A Christmas Angel Match | 2025 Christmas Movies

While there are usually a few religious Christmas movies released every year, they aren’t usually on Hallmark and they don’t usually involve angels. Needless to say, that made A Christmas Angel Match sound very interesting. Now to figure out what a Christmas angel match is…

Monica (Meghan Ory) is an angel that brings together human soulmates during the Christmas season. She has been doing this for hundreds of years and is the most successful Christmas angel. But recently, a new angel, Michael (Benjamin Ayres), has been matching many more soulmates. With a rumor of their department being downsized, Monica is forced to work with Michael to complete their new assignment: to get humans Daisy (Lindura) and Patrick (Francesco Filice) together before the end of the year.

I actually enjoyed A Christmas Angel Match, for the most part. While I easily figured out what the big twist would be early on (I won’t spoil it here), I found that twist to be boring. I would have loved to have seen Monica and Michael working on different couples together because that is when the angels were at their best. But this is a Hallmark romance movie, emphasis on the romance.

It also would have have been interesting to see the Valentine’s angels. There’s a reference that the Christmas angel department would be merged with the Valentine angel department but we never actually see a Valentine angel. We just see the Christmas angels outwardly cringing at the idea, which doesn’t feel very angelic.

A Christmas Angel Match may not be a perfect Hallmark Christmas movie. But it does come pretty darn close.

Rating: 4 hot chocolates out of 5 - I want to do cloud yoga

The Santa Class | 2024 Christmas Movies

One of the newer tropes in Christmas movies is “teaching people how to be Santa Claus.” We had Santa Bootcamp back in 2022 and now we have The Santa Class. That is some big boots to fill.

Kate North (Kimberley Sustad) has recently become the new owner of North Star, a school that teaches how to become Santa Claus. Unfortunately, the school has fallen on hard times. On top of that, San, an instructor for their rival - St. Nicholas School, has recently been laid off and has turned to Kate for a job. As they prepare for their next class session, Kate and Dan come upon Nick (Trevor Lerner), a man with amnesia dressed in a Santa suit who they believe is the real Santa Claus. Can they help Nick regain his memory while defeating St. Nicholas School in The Santa Cup competition and save North Star at the same time?

I’ll admit that this isn’t one of my favorite movies this year. There are a lot of places where the movie seems to drag a little. However, it does have some really funny scenes. Particularly the ones with Paul Campbell, one of Hallmark’s favorite leading men, playing a fictional version of himself preparing for a role as Santa Claus in a Christmas movie. I think I would have liked it better if there were a little more actiony scenes that involved everyone. For example, there’s a scene where they go to a trivia contest. One of the students is studying Santa folklore and they let him answer all of the questions. Scenes like that are much funnier when everyone participates, not just one person. (See Trivia At St. Nick’s.)

The ‘is Nick really Santa’ storyline was also really good. If they weren’t going to focus on the group as a whole, another good idea would have been to focus on him more. I’m not sure what they point they wanted to make with the movie. Santa is really real? A group of misfits can beat the cool kids when they work together? Passion for something is more important than money? These have all been done many, many times before. The Santa Class doesn’t give us a good reason to sit through it again.

Rating: Paul Campbell referencing his entire body of work is the best running joke ever

Santa Tell Me | 2024 Christmas Movies

I was a little weirded out when Santa Tell Me began with actual children talking about finding their true love. If they were teenagers making a silly Christmas wish, that would be one thing. But the movie jumps TWENTY FIVE years after this scene. So we’re talking about a kid around 7 years old asking Santa for the name of their true love. I find it creepy.

Olivia (Erin Krakow) is an interior designer about to embark on a live televised Christmas special where she redesigns an entire house for the holiday season. Her boss brings in TV show host Chris (Daniel Lissing) to help her. Chris decides to change all of the previous plans so they can redecorate Olivia’s childhood home, which happens to be up for sale. As they work, Olivia finds her old letter to Santa, setting off a number of magical letters from Santa trying to lead Olivia to her true love.

If we leave the children out of the equation, this is a really cute premise for a movie. Olivia is told her true love’s name is Nick so she dates a bunch of guys named Nick. Of course, none of them were the right guy but it does make the movie a little more fun. The twist at the end was predictable but it was also cute. My favorite scene was the very last scene of the movie. It was perfect.

I think my only real complaint about the movie is that the interior designer part was absolutely unnecessary. They were on a rather strict deadline and supposedly they didn’t have the budget for a big staff yet we don’t really see Olivia working. Just going on dates. It make it feel a little unrealistic. But I guess realism isn’t what we look for in Hallmark movies.

Rating: Can they come decorate my house?

Love & Jane (2024)

These Jane Austen-inspired movies are going to make me hate Hallmark. Just when the Christmas movies were getting better. It’s time for Love & Jane.

Lilly (Alison Sweeney) is obsessed with Jane Austen novels. When her life begins to go awry, she wishes she could ask the author for advice. That night, the ghost of Jane Austen (Kendra Anderson) appears to help Lilly through her difficult times.

Yes, this is as dumb as it sounds. Lilly, a rather self-centered woman, doesn’t like technology and thinks everything was better in Jane’s time. Of course, she works for a marketing company and uses a movie version of Siri or Alexa. But technology, bad. And, from what we see, her entire life revolves around Jane Austen. It’s pretty annoying and I have no idea why anyone puts up with her.

I’d talk about the guys in the movie but they are barely there. Lilly breaks up with her boyfriend, Martin (Matthew Kevin Anderson), is the beginning of the movie because he gets a job in Chicago. (Even though he noted that she could move there if she wanted…) But the big romantic interest is Trevor (Benjamin Ayres), who is a client of her firm. He basically pops in now and again to remind us that he exists even though he has no real effect on the plot. This movie really is a romance movie between Lilly and Jane.

There are a few more movies coming up in the Loveuary catalog. I hope that they are better than this.

Rating: D

Miracle In Bethlehem PA | 2023 Christmas Movies

I live about an hour from Bethlehem, PA. When I saw that there was a Christmas movie called Miracle In Bethlehem, PA, I was intrigued. It wasn’t actually filmed in Bethlehem, of course. It was filmed in Canada. Ah well.

Mary Ann (Laura Vandervoort) is a lawyer who is waiting to adopt a baby. After months of waiting, a baby in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania becomes available. Mary Ann drives to pick her up but gets stranded in Bethlehem due to a severe snowstorm. With no room in any of the local hotels, the new mom and her baby end up staying with Joe (Benjamin Ayres), a mechanic who has lost direction in his life since his father’s death.

While I understand that this movie was supposed to be an analog to the story of Jesus, it was a little offensive that a white woman so intent on adoption was insisting on adopting a baby. There are a lot of children in the system and, as they get older, it’s harder and harder for them to get adopted because people only want to adopt babies. Maybe we don’t normalize only adopting babies.

Obviously, since this is the story of Jesus, it is very heavy handed with its use of God and church. It’s a little annoying but, considering Jesus was the point of the movie, it’s understandable. It does make it a little less appealing to certain demographics though. Or maybe this was Hallmark’s way of saying they haven’t completely dumped God for LGBTQ+ stories.

Rating: At least it’s not a manger

Long Lost Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

I was hoping that we would be able to continue the small streak of good Christmas movies. Sadly, Long Lost Christmas ruined it.

Haley (Taylor Cole) is an interior designer whose father recently passed away. Her mother, Patricia (Jacqueline Ann Steuart), is depressed and alone. Haley decides to find her long lost brother, Gordon (Grant Vlahovic), who Patricia hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.

The most annoying thing about this movie is that it could have been solved with one simple question that Haley never bothers to ask. Haley seriously should have just let her friend, Sarah (Stefania Indelicato), do all the work. I understand driving to the town Gordon is currently living to ask questions in person since it is a delicate situation but then all she does the entire time is beat around the bush. Just walk in and say “Hey, I know this is really weird but my mother, Patricia, got separated from her older brother when she was little. Some things kinda match up with things I read about you so I was wondering if maybe you were her brother Gordon.” Instead Haley asks weird random questions: Do you have any brothers or sisters - if someone hasn’t seen their only sibling in like 50 years, why would they tell a stranger about it. What was she expecting? “Well, yeah, I had a sister but I left her in a foster home after I aged out of the system.”

Then Long Lost Christmas shoehorns in this romance with Gordon’s business partner, Blake (Benjamin Ayers). It’s a terrible romance. The entire thing seems based on Haley spending one more day in a town that she only intended to spend half a day in to begin with! I really hate this movie.

No, don’t watch Long Lost Christmas. Maybe stay away from the whole Movies & Mysteries channel from Hallmark. They don’t seem to do anything well.

You, Me, and the Christmas Trees | 2021 Christmas Movies

Hallmark begins their Countdown to Christmas with a bit of a sad note. You, Me, and the Christmas Trees is Danica McKellar’s last Hallmark movie for awhile. She has signed a deal with the new GAC Family channel, which runs through 2023. I believe her first GAC Family movie will premiere in January 2022.

Jack (Benjamin Ayres) runs his family’s Christmas tree business. When the needles start falling off the trees within hours of being cut, he turns to famous evergreen arborist Olivia (Danica McKellar). Can she save his trees before the Christmas deadline?

On one hand, this was an interesting take on the Christmas tree romance trope. Usually the tree salesperson (usually a man but not always) is big into the Christmas spirit and deems it necessary to school the romantic interest about “what Christmas is really about.” On the other hand, the movie was still fairly boring. Let me elaborate.

Olivia is a scientist and she does sciency things in the movie. However, science takes time. So there are way too many times where Olivia has to say “Now we wait 10 hours.” or “We can do a test! But it will take two weeks…” I don’t think the traditional Hallmark viewer would want to see the science behind solving tree problems but I think it would be more interesting than watching Olivia and Jack build gingerbread trees or use science to come up with the best Christmas drink.

Even though You, Me, and the Christmas Trees wasn’t the best Christmas movie ever, it was quite watchable. I enjoy watching McKellar on the screen. She didn’t seem to have a ton of on-screen chemistry with Ayres so the movie does rely on her heavily. He’s a bit…bland, to say the least. I don’t think there was ever a point where he actually showed an emotion.

I know there is a group of people that really don’t like Danica McKellar. Those people probably shouldn’t watch this. But if you enjoy her acting, this is for you. Don’t expect a whole lot from the rest of the cast though.

Cranberry Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

When I first read the title Cranberry Christmas, I thought it was going to be yet another movie about a baker. But this time she loves cranberry cookies! Well, I was wrong.

Dawn (Nikki DeLoach) and Gabe (Benjamin Ayres) own a lifestyle company called Cranberry Lane. While the company has always been run as a “husband and wife” company, their marriage is on the rocks. In order to keep their business and the town’s Christmas festival running, Dawn lies on national television about the state of their marriage. But when TV host Pamela (Marci T. House) brings the show to their small Maine town, the couple is forced to cancel their time apart and focus on their relationship.

I admit that I usually go into these movies expecting them to be boring at best. Cranberry Christmas, however, was a cute movie about problems that marriages can have when a couple is trying to grow a business. Dawn kept secrets from Gabe and Gabe kept secrets from Dawn, all in an attempt to not hurt the other or let the other have their dream. At the same time, Pamela is trying to pressure Dawn (even though she claims she’s not pressuring her) into making a major decision extremely quickly. These are things that felt real. More real than any holiday movie I have watched.

Should you watch it? Yes. Yes, you should. It probably won’t be an annual favorite but it is a 2020 Hallmark movie favorite. What more could we ask for this year?