Christmas Wreaths & Ribbons | 2024 Christmas Movies

Great American Family loves messing with their schedule. They’ll announce it in late August to early September then, when October rolls around, play the movies in any order but the one they announced. I hate it. That is why this review for Christmas Wreaths & Ribbons is so much later than it’s release date. I didn’t know they freaking released it.

Rebecca (Kristin Wollett) owns a business that makes wreaths. Of course, the Christmas season is her busiest time of year. So when she dislocated her elbow after slipping on ice, she was worried about her ability to complete her orders. Thankfully, her neighbor, Jason (Casey Elliott), offered to help in his free time. Will Jason be able to learn her wreath-building technique and save her business?

With a title like Christmas Wreaths & Ribbons, I didn’t expect this movie to be good. And I was correct. Every single character is absolutely obnoxious. Rebecca insists that everything, including sweeping the floor, be done exactly the way she does it. Jason doesn’t want anyone to be upset so he doesn’t really do anything. He just kinda goes with the flow. Even all of the member’s of Jason’s family suck. His mom won’t even think about using any other recipes than hers at the family bakery. His father wants the bakery to have tons of orders but not pay anyone overtime. His sister would love to use her peppermint pie recipe but won’t stand up for herself when her mom refuses. And his brother…cousin…I have no idea what his relation really is…he is the worst. He is so selfish that he gets mad when Jason helps Rebecca. There really wasn’t a bright light anywhere.

On top of that, nothing interesting happens in the movie. Both of the main characters own businesses and the only conflict that happens is Rebecca’s elbow. Well, that and the scene where she overhears the obnoxious brother/cousin talking bad about her and Jason mostly agreeing. But that is the usual conflict that would be solved if they just had a conversation. You need more than that to keep a movie interesting. There’s another movie coming up by this same writer. I hope it’s not this bad.

Rating: This should have been 30 minutes long.

Destined 2: Christmas Once More | 2023 Christmas Movies

Last year, Destined At Christmas was my first Great American Family Christmas movie. This year, they have given us a sequel - Destined 2: Christmas Once More. I didn’t hate the first movie. Will I hate the second?

After a year of dating, Theo (Casey Elliott) wants to propose to Kim (Shae Robins). A series of unfortunate events occurs, making it difficult for Theo to find the right time and place to pop the big question.

Destined 2 is another one of those movies where nothing really happens. Since the plot revolves around Theo trying to propose, he couldn’t propose at the beginning of the movie, when he originally intended to. No, he had to wait. And it just rolls from there. All of the scenarios for why he can’t propose are annoying. Especially the one where the ring gets lost. I won’t go into spoilers but everyone involved in that one was stupid.

I’m also not super happy with the fact that they made Kim a “make everyone happy” woman. She absolutely overworks herself when there are so many other people in the story that could have helped. I would have liked it better if she was a little more “selfish” and didn’t keep volunteering all over the place.

With that said, this movie isn’t terrible. If you liked the first one, you might like the second one. Just keep in mind that nothing happens for like 85 out of the 90 minute runtime.

Rating: Can I see the mechanical dinosaurs?

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.