Operation Nutcracker | 2024 Christmas Movies

Next up, we have Hallmark Channel’s Operation Nutcracker. On one hand, this sounds like a military movie to me. On the other hand, Hallmark usually puts those movies over on the Mysteries channel. Well, let’s find out what’s it’s all about.

Lottie (Ashley Newbrough) is an event planner who gets sent to Boston to interview for an elite Christmas Nutcracker-themed fundraising event. On the way, she literally runs into Tristan (Christopher Russell) and they come close to switching luggage. With the luggage crisis averted, they both head to Boston, where Lottie finds out that Tristan is the son of the woman running the fundraiser. He has brought an antique Nutcracker that they will auction at the event. Unfortunately, his luggage got mixed up with another passenger’s at the airport. Together, Lottie and Tristan try to find the luggage and the missing Nutcracker before the event begins.

While Operation Nutcracker was mostly a cute movie, it was a little annoying at how pessimistic Lottie was. OK, she claimed she was being a realist and Tristan was a little bit of an idealist but she could have been better about it. I would have loved to have seen her change over the course of the movie. There were a lot of ‘near misses’ with the other passenger that could have been used to bring Lottie around to the magic of the season. Instead, Lottie and Tristan don’t have any idea of how close they really are to their prize until the very end. Not very magical.

The same goes for Lottie and her dad. They have definitely grown apart and the movie wants them to reconnect but leaves no room for that to happen. Sure, they are both very busy but if Lottie really wanted to reconnect, she could have gone to his diner for lunch or dinner or whatever to maybe hang out with him during a break. Neither of them made any effort to include the other in their lives. In my opinion, that made their happy ending feel very hollow. Will they actually make time for each other or will they go back to their old ways?

To sum it up, it was a cute movie with some meh characters. I wouldn’t call them selfish but I wouldn’t call them particular caring either. Just meh.

Rating: They really could have gotten away with the fake if they tried harder.

Fit For Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

When I was making my list of Christmas movies this year, I pretty much listed every movie on every channel that I could find. Do I have all of these channels? No. That means there are a lot of Christmas movies I will not be watching this year. But I was able to watch CBS’s Fit For Christmas.

Audrey (Amanda Kloots) is a dance fitness instruction living in New York City. When her business fails, she comes home to Mistletoe, Montana for the holidays. But when she gets there, she finds that the town council is about to vote on closing the community center and selling it to business man Griffin (Paul Greene), who wants to turn it into a ski resort.

There are definitely some cute moments in Fit For Christmas. Any time Griffin is in Audrey’s dance fitness class? Total win. Especially when Audrey’s boyfriend, Bradley (Stephan Miers), shows up. I was laughing when they were trying to outdance each other.

Adding to the fun, a lot of the side characters were actually fleshed out people and not just cardboard cutouts of random townspeople. It made the movie a lot easier to watch. Especially since a lot of the movie revolved around Griffin trying to convince the people on the town council to vote for the ski resort instead of keeping the community center.

I know a lot of people have cut the cord on cable. If you have access to CBS, you should definitely give this one a watch. (As a note, I don’t have CBS but somehow I was able to watch it for free on my laptop. I don’t know if that is a bug or a feature.) When you are finished watching, go sign up for a dance fitness class. They are a lot of fun!

Unlocking Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel gives us another mysterious Christmas movie. This time it’s a riddle-based adventure around town.

Kate (Taylor Cole) is a doctor working on her fellowship. Kevin (Steve Lund) is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life now that he has returned from the Air Force. Each of them find a mysterious key and riddle on their front door, leading them on an adventure through town.

Unlocking Christmas is an interesting movie. The idea of a sort of riddle-based scavenger hunt isn’t a new one. Giving the pair two envelopes - one to open now and one to open after they completed their task - is a strange twist. It relies on them being honest enough to not open that second envelope immediately. Considering the riddle-makers (yes, we do find out who is behind all of this) don’t really know Kate, it was awfully trusting of them to be like “Don’t open this!!” It would have been better if they just gave them the second envelope after completing the first.

Despite that, it isn’t a terrible movie. Some of the solutions to the puzzles are a bit of a stretch but it isn’t anything that ruins the movie. If anything, I would have liked for the ‘scavenger hunt’ to last longer. I think the movie takes place over a week or so. It would have been nice to have it last a couple of weeks so Kate and Kevin could get to know each other better. As it is, the Big Kiss at the end feels forced. I didn’t see anything in the movie that looked like they were falling in love.

Go ahead and watch Unlocking Christmas. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for new Christmas traditions for your family.