Catering Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

One of the things that annoyed me during the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies were all of the commercial bumps featuring Candace Cameron Bure. You know, those are the things where she’s like “Join me for the best Christmas season at Hallmark!” or some sugar-coated saying. Well, now that she’s jumped to Great American Family, she still gets the commercial bumps but now they feel like digs at the Hallmark Channel. “You’ve found me at my NEW home!” Ugh. Go away, Candace.

Molly (Merritt Patterson) owns a catering business that keeps losing jobs to her competition. When she wins the chance to cater the annual Harrison Christmas charity gala, she puts her all into impressing her client. Meanwhile, Jean Harrison (Rosemary Dunsmore) is trying to convince her nephew, Carson (Daniel Lissing), to settle down and take over running the charity foundation. Jean puts Carson in charge of overseeing the catering, which means Molly and Carson spend more time together. Will Molly make Carson want to give up his traveling photography job and settle down in New Hampshire?

With Catering Christmas, Great American Family channel seems to be trying to put both Lifetime and Hallmark out of the Christmas movie business. I actually had a pretty good time watching it. Sure, there were some slow parts that had me reaching for my phone for some games but, overall, I enjoyed it. Patterson and Lissing had some decent chemistry. They seemed to enjoy sharing the screen, even if they didn’t always seem like they were attracted to each other. Let’s just say they are on the higher end of the Christmas Movie Couple Ranking. They’re just not quite at the top yet.

If you have access to the Great American Family channel, give some time to Catering Christmas. Even if you only subscribe to one of the streaming networks hosting the channel for a few months through the Christmas season, I think it might be worth the few bucks for it. Now if only there was somewhere I could buy Carson’s photography prints for myself….

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.

A Kismet Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The first weekend of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies ends with A Kismet Christmas. Yes, I also had to look up the meaning of ‘kismet’ since they use it a million times in the movie. It means destiny or fate. I guess they can only use ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’ so many times before they run out of titles. It’s just kismet, right?

Mia (Marilu Henner) bakes kismet cookies - cookies that will tell you who your true love is when you sleep with one under your pillow on Christmas Eve. One year, Mia’s granddaughter, Sarah (Sarah Ramos), sneaks a kismet cookie under her pillow. It told her that her true love was the boy next door, Travis (Carlo Marks). Unfortunately, Travis was getting married that day. Embarrassed, Sarah rips up the recipe for the cookies and leaves the town of New Britain. Years later, Sarah is a children’s book author. Her publisher runs a contest and the winner lives in New Britain. Sarah is forced to return to town and face both her grandmother and her childhood crush.

On one hand, I found A Kismet Christmas interesting. On the other hand, the slow parts were very slow. I liked the idea of magical cookies that told you who your true love is. If the movie dove deep into that, I think I would have liked it more. However, since Sarah tore up the recipe within the first 15 minutes of the movie, the cookies aren’t around a lot. Instead, we get a lot of people hemming and hawing about how there aren’t any kismet cookies and they wish there were kismet cookies so they could know FOR SURE that a certain person liked them. And since there are no cookies to be baked, Grandma Mia is fairly useless. She makes very vague statements about things and doesn’t tell Sarah any of the important news that is fairly necessary to her life. I think the movie would have been more interesting if the cookies were still around and the conflict is whether the magic in the house is leaving since Mia is planning on selling it.

Instead of the cool things, A Kismet Christmas focuses on Travis and his daughter, Jasmine (Rubi Tupper). In the beginning, Sarah was mortified about having to face Travis again after interrupting his wedding. She got over that so quickly and she spends a majority of the movie helping Jasmine with her contest-winning project or helping Travis make Jasmine happy. I understand that the writers wanted them to spend more time together to push the romance but it’s insinuated that they have always loved each other. Again, the focus should have been on the magic cookies and house. They could have easily had Travis and Jasmine try to help figure out why the house is losing its magic and how to get it back. It’s a much more interesting story.

Should you watch it? Probably not. Unfortunately, I think the boring parts outweigh the interesting parts. Which makes me sad because there was so much potential there. At least it’s only the beginning of the movie season. Maybe there will be something better soon.

Destined At Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Destined At Christmas is my first jump into Christmas movies from the Great American Family channel. This is the channel that Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar left Hallmark for. This is also the channel run by the former CEO of Hallmark who didn’t like Hallmark including LGBTQ+ people in their programming. I’m not sure exactly what to expect but my expectations aren’t high.

Kim (Shae Robins) and Theo (Casey Elliott) meet while shopping on Black Friday. The two hit it off but lose touch after getting separated during a power outage. For the next month, they try to find each other. Close calls and misunderstandings abound until they are finally able to reconnect.

To be honest, I was expecting some sort of “God will work things out” message. That never happened. Instead, it was two people trying to find each other with the limited information they had. Granted, the whole movie could have been avoided if Theo just called out for Kim when he left the store. She called out for him but since she left first, he didn’t hear her. And there were a couple of weird places where they asked for the personal information of the other person. Why would a random store give out the contact information for one of their customers to a random person walking in off the street? For the sake of The Plot, I will give them a pass.

Surprisingly, I actually liked Destined At Christmas. Sure, it was a little cheesy but the acting wasn’t awful and the script was pretty decent. It would have been better if they had ditched the two potential love interested for Kim and Theo since they had zero influence on the main plot. However, I do understand what they were going for.

Destined At Christmas most likely isn’t going to make it to my list of top Christmas movies this year. That doesn’t mean it was a waste of time to watch. Grab a really good cup of hot chocolate and maybe your cell phone for the slower parts. I don’t think you’ll regret watching it.

We Need A Little Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

Wow. We have already reached the dead spouse/parent portion of our Christmas movies. I thought that maybe Hallmark would wait awhile before their aired their sad movies. I guess I was wrong.

Julie (Erica Durance) is a newly widowed mother to Gavin (Azriel Dalman). The two have moved into a new home and are trying to navigate the holiday season without their loved one. While at Christmas camp, Gavin meets their neighbor Irene (Lynn Whitfield). With Irene’s help, Gavin learns how to share his emotions and be supportive of his mother. Meanwhile, Julie is trying to keep her decorating company afloat. She takes on a new job redesigning a restaurant owned by Peter (Patrick Sabongui). He helps Julie open up and accept help during these difficult times.

We Need A Little Christmas is kinda on the depressing side of things. Julie lost her husband, Gavin lost his dad, and Irene will be spending Christmas alone because her military grandson can’t come make it home for the holiday. Almost everyone in the movie is just sad. Thankfully, Irene has a little insight on how to trudge through the sad times. Oh, did I forget to mention that her husband is also dead? Yeah, this movie has a lot of death in it. To be honest, Irene is probably the best character in the movie. Though she feels like she’s supposed to be some sort of guardian angel type and not an actual person. I kept waiting for there to be some sort of “magic” on her side that would bring everything together. There wasn’t but there felt like there should have been.

The problem with movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mystery channel is that none of them are bad. I mean, they aren’t good either. They are just boring. It would be easy to say “don’t watch this” if it’s bad. But when it’s boring, I don’t have a good excuse to tell you to not watch it. And WNALC is another movie that talks about Christmas but we don’t see a ton of Christmas happening. So, watch it if you have nothing else to do. Just be warned that nothing happens in the movie either. It’s a lot of talking with no follow through. Very dull.

We Wish You A Married Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Channel dominates the beginning of the Christmas movie season. I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Anyway, the second movie they give us this year is We Wish You A Married Christmas. It’s a little weird to get a married couple story this early in the season but, hey, what do I know.

Becca (Marisol Nichols) and Robby (Kristoffer Polaha) are a married couple having difficulty connecting with each other. Their marriage coach suggests a vacation to Gracious, Vermont. Thanks to a few setbacks, they end up having to stay longer than they planned. Will that help or hurt their marriage?

WWYAMC started out extremely boring and confusing. It was difficult for me to tell if these two were married and having problems or if they were just business partners. Honestly, it was worse when I figured out they were married. They have the most boring marriage problems. Instead of actually fighting over anything, they just ignore each other. Yes, that is their problem. They don’t “see” each other. And while that is a real life problem actual married couples have, it makes for very boring television.

Annoyingly, the movie doesn’t actually pick up until it’s almost over. Even when Becca and Robby were spending time together, it was still boring. Picking up items for the bed and breakfast they are staying at, shopping at the Christmas market, watching the shortest parade in the world…the most interesting thing they did was bartend at the employee Christmas party at the bed and breakfast. Even that was done as a montage. It would have been much more interesting if they had reconnected a little earlier. We could have seen a much happier couple giving romantic advice to the new couple - either the two townspeople that get together or the new couple sent by the marriage coach. Like a wink to the camera sort of thing.

If you really want to watch a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, WWYAMC isn’t terrible. It’s just boring. So maybe pop it on while you clean the house or cook dinner or some other household task. It’s not worth your complete attention but maybe your half attention.

Noel Next Door | 2022 Christmas Movies

The 2022 Christmas movie season has started! We’re starting the season with Hallmark Channel’s Noel Next Door. And, yes, of course the title is a pun on the main character’s name.

Noelle (Natalie Hall) is a divorced single mom to Henry (Callum Shoniker). While waitressing at a local diner, she meets Jeremy (Corey Sevier), a stroke survivor. The two hit it off but little does Noelle know that Jeremy is the neighbor that has been terrorizing the neighborhood with his anti-Christmas ways. Will they be able to reconcile their differences?

I’m not sure if it’s because this is the first Christmas movie of the season or if it was actually good but I quite enjoyed Noel Next Door. Usually, I find all of Corey Sevier’s characters unbearably annoying. This time around, he manages to somehow combine the “annoyed at life” and “charming leading man” types somewhat smoothly. I think my only complaint for him is that he is a little inconsistent with his character physicality. I know that not all stroke survivors have the same issues afterward. He just needs to decide when his limbs will and won’t work for him.

As for Natalie Hall, I think most of the time she chooses terrible scripts. She is frequently cast as a cardboard cutout of a woman that has zero personality. In Noel Next Door, her character has a little more depth to her. It nice to see the change since I don’t think Hall is a bad actress. She just makes bad decisions when it comes to Christmas movies.

While I think that Noel Next Door is a very watchable movie, it isn’t particularly groundbreaking. We still have the “one person hates Christmas, the other person will fix that” trope. But it isn’t the main point of the movie and I think that is what makes it better. The movie focuses more on the relationships than it does the holiday. That is almost always a win in my book.

1000 Miles From Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

I‘ve done it! 1000 Miles From Christmas is the last 2021 Christmas movie on my list! It has taken forever to do it but I have watched 91 Christmas movies. That is such an exhausting number. And I bet there will be more movies this year. I’m scared.

Raúl (Tamar Novas) is an auditor that hates Christmas. This year, he has planned a vacation to Cuba to get away from the Christmas festivities. Instead, his boss sends him to a small town to audit the local nougat factory. Will he ruin Christmas for the town or can they bring the Christmas spirit to him?

This was such a lovely movie. Even though it revolved around the town putting on the largest nativity play in the world and there were a lot of Christmas flashbacks for Raúl, it never felt like the Christmas season was being forced onto us. Christmas just happened to be the time of year and I love that.

I also liked that there were actual reasons for Raúl to hate Christmas. Thanks to the flashbacks, we got to see all of the traumatic things that happened to him during Christmas over his lifetime. If I was him, I would hate Christmas too.

If you don’t mind foreign films, 1000 Miles From Christmas is absolutely worth watching. It has romance, it has friendship, it has an evil backstabbing character, and it has the best parts of Christmas. I can’t think of a single thing that I didn’t like about the movie. It really might be my favorite Christmas movie of the season. And I am so happy that this was the last movie I watched. It leaves me hopeful for the 2022 Christmas movie season.

Grumpy Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

As I’m wrapping up the last few Christmas movies from 2021, there are a few foreign films left to watch. Grumpy Christmas (also known as Una Navidad No Tan Padre) is the first of two Spanish movies on my list.

Servando (Héctor Bonilla) is spending Christmas at the beach with his family. His son, Fran (Benny Ibarra); his wife, Alma (Jacqueline Bracamontes); and the ragtag group of people they live with are spending the holidays at the house of Alma’s aunt, Alicia (Angélica María). The old man believes they should celebrate Christmas one way but Alicia doesn’t want him telling her what to do in her house. Meanwhile, Fran and Alma are arguing over Fran’s tendency to overwork and ignore his family. Can this Christmas be saved?

I have seen quite a few people complaining about Grumpy Christmas. Perhaps they were expecting something more “American” with slapstick gags and laugh tracks. Instead, what we get are two old people so set in their ways that they go out of their way to try to annoy the other. At least that is what we think we get. In reality, the elders are afraid of dying and wasting what precious time they have left. I’m glad there is no slapstick.

While the movie mostly focuses on Servando and Alicia, we do have two other couples having trouble. There’s Fran and Alma, who thankfully are actually doing couples therapy in order to attempt to work on their relationship. Unfortunately, the therapy isn’t helping them much. On the other hand, we have Gala (Renata Notni) and Renato (Juan Pablo de Santiago) who are secretly sleeping together. Renato professes his love to Gala, which she rejects since living in the communal house makes them “family.” Of course, all of this is resolved by the end.

I found Grumpy Christmas to be a nice change of pace from all of the other Christmas movies I’ve sat through. Even though I’m sure it’s not the norm, a lot of the foreign language Christmas movies on Netflix do revolve more around family dynamics than will-they-won’t-they scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good romance movie. But most Christmas romance movies aren’t good. This was a nice palate cleanser.

A California Christmas: City Lights | 2021 Christmas Movies

I have been both looking forward to and dreading A California Christmas: City Lights. If you will remember, 2020 gave us the most depressing Christmas romance movie ever - A California Christmas. Well, the Swickards are back to give us another dose of….whatever this is.

A year has passed since Callie (Lauren Swickard) and Joseph (Josh Swickard) starting dating. Joseph’s mother has decided to leave the family business, meaning it’s up to Joseph to officially take over. He takes Callie with him to San Francisco so they can save the company.

This series is so utterly confusing. I didn’t mention it in the review of the 2020 movie but a majority of it revolved around death. Callie’s mom was dying of cancer, her father and her then-fiancé died in a car accident…it was just a mess of sad emotions. This time around, things are a bit happier. Callie’s vineyard is doing well and they seem to be selling quite a bit of wine. Her sister, Hannah (Natalia Mann), also seems to be doing well, though we don’t see a ton of her. In short, the Petaluma section of the movie is kinda OK. It’s the San Francisco portion that is a train wreck.

Joseph is surrounded by all of his super-rich friends and family, who don’t really care about Callie. Callie straight up forgets about her sister entirely while she’s gone. Victoria (Laura James), who is Joseph’s ex and I guess is supposed to be taking care of the business, is all over the place. I think she’s supposed to come off as a conniving ex that wants to get back together with Joseph but she just doesn’t. She randomly appears in scenes to throw around a few snarky words then leaves. It’s frustrating.

While I didn’t want to label the first movie as bad, this one does take the terribleness a step further. None of the characters really make rational decisions about anything. Important things happen off-camera, making some of the conflicts very confusing. And I think Lauren Swickard (who wrote this movie) might think Callie is stupid or incompetent. I’m not sure.

Well, if you actually liked the original A California Christmas, you might find some sort of enjoyment out of City Lights. Personally, I recommend staying away. This movie hints at an upcoming third one. Let’s hope that one doesn’t happen. I don’t need to see these two as parents.