here. We get scenes where Hugo groans about how nerdy he is after an interaction with Patrick or how dumb a hat looks on him. There are shy glances between the men as they try to discern where they stand with each other. It is so sweet.

All of the acting is wonderful. Fran Drescher is great as Hugo and Aiden’s (Chad Connell) mother. She’s meddles a little and over plans the Christmas events but it’s obvious that she does it because she loves her boys so much. Ben Lewis and Blake Lee are a real life couple, which brings a reality to their characters’ relationship that you don’t get in other movies. And Ellen Wong as Hugo’s best friend? Perfection.

You should absolutely go watch The Christmas Setup. This is actually a movie you may want to watch every year. It is so good!!

The Christmas House | 2020 Christmas Movies

There has been some controversy about an LGBTQ+ movie on Hallmark. I heard people complaining about a “gay couple on Hallmark!” forcing them to cancel their subscription to the channel but I didn’t know which movie it was. Well, this is it. This is the movie that broke Hallmark.

Mike (Robert Buckley) is an actor starring in a television show called “Handsome Lawyer.” When shooting wraps for the season, he is called home to help his parents, Phylis (Sharon Lawrence) and Bill (Treat Williams), bring back The Christmas House. With some help from his brother, Brandon (Jonathan Bennett), and Brandon’s husband, Jake (Brad Harder), Mike tries to get the house ready for all of the Christmas revelers to enjoy.

The Christmas House has a lot going on in it. (Here is Hallmark’s description of the movie since mine is kinda terrible.) There’s a house being sold, a relationship breaking up, a relationship starting, a baby possibly being adopted, a career that might be ending….like I said, a lot. However, it all works. People’s lives are hectic around the holidays and this movie reflects that.

As I said in the opening, this is a controversial movie. This is the first Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel that focuses on a gay couple. Surprisingly, they are treated well. I was expecting Hallmark to come out with at least one character that was against their lifestyle. But no, Brandon and Jake are treated just like everyone else in the movie. I know, it’s almost like gay people are…..people. (insert shocked face here) Hallmark did good.

I really don’t want to give away too much about The Christmas House because, yes, you should watch this one. Watch it multiple times. And not just because it has gay characters. It is actually a good movie. I don’t usually want to add Hallmark movies to my “annual movie” list….this may be the exception.