A Carol For Two | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hallmark is sending us back to New York with A Carol For Two starring Jordan Litz and Ginna Claire Mason. Both of them have been involved in Wicked The Musical on Broadway. Litz is currently playing Fiyero and Mason previously played Glinda. They don’t have a lot of film credits - this is Litz’s first movie while Mason has starred in two earlier Hallmark Christmas movies (2022’s A Holiday Spectacular and 2023 A Heidelberg Holiday). I do know there is singing in this one so, with two Broadway stars, it should be good!

Violette (Mason) has moved to New York City to be in a Broadway play. Unfortunately, when she shows up for the audition, she finds that the play has been cancelled due to lack of funding. She turns to her aunt’s best friend, Hazel (Charlotte d’Amboise), who gives her a job as a singing waitress. Hazel gives the task of training Violette to Alex (Litz). She also tells them that they need to sing a duet at the restaurant’s Christmas show.

On top of this singing waitress who can’t get a job on Broadway plot, there’s a sub-plot about Violette dating Alex’s cousin, Brad (Gino Anania). But Brad is a terrible person so he gets Alex to tell him what to do and say. It’s basically Cyrano de Bergerac but less interesting. Brad sucks as a person and Alex should just tell him to get lost. He does nothing for the plot and it would have been a better movie without him.

Thankfully, Litz and Mason are pretty good here. There is a lot of singing, which they are both wonderful singers. To be honest, any of my problems with A Carol For Two lies with the writing. Violette doesn’t tell her father that the Broadway job fell through. She straight up lies to him through most of the movie. But there was no reason for her to lie to him. He supported her in everything she did. There was no pressure for her to be a big Broadway star. He let her follow her dreams. She said she didn’t tell him the truth because she didn’t want to let him down. I could understand that for a little while but once she started singing successfully at the restaurant, she could have come clean. Having a job in New York City where you are doing the thing you love, even if it’s part time or a side hustle, is success.

If you can pretend Brad doesn’t exist, which is very difficult to do since his storyline takes over for awhile, this movie is pretty watchable. Maybe just mute him every time he comes on screen.

Rating: More musical Christmas movies please!

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

The Jingle Bell Jubilee | 2023 Christmas Movies

I don’t think I have extremely high standards for Christmas movies. The titles should, at minimum, have something to do with the plot of the movie. The Jingle Bell Jubilee just barely fits. I’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Nate (Marshall Williams) is the new city manager of his childhood hometown. He gets thrown into planning the town’s Christmas festival at the last minute. When there isn’t a charity donation set up, he turns to teacher Hope (Erin Agostino), who runs an annual Regiftmas at her school, for help.

So, yes, the movie is a little bit about Nate planning this Jingle Bell Jubilee thing. However, it’s really not. It’s really about Hope and her grandmother and “the true meaning of Christmas” and regifting things you don’t want to those less fortunate. Hope literally tells the story of her grandmother and her cedar trunk three separate times. (Thankfully, Great American Family has commercials so we don’t have to sit through the story.) Once that is set up in the plot, everything else revolves around Regiftmas. Which, by the way, should really have a better name.

Also, this is the second Christmas movie this season with Agostino. I’m really not fond of her acting. She seems to rely on her giant eyes to do most of the emoting. I think she has another movie in 2023. I’m not looking forward to it.

Rating: The hockey player deserved better

Holiday Hotline | 2023 Christmas Movies

When I’m going through my list of Christmas movies, I try really hard to not learn a lot about the movies before I watch them. All I knew about Holiday Hotline was only what was shown in the commercials. I didn’t even know who the male lead was until I saw the opening credits. I’m glad I was able to keep this surprise for myself.

Abby (Emily Tennant) is a chef in London. When her chef-boyfriend takes the credit for her work, Abby quits her job and her relationship and goes to Chicago for a break. She falls into a job in Chicago answering phone calls from people needing help cooking their turkeys properly. Using an American accent and the name Peggy, she connects with single father John (Niall Matter). Soon the two become more than friends.

I was surprised to find that Holiday Hotline is a really good movie. Tennant and Matter work so well together. This may be the first couple of the season that actually shows some chemistry. Not only that, the story was interesting! I don’t think we’ve ever had a hotline worker as a career trope. For once, we were able to see Abby/Peggy and the other workers actually doing their jobs. We almost never see anyone actually working! And I really loved the way they showed the calls. This is a movie I wouldn’t mind watching again. A very pleasant surprise from Hallmark.

Rating: Let’s Talk Turkey

A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe | 2022 Christmas Movies

When I’m making my list of Christmas movies I’m going to watch in a season, I do as little research about the titles as possible. I might do a quick search to make sure that it fits “Christmas movie” but that is about it. So titles like A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe can be really confusing. I mean, how catastrophic can a cookie be?

Annie Cooper (Rachel Boston) has taken over her late grandmother’s cookie company. As Christmas creeps closer, Annie starts cutting all of the fiscally irresponsible activities in the company. During the company Christmas party, someone sneaks into the corporate headquarters and steals the recipe for the cookies. At first, Annie blames cookie competitor Sam (Victor Webster). When he is cleared of the wrongdoing, Annie teams up with Sam to try to figure out the recipe on their own before Christmas.

Hallmark movies frequently require a certain suspension of belief. Usually they fall into the “Miracles happen” category. This time around, we’re supposed to believe that Annie would be able to figure out who stole the recipe without going to the police (yes, she states numerous times they aren’t telling the police about the robbery) and that no one else in the company would notice the missing recipe and say something about it to anyone. I don’t think a “Removed For Cleaning” sign works for a recipe. Honestly, this really is the weakest part of the movie. It would have been easier and more believable to have the paper recipe get ripped or messed up or something. Then they wouldn’t have to inform the police of an actual crime. Or at least have them call the police but the police are inept. That is an actual thing!

Looking beyond the weak plot of the movie, the rest of it was pretty cute. Boston and Webster have decent chemistry together and Averie Peters as Sam’s daughter, Bella, was a good addition to the mix. Despite being “the kid” in the movie, she actually contributed to the vibe of the movie. I might have liked her better than the adults, to be honest.

A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe is a fine movie to watch, assuming you can get past the ridiculousness of the plot. As long as you tune in to appreciate the relationships, and Bella’s dancing, you should be fine. There are a lot of cookies involved so you might need to keep a snack nearby.

A Kiss Before Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

A Kiss Before Christmas has a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life feel to it. But is it good enough to become a new Christmas classic?

Like most people, Ethan (James Denton) wishes he had more money. Life would be perfect if he didn’t have to worry about paying for a new radiator for the car or college for kids, right? When Santa (John B. Lowe) grants him a Christmas wish, Ethan gets to see what his life would have been if he had made a different decision in the past. Realizing his mistake, can Ethan figure out how to get his wife Joyce (Teri Hatcher) and kids back?

Finally! An actual good movie on the Hallmark Channel! And I’m going to chalk it up to the talented cast they managed to get together. James Denton is heart-breaking as Ethan - a man who wants to give his family everything they deserve but he has trouble balancing his attempts to climb the corporate ladder with a satisfying, loving home life. Teri Hatcher tugs at your heart strings at Joyce - who tries to convince her husband that the family needs him to be present more than they need to be wealthy. And Rod Wilson, as the evil corporate businessman Sean, makes you hate every fiber of his being. If these were lesser actors, the script could have easily come off as cheesy or overly mushy.

I honestly don’t want to give too much away here. Though, to be honest, this isn’t a movie with a lot of twists and turns in the plots. You should be able to predict what will happen. But it’s not the uniqueness of the plot that makes it good. It’s the way it was brought to life.

So, yes, go watch A Kiss Before Christmas. I’m not convinced it will be a new annual classic but it definitely is worth watching a couple of times.