On The 12th Date Of Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

I think maybe the newest trope of this year’s Christmas movies is “women like sugar.” Of the seven movies I’ve watched so far (including this one), five of them have specifically given their lead female characters “I LOVE SUGAR” traits. It’s annoying.

Jennifer (Mallory Jansen) and Aidan (Tyler Hynes) are social media scavenger hunt game creators. The two of them get thrown together on a new project after Aidan’s usual teammate suddenly goes out on paternity leave. What is the project? A “12 Dates of Christmas” scavenger hunt for a local hotel that will take participants all over the city of Chicago.

Amazingly, Hallmark has given us another movie that doesn’t actually focus on the romance between the two main characters. (Granted, the first movie was on their Movies & Mysteries channel….but it’s still Hallmark.) This time around, the plot does center more on Jennifer and Aidan trying to figure out 12 date-related Christmas clues for their scavenger hunt. Technically, this means they are on a bunch of “dates” together but they aren’t really dates so it’s forgivable.

In my opening paragraph, I talked about this year’s newest sugar trope. However, there is a second sort-of-trope that is popping up this year. And that is military families. This is my third year of watching (way too many) Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix Christmas movies. I don’t remember any other year having so many military members or families as main characters.

• The Christmas Doctor - Dr. Zoey was in the military before she became a traveling doctor.

• Christmas in Vienna - Mark the diplomat had a father that was in the military so they moved around a lot when he was a child.

• Deliver By Christmas - Josh’s wife was in the military and she was killed when she was deployed.

• On The 12th Date of Christmas - Aidan’s father is in the military so they moved around a lot when he was a child.

Again, out of seven movies so far, four of them have main characters connected to the military somehow. I’m not against featuring military characters or families in Christmas movies. But they don’t have to be in every single one. I hope that this isn’t going to be the trend for the rest of the season. It will be a bit of a mood-killer.

As for this particular movie, it’s kinda cute. Seeing Jennifer and Aiden try to figure out where to send the scavenger hunters was interesting. It was a little annoying that Aiden kept poking fun at Jennifer for not being a “native” of Chicago but he legit said that he grew up on a bunch of military bases around the world and only came to Chicago every Christmas to spend it with his grandfather. I would argue that he isn’t a native either.

I’m a little surprised that, like many of the other movies this year, 12th Date isn’t particularly terrible. (Maybe my movie nemesis, MarVista, has gotten out of the Christmas movie game….) I would say that this would be a good movie to have in the background while you’re baking cookies or decorating your tree. It doesn’t require a lot of attention but it is worth a watch.

The Christmas Ring | 2020 Christmas Movies

Maybe I’m jaded by The Ghost of Christmas Movies Past. When I originally saw the title for The Christmas Ring, I thought “Great. This is going to be another movie about a woman trying desperately to get her boyfriend to propose on Christmas.” Thankfully, I was wrong.

Kendra (Nazneen Contractor) is a writer for Quizzer.com. One day, she finds a beautiful engagement ring in an antique thrift store. After reading the inscription, she decides that she has to return the ring to the original owner.

Most romantic Christmas movies revolve around the romance. It isn’t about the bakery owner running her business or the real estate mogul finding the perfect spot for a Christmas shop. Sure, these may be the characters but they aren’t really the plot. The plot is usually more like “The bakery owner finds love under her sugar bowl” or something dumb like that. The jobs are there just to give the characters something to do. The Christmas Ring is surprisingly different.

Quizzier is obviously the movie version of Buzzfeed. They mostly do listicles or quizzes about what type of elf you are. Nothing particularly substantial. Kendra wants to take the site to the next level and write a human interest piece about her search for the original owner of this ring she found. Her boss is against it so Kendra takes some personal days to do the research herself. And, yes, the entire plot of the movie is the quest to find the owner of the ring and why the ring was in a thrift shop.

That’s not to say there is no romance in the movie. Michael (David Alpay) is one of the grandsons of the ring’s original owner and he helps Kendra with her search. There are a few moments between them but the story really isn’t about them. I really appreciated that there weren’t any attempts to force Michael and Kendra together. No one was trying to trick them into going on a date and it felt like the romance between them grew naturally. I mean, it was still super fast as the whole movie takes place in less than a week but it wasn’t anything that seemed out of the ordinary to me.

Would I recommend The Christmas Ring? Yes. It’s not a resounding YOU MUST WATCH THIS yes. Just a regular yes. This was not a terrible way to spend my time.

Deliver By Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

It didn’t take very long for us to move into the “female business owner tries to find love for Christmas” trope. And, yes, she owns a bakery! At least the title is kinda cute?

Josh (Eion Bailey) is a widower who has moved, with his son, to a small town in order to be closer to his family. He signs on to help his sister-in-law, Amy (Julie Lynn Mortensen), plan the town’s annual Christmas festival. One of his duties is to coordinate with the local bakery owner, Molly (Alvina August), to make sure there are Christmas cookies for all of the children. Since all of their conversations are over the phone, neither of them realize that they keep running into each other as they prepare for the holiday.

Can we all agree to stop bugging business owners, especially those who are running their entire business by themselves, about their love lives? Poor Molly runs a rather successful bakery all by herself yet her sister, Jane (Nadeen Lightbody), is all up her face trying to get her to date. Molly can barely handle all of the work she has. How about find her an assistant or something first?

OK. Rant over. Looking beyond the business owner trope, Deliver By Christmas actually has a cute take on it. Instead of a man trying to push his way into her life, both Josh and Molly are doing their own things. They’ll be out buying Christmas trees or getting ice cream and just accidentally bump into each other. They may have a spark but they don’t act on it until their Christmas duties are finished. I can respect that.

While it would have been nice for Molly to ask Josh about his relationship status instead of assuming things about him, I can understand why she didn’t. Since they only ‘met’ each other a couple of times and for just a few minutes each time, it would be weird to randomly ask a man with a child if he was married or something. “Hey, I see you’re here getting your kid some ice cream. So, is there, like, a wife in the picture?” Blech. It’s normal to assume he is married in that situation.

Despite the fact that Deliver By Christmas is a very cute movie, I did find myself getting distracted frequently. It was difficult for me to keep my attention on the movie. I think because the stakes didn’t feel high enough. For example, Molly kept saying she was busy but we didn’t really see busy. Yes, she was baking a lot but it didn’t seem like it was an unusual amount. Josh’s sister in law kept saying how much work she had to do to plan this festival but we didn’t see that. Josh did a ton of stuff yet he still had plenty of time to build snow forts, bake cookies, and whatever else was on the list of things to do with his son.

Another thing that bothered me was, in the beginning of the movie, Molly said she wished she could take orders on her website. And they established that Josh is a “tech guy” who worked a lot after his wife died. Yet at no point did anyone try to put the two of them together to get this accomplished. Molly’s sister was friends with Josh’s sister…there’s no reason they couldn’t have figured this out. I kinda hope that there’s a plan for a sequel so we can see the two of them working together…maybe he starts his own website business where he can help all of the small businesses in town while she hires some new people to help her at the bakery. Then next Christmas they start a new tradition or something.

This is definitely an OK movie to sit through. The military angle did seem a little forced but whatever. I think we all have to lower our standards for Hallmark.

Christmas In Vienna | 2020 Christmas Movies

Last year, Hallmark sent us to Rome for Christmas. This year, it’s Vienna. I guess European countries are romantic. Thankfully, this isn’t the same movie in a different location.

Jess (Sarah Drew) is a concert violinist. She is in Vienna for the holidays to perform a concert on Christmas Eve. While there, she plans on hanging out with her old college friend, Tori (Alina Fritsch). Tori works as a nanny for an American diplomat named Mark (Brennan Elliott). When Tori gets a chance to sell her handmade ornaments in one of the local markets, Jess agrees to help out with the nanny duties.

I really like Sarah Drew as an actress. I first saw her way back in 2004 on Everwood and I’m happy that she has been able to keep working, even though she frequently plays the same type of character - slightly awkward yet adorable. And this is no different. At least this time the stereotype is offset by her interaction with the children, Julian (Oskar Ricketts), Summer (Allegra Tinnefeld), and Isla (Abigail Vollnhofer). All of the Jess/children scenes are great. The actors seem to get along wonderfully.

As for the romance? Well…it’s filled with a lot of almost moments. Moments where the two adults should just talk about what is on their mind but they won’t so they just kinda let each other float away until the very last minute. Or like the scene where Mark asks Jess’s opinion on something then gets mad when she tells him what she thinks. That was annoying. It’s really just another movie with no real conflict. Instead of a will they/won’t they scenario, the biggest conflict is about whether Jess leaves Vienna (where she doesn’t actually live…she’s only visiting for this one concert) and whether Mark moves his family out of Vienna (they move a lot so I’m not sure why this is surprising). Yeeeaaah.

Christmas in Vienna is another movie that is just fine to watch…unless you hate Silent Night. They play it a lot. Otherwise, the acting is fine, the story is fine, the locations are very pretty (it was actually filmed in Vienna!). It’s better than a lot of the other Hallmark/Lifetime movies I’ve watched. I only wish there was a little more oomph to it….

The Christmas Doctor | 2020 Christmas Movies

Hallmark couldn’t possibly be happy with only one channel showing Christmas movies way too early. They had to have their second channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, get in the game. Everyone else probably already knew this but, man, how many movies can Hallmark really put out in one year? Well, the first movie of the year that I have watched from Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is The Christmas Doctor. Why can’t anyone give these movies good titles?

The Christmas Doctor focuses on Dr. Zoey Garner (Holly Robinson Peete), a traveling doctor who doesn’t stay in the same place long. She gets an assignment for Willow Brook, NY. The local doctor is having shoulder surgery and will be out for two weeks. But Dr. Zoey isn’t used to sticking around for that long.

Sadly, I don’t have a lot to say about The Christmas Doctor. It was a little boring but otherwise perfectly fine. There was this weird little backstory about Dr. Zoey being a former military doctor that didn’t really have a lot to do with the plot besides being the reason Dr. Ray chose her to substitute for him.

I think maybe the movie was so boring because there wasn’t any conflict. Zoey’s sister, Debra (Nicole Anthony) is upset that Zoey never spends Christmas with her. Luke (Adrian Holmes), the love interest, is upset when Zoey tells Dr. Ray (Fred Henderson) that she is leaving town when her gig is up. All of the conflicts are literally things that people knew about beforehand. Debra knows that her sister is a traveling doctor who fills in at various hospitals when needed. How can you really be upset about a doctor having to work on Christmas? And Luke? He knew that Zoey was only in town for 14 days. Why is he upset that she’s not ditching her career to stay in a tiny little town with someone she barely knows? All of this gets resolved, of course. That doesn’t make the fact that they are stupid conflicts any better.

So, I guess watch it if you have nothing else to do? Turn it on for some background noise? I’m not saying don’t watch it but I’m sure you have a better way to spend two hours.

Holidate | 2020 Christmas Movies

Judging by these two movies that Netflix released for the Christmas season, Netflix’s stance for 2020 is “Christmas movies that don’t actually have anything to do with Christmas.” I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if Holidate was inspired by that song by The Waitresses. That’s how important Christmas here. Weird for a Christmas movie. Anyway…

Sloan (Emma Roberts) is a young woman who is basically tortured by her family every holiday due to her frequently single status. Jackson (Luke Bracey) is tired of spending holidays with women he feels the need to impress. The two of them come up with a scheme to be each other’s dates for every holiday. Her family can stop trying to set her up with men and he can be himself. It’s a perfect arrangement!

Before I start picking this apart, I want to say that I didn’t hate the movie. Emma Roberts is kinda cute as Sloan. Jessica Capshaw plays Sloan’s sister, Abby, and she is also a bit of a delight. While it would have been nice to sit with the characters for a bit longer than one day every few months, the core idea of two people promising to always be each other’s date isn’t terrible. It’s like a backup plan. “Hey, if I don’t have a date for Memorial Day, go to this picnic with me.”

With that said, there are some holes here. We literally only see these two interact on or slightly before each holiday. And I mean every holiday. If there is a party associated with a holiday, they are celebrating it. We see them at New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day (though they hadn’t made their promise yet), St.Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco De Mayo, Fourth of July, Labor Day (which doubles as Sloan’s brother’s wedding and they actually bring separate dates), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and…well, almost Christmas. It’s difficult to imagine them really forming a good relationship when they are only talking like 10 times a year. Especially when they spend a good portion of those holidays fairly drunk.

I also don’t understand why Sloan’s family is so interested in her love life. According to the story Sloan tells Patrick at New Year’s, she had recently broken up with her boyfriend that had cheated on her. At the beginning of the movie, it’s Christmas and her mom is harassing her about being single. WTF Lady. Give her some space.

There’s also a lot of gender stereotypes going on. Sloan will say something like “Men are emotionally distant”; Jackson will reply with “Well, women are clingy!” and they will have that conversation multiple times with different stereotypes. Neither of them are that stupid.

Oh, I almost forgot about Kristin Chenoweth’s role. She plays Sloan’s Aunt Susan. She is the one that gives Sloan the idea of the “holidate” as she always brings a different man to each holiday gathering. However, instead of just being a man she can hang out with, she brings a guy she can drape herself all over. I’m tired of seeing “slut” characters in movies. Susan could have easily brought a different man to every holiday and behaved herself like an adult instead of literally twerking in the lap of someone half her age. I don’t know who thought her character was a good idea.

Finally, the movie is kinda raunchy. That’s fine and it has its place, I’m not sure that this is the place though. As I said, Aunt Susan is literally sleeping with every man she brings to the gatherings and she’s not quiet about it. She straight up tells Sloan gritty details about her sexual encounters. If you are averse to cursing, let me warn you that Sloan curses like a sailor. (I have no problem with it but some people might.) To the point that she eventually stops herself from dropping the F-bomb because children are near. There’s a lot of drinking and a little bit of pot smoking too. I don’t think it’s anything super terrible but it might turn some people off.

As a whole, I enjoyed Holidate. I didn’t cringe away from anything. None of the characters were unbearably annoying. But it also wasn’t a great movie. I think I might have liked it better if we saw Sloan and Jackson talking a bit more in between the holidays or even a few days before some of the holidays to see them figuring out their plans. As it is, there is actually a moment where Jackson FaceTimes Sloan and she says “This isn’t a holiday, Why are you calling me?” If I was giving this a rating, it would probably be like a 3 out of 5. Watchable but not memorable.

Jingle Jangle | 2020 Christmas Movies

When I was trying to decide where to start my Christmas movie festival, I remembered the hype around one of Netflix’s new movies - Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Granted, all of the hype I heard was about the color of the cast’s skins rather than the content of the show. So, knowing little more than this was “a Christmas movie with black people!” (Ugh, I hated typing that line….), I clicked on my Netflix and got to watching.

Jingle Jangle is the story of Jeronicus Jangle, an amazing inventor. Everyone loves his toys and creations. Jeronicus’ greatest invention is a sentient doll named Don Juan Diego. When Don Juan finds out that he is about to become a mass produced toy, he convinces Jeronicus’ apprentice, Gustafson, to steal Jeronicus’ Book of Ideas to become a master inventor himself. Gustafson quickly becomes a top toymaker whole Jeronicus’ life falls apart. After losing most of his business, Jeronicus’ wife dies. His heartbreak causes him to turn on his beloved daughter, Jessica, and he sends her away. Jessica grows up and has a daughter of her own, Journey. Journey, a brilliant inventor of her own, tricks her mother into sending her to spend time with her grandfather. But can Journey get through to an inverted heartbroken old man?

I’m not really sure where to start the review. Do I talk about the gorgeous steampunk visuals? Or do I talk about the awesome musical numbers? Or do I just jump into how freaking talented the cast is? OK. OK. Breathe.

The whole movie is set in this sort of 1930s-ish steampunk world. Everyone wears brightly colored suits and dresses and they all seem very happy with gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. The visuals are seriously gorgeous. Since the movie is framed as a book that a grandmother is reading to her grandchildren, when the story needs to move a little faster, we get steampunk doll versions of the characters acting out the scene. I love it so much.

Then we have the musical numbers. Thanks to songs from John Legend and Philip Lawrence (his songwriting team has written for Bruno Mars, CeeLo Green, Adele….the list goes on) and the musical talents of the cast, the score is just as beautiful as the visuals. The songs have a little more soul to them than most Christmas songs, which is a lovely change to the usually bland stuff we hear these days. And I seriously didn’t know that Forest Whitaker (old Jeronicus) and Keegan-Michael Key (adult Gustafson) could sing. They were very impressive. (Though not nearly as impressive as Lisa Davina Phillip as Ms. Johnston. I think I could listen to that woman sing for hours.)

And now the cast….I think maybe the casting directors found the most talented people in the entire world. (OK, maybe that is exaggerating a little…) A lot of the characters have two actors - a younger version and an older version. Justin Cornwell plays Jeronicus as a young man and Forest Whitaker plays him as an old man. So this might get a bit convoluted but stick with me.

Justin Cornwell does a lot of heavy lifting with the first song of the movie, “This Day.” It sets the entire tone of the movie and it does it well. My husband was so impressed that he actually came over to watch the movie with me. (He never watches these Christmas movies with me.) I already mentioned Forest Whitaker and Keegan-Michael Key. We also have Anika Noni Rose (better known as Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog) as adult Jessica, Ricky Martin as Don Juan Diego, and newcomer Madalen Mills as Journey. Mills absolutely blows everyone away as Journey. She has this amazing song “Square Root of Possible” that I was a little hesitant about at first…..but she nailed it.

To be honest, the only parts of the movie that I didn’t like were minor. Don Juan Diego was annoying. I understand the role the character plays in the movie…I just didn’t like him. But I suppose you aren’t supposed to like the villian. And I would have liked for them to do a little more with Edison, Journey’s friend and Jeronicus’s assistant. It was like he was around when the plot needed to move forward but then his mom would call him home when things actually started happening. I would have liked him to have spent a little more time becoming part of Journey’s family rather than an outsider who occasionally shows up.

Jingle Jangle is a great movie. While I know that Netflix will take it off the service after the holiday season, I wish they would leave it up so I can watch it again and again throughout the year. I mean, the Christmas part of the movie is so small that it doesn’t really matter. This movie is about the characters and their story…not Christmas. What are you waiting for? Go watch this NOW!

Mistletoe & Menorahs | 2019 Advent Day 10

If you will recall, I banned the Marvista (or Mar Vista or MarVista) production company from last year’s Christmas movie list. Because they make terrible movies that have multiple names. When I turned on Mistletoe & Menorahs, I was greeted with the dreaded Marvista logo. I actually shuddered. But I made it through the movie…..let’s talk about it.

Christy (Kelley Jakle) is a toy company executive trying to land a new client. When she gets invited to the client’s holiday party, she is excited because she is all about Christmas. Her co-worker, Samantha (Cory Lee), quickly tells her that the client is Jewish! Samantha sets Christy up with her son’s history teacher, Jonathan (Jake Epstein), who will teach her all about Hanukkah. Meanwhile, Jonathan needs to learn about Christmas in order to impress his girlfriend’s father.

As Marvista movies go, this one was not terrible. It does have an alternate name, of course. A Merry Holiday. Mistletoe & Menorahs is a better title.

Also, this is the second time this season we have seen Jake Epstein as the male lead. He also was the writer/nanny in A Storybook Christmas. While it’s weird to see actors appear in more than one Christmas movie per season, I don’t mind it. Jake is a very charming leading man. (I bet that Marvista filmed this movie years ago and only released it now. That tends to be the way they work.)

The movie itself is pretty good, for the most part. My main problem is that Jonathan teaches Christy all about the history of Hanukkah while Christy only teaches him about the surface of Christmas. She teaches him about decorating trees and wrapping presents but nothing about the story behind Christmas. Maybe that is how the writers kept the story from getting too preachy. It just seemed a little odd.

Well, should you watch this? Yes. This isn’t a great movie. There are definitely some flaws. But it was entertaining and I think I might try to find other movies starring Jake Epstein. He is quite charming.

A Christmas Love Story | 2019 Advent Day 9

I thought it would happen earlier in the month but, alas, my work schedule has finally gotten the best of me. The 2019 Christmas movie advent calendar will continue. However, some of the reviews will be late. I apologize for the inconsistency. Let’s just jump into the next movie.

Broadway darling Kristin Chenoweth stars as Katherine, a former Broadway star turned youth choir director. While preparing for their annual Christmas concert, a teenaged boy, Danny (Kevin Quinn), with a beautiful voice joins the choir, unbeknownst to his father, Greg (Scott Wolf). In addition to convincing Greg to letting Danny join the choir, Katherine also has to write the big original song that will be the finale of the show.

A Christmas Love Story was fun, for the most part. I loved the singing. Though I’m pretty positive the children’s choir was not voiced by a children’s choir. They sounded very….adult. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was just kinda there. There was an adoption story shoved into the plot, which was supposed to be the big twist, I guess? Maybe someone should tell them that you can, in fact, have a Christmas movie without some big twist ending. Because I actually enjoyed the movie up until that part.

Sadly, I don’t have much else to say about it. So, should you watch this? If you’re a fan of Kristin Chenoweth, sure. She does have a very nice singing voice. But don’t be too upset if you come out of it disappointed.

A Storybook Christmas | 2019 Advent Day 8

I’m not exactly sure why this movie it called A Storybook Christmas. The book aspect of it has very little to do with the actual plot. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Celeste (Ali Liebert), a party planner, has a job with a difficult client, who keeps changing her mind about the theme for her holiday party. Finally, the client settles on Storybook Christmas. The plan is to invite some children’s book writers and have them sign autographs during the party. Except there is one writer the client demands to have, but he is a bit of a recluse. Meanwhile, Celeste is having trouble keeping up with her work duties and giving the perfect Christmas to her niece. So she hires a live-in nanny. The only one available at this time of year is a man. Celeste hires him, hoping it will all work out.

Oh, this movie. it’s not bad as much as it is more difficult than necessary. There are meaningless characters, like Celeste’s fiance, Brandon (Bradley Hamilton). He is a total drip who doesn’t care about anything except himself. And Celeste is OK with this up until the end of the movie. So many of these movies have terrible boyfriends that the women need to break up with. I would rather have every single leading lady be single at first then have them in awful relationships that they can’t let go of.

Then there is this client. I believe it is a publishing company but I’m not entirely sure about that. Anyway, the woman in charge (I’m not completely sure of her name…maybe Hanna?) literally changes her mind about her party’s theme at the last minute. Instead of telling her it’s not possible to redo the entire party theme, Celeste lets the woman walk all over her….again, until the end of the movie. I get that business owners have to make their clients happy. But they also have to set realistic expectations so they aren’t taking advantage of their niceness.

In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a terrible movie. Taylor (Jake Epstein), the nanny, is a perfectly nice man and he is amazing to Celeste’s niece, Finley (Habree Larratt). I fully expected the big twist halfway through the movie but that is OK. It’s a Christmas movie, not rocket science. I just wish it had a little more to push it over into ‘good movie’ territory.

Should you watch A Storybook Christmas? If you want to. There are worst ways to spend your time.