Holiday Heritage | 2022 Christmas Movies

This year, we got the first movie from Hallmark that highlighted Kwanzaa, Holiday Heritage. I am so happy that Hallmark has become more open to different cultures. But was it any good?

Ella (Lyndie Greenwood) is a graphic designer living in Boston. When she comes home to Mary’s Town, PA for Christmas, she finds that her mother, Micah (Holly Robinson Peete), and grandmother, Tess (Darlene Cooke), aren’t getting along. With the help of her ex-boyfriend and now-mayor, Griffin (Brooks Darnell), she tries to get her family back together by bringing the Kwanzaa celebration back into their lives.

I fully admit that I didn’t know a lot about Kwanzaa before watching Holiday Heritage. It was really nice that, instead of just showing montages of lighting candles and other traditions, the movie explained the reason for each night. In addition, Ella used each night’s traditions to try to get through to Micah and Tess. I’m glad Hallmark spent time to really focus on Kwanzaa instead of the Big Romance. I hope this is a good sign for the future.

Yes, yes, yes. Go watch this one. The movie wasn’t anything amazing but it is amazing that Hallmark is reaching beyond the “traditional” white woman Christmas movie. I am so excited to see what Hallmark has planned for the future. Watching more of these diverse movies shows the channel that, yes, we do want to see more of this.

Record Breaking Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

When I saw the title for Record Breaking Christmas, I assumed we were going to have another movie about a singer. Nope. This one is about world records, like The Guinness Book Of World Records.

Leah (Michelle Argyris) is an adjudicator for the World Records Bureau who specializes in judging Christmas record attempts. A nearby small town is attempting to break six world records. Leah and her trainee, Jin (Danny Vo), travel Saint Drexel to validate whether not the records have been broken.

Record Breaking Christmas was a cute movie. Argyris may be one of my favorite Christmas movie leading ladies, even if she isn’t always in the best movies. She has a way of making her characters relatable without making them annoying. I think the leading man, Andrew Bushell, usually gets pushed to the friend category in Christmas movies but he held his own as the lead here.

While I’m going to file this one under “Watch,” I would have liked to see a little more of the record breaking attempts. We see a lot of them when they are already done and we don’t even see the results of others. (They just reference them in a throwaway line.) Since the records are the main plot of the movie, I would have liked to have seen the town working together more on the actual record attempts. The Hula Hoop one would have been a blast to see!

A Christmas Masquerade | 2022 Christmas Movies

There is a sudden influx of “A” Christmas movies. I know there are usually a bunch of them but this seems excessive. A Christmas Masquerade also falls into the “dumb name that doesn’t really apply to the movie” category as well. It’s like the people that write the titles grab on the smallest detail and name the movie after it.

Julianne (Erin Agostino) is a personal assistant to a Laura (Cory Lee), an HR professional. Peter (David Lafontaine), a potential client, mistakes Julianne for Laura at a masquerade ball. When Julianne lands the deal, she is forced to continue to pretend to be Laura in order to keep his business.

So there is only one masquerade ball in A Christmas Masquerade. The rest of the time it’s just Julianne not correcting anyone when they call her Laura. Easy fix. There is zero reason that Julianne couldn’t have said at the party “I’m sorry, I’m Laura’s assistant. She couldn’t make it tonight so I came in her place to meet you.” Instead, they decide to drag out the lie for as long as possible. Even when Peter catches her using her real name, it gets written off. Mistaken identity is an interesting premise for a movie but it used badly here.

Also, Peter is trying to become the next ambassador for his country. (I already forget his country’s name. That is how forgettable this movie is.) His father, the current ambassador, is retiring. For some reason, the council just keeps hiring the same family as if it was royalty? But since Peter is the black sheep, he has to fix his public image or the council won’t elect him. And they work on this for FIVE WHOLE DAYS. I’m sorry but any council that looks at someone with a terrible track record that suddenly has a good track record for less than a week and still hires them is stupid. This movie is stupid.

Seriously, don’t watch A Christmas Masquerade. Either of the two movies I previously reviewed from UPtv were better than this one. This one is just dumb and a waste of time.