Christmas

What If Christmas

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“I Know Things”

Saturday, we had an amnesia Christmas theme and Sunday night we have an alternate reality Christmas! Two of my favorites!  Yes, they have been done before and maybe better. This one is very similar in plot beats to Hallmark’s A Dream of Christmas starring Deloache and Walker, one of my favorite Christmas movies. This one had a lighter, less angsty tone (from what I remember of the older movie). Also, this one was about an older firmly established couple, probably in their 50s. That change also reminded me of  2021’s excellent A Kiss Before Christmas. Although it didn’t quite come up to the two earlier movies, it was an excellent start to Countdown to Christmas.  I know this weekend was not the first weekend , but since it’s not even Halloween yet, I will still call it a start.

Erin  and Adam are a happily married couple who have recently moved back to New York City from Boston. Adam is Chief of Cardiac Surgery, and Erin is his supportive wife who had found fulfillment and purpose raising money for the Boston hospital through the annual Christmas Gala. In Boston, her pet project was to enable patients to have the cardiac surgeries they needed and who otherwise could not afford them. But in New York City, she finds she is not needed in the important role spearheading their Christmas gala. It is doing just fine under the current director of the foundation. When she is offered the job as a coat checker, it serves as quite the wake-up call. At loose ends with nothing important to do, she starts to wonder what life would be like had she not given up her promising career as a dress designer when she got married. Thanks to an expensive heart ornament and a Christmas market Santa Claus, who asks her what she wants for Christmas, her wish is granted and she wakes up the next morning alone in a strange sumptuous apartment. Obviously Erin is unfamiliar with Hallmark movies because otherwise she would have known not to make Christmas Wishes around mysterious Santa Clauses. They might have great power. She is without a loving husband but she is now a very busy and important dress designer. Humor and drama ensue, but mostly humor as she struggles to understand what is happening and eventually finding her feet in her new role. But she is lonely.  One day, hanging around Adam’s hospital, she literally bumps into him by chance. Shocked and ecstatic, she gives him a big hug, but he has no idea who she is.  Adam is bowled over figuratively as well as literally by this beautiful woman, and they start to see each other. One of the ways they bond anew is in the coffee shop where they have a lot of fun ordering custom-made coffees and cocoas from the deadpan barista. (who has the Gen-Z stare down pat, I might add). I love that they just have their boisterous fun despite her poker-faced and apathetic service-It was a nice humorous relatable touch. As the warm and kind Christmas-loving person she now is, she makes a lot of changes in the life of her cold and career-focused alternate reality self. From her new perspective as a famous VIP now involved with Adam’s hospital, she also sees how she can contribute there as Adam’s wife in her “old” life. If she can only get back there.

I was very happy to have the story about an older couple, which allowed the talented Loughlin and Cavanagh to play their ages. I admit I was a little dubious about Lori Loughlin as our heroine. It’s been awhile and she’s never exactly blown me away before, but on the other hand she’s never given a performance that got on my bad side either. I really liked her in this. She was well cast in the role both as the wife of a prominent surgeon and as an elite dress designer. Classy and refined, but warm and spontaneous enough to be likable. She and Tom made a perfect match with great chemistry.  I’ve been a fan of quirkily charming Tom Cavanagh for many years, especially lately as Brooke Shields’  love interest in the mystery series You’re Killing Me. Rosemary Dunsmore plays fashion designer Erin’s even more successful and famous rival and frenemy Margot Braymire. It always makes me happy when this busy Canadian actress pops up in shows because of her role as Katherine in Anne of Avonlea.

In changing the life of her alternate reality self for the better, Erin also effects positive change in the lives of people she meets that she knew in her old life. But will she stay where she is now with her new career and apparently also continuing a new relationship with Adam, or go back to her previous life, armed with the knowledge she gained in her “dream life”? One unexpected bit of news tips the balance. The script is low-key but well written, with quite a few humorous lines and scenes.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Forgotten Holiday

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“Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl?”

I’m a sucker for a good amnesia story. And Forgotten Holiday was a pretty interesting love story, that didn’t always go down the predictable path. It opens with antique dealer Kathryn Liu snagging an antique projector out from under craftsman and restorer of vintage machines (I paraphrase), Rob Ashford’s, nose. In the ensuing banter, Rob (Daniel Lissing) falls head over heels for Kathryn (Janel Parrish). Kathryn, not so much, but she is interested. It is difficult for them to get together for a date during the busy holiday season. One of the events Rob has to attend is his family’s extreme extravaganza of a one-night cookie bake, in which they bake almost 1000 cookies for charities across New York City. He is thrilled when she suggests she accompany him there for their first date. He loves Christmas and his large welcoming and rambunctious family. Kathryn feels overwhelmed but settles in pretty well, which is quite the feat, considering she barely know him, and his family is *a lot.*

Some things become apparent as she is nicely grilled by his family. Kathryn is not a big Christmas person. The only “Christmas tradition” she has is a Christmas Eve pancake breakfast with her father. She is an only child and comes from a broken home. Her mother lives across the country with the man she remarried, and her father has been re-married and divorced twice and currently dating a woman who will presumably be wife #4. Rob’s family has always been happily intact and headed by his mother (Gabrielle Rose), a former judge, and his father, a former District Attorney. They live in a large home surrounded by their grandchildren courtesy of his older sister, Amy. Also, Kathryn was briefly and unhappily married 15 years ago in college. So although Amy and her father run a very successful antiques business together, Kathryn and Rob’s backgrounds and emotional foundations are as different as can be. Nevertheless, we jump ahead a year later and the two are happily still dating and getting ready for the holidays. One night, eager-beaver Rob pulls out a diamond ring and a marriage proposal. Kathryn is shocked and runs away in a panic. Rob is devastated and calls his sister Amy, who tells him to get in the car and come over to her house. On the way he has a car wreck. He is fine but now has a kind of amnesia where he remembers everything but the past year and his relationship with Kathryn. When she hears about his accident and rushes to the hospital, he has no idea who she is, although his family, assuming she accepted his proposal of marriage, assures him that she is his fiancee. Shades of While You Were Sleeping! Only his sister knows the truth, and given the circumstances, they continue the charade, especially since the Doctor thinks it would be a fine idea to try to relive the last year’s progression of their relationship to help him regain his memory. So that’s the set-up.

They start going on some of the same dates and dates that they planned on, and although Rob likes Kathryn and Kathryn still loves Rob, the dates themselves surprisingly do not go well. Also, He is no longer Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs about Christmas either. So what’s going on? They start to get on the same page again even though Rob is kind of different. Still nice, still wholesome, but more down to earth when it comes to Kathryn. Kathryn is afraid of losing him again once he remembers everything and finds out the truth about their non-engagement.

So there was a lot in this one to interest and engage. Will his family, particularly his intimidating and more than a little suspicious mother find out the truth? Will Kathryn be able to conquer her fear of commitment? They looked so happy and in love in the numerous photos we see of them together. What about their different backgrounds? Why isn’t Rob crazy about Christmas anymore? (I still am not sure about that one.) What’s going to happen when Rob regains his memory? It all culminates in a charity gala where a vintage Jukebox that Rob had been restoring is auctioned off.

I thought this romance had a little more depth and subtlety than usual. While Janelle Parish’s Kathryn was the same person throughout the movie, Daniel Lissing’s Rob was like two different people before and after the amnesia.  Pre-accident Rob was very intense and overwhelming. I didn’t blame Kathryn for running from his proposal in a panic. I liked Amnesia Rob much better, and so did Kathryn. But she obviously loved the old (new?) Rob as well. Who wouldn’t love a great handsome guy who was so smitten with you?  His mother Meryl, sister Amy (Jennifer Oleksiuk), and Kathryn’s father (Eric Yue) were the three other important characters and all three actors were great. Janel Parrish and Gabrielle Rose have a scene together in Meryl’s kitchen later in the movie that was a real standout, and also pleasantly surprised me. I had a little quibble with the intrusive product placement (which turned out to be an actual unboxing) and Lissing’s character got a little petulant once or twice at the end, which I didn’t like.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

‘Tis the Season for Setups

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It’s the Acting, Stupid!

This movie premiered Friday night October 16th, and marked the official beginning of Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas.” So we have two couples here, and a daughter. We are introduced to a mother/daughter duo (Barbara Niven and Amanda Shull) and a father/son (John Lowe and Victor Webster). Of the mother/daughter team, Amanda plays Lexi who is uptight, very organized, risk-adverse, and everything that that entails. She makes lists and then laminates them. Her mother June is a world traveler and a fun free spirit and everything that that entails. We have the same dynamic with the father and son except the son (Victor Webster as Ridge) is the fun-loving, easily distracted, and sometimes unreliable one, and his father Dan, is the more down to earth buckled down one. This dynamic between the potential couples is a Hallmark favorite, along with the old reliable pursuit of Work/Life balance. They often go together. Lexi’s daughter doesn’t have too much to do except to make Lexi feel bad through most of the movie that she is not “the fun one,” and was too serious and focused on work to be fully present for her daughter while she was growing up.

Dan owns a ski-lodge where his son is now working. There is friction between them because Ridge’s fly by the seat of his pants approach means that sometimes tasks are not completed on time and bills are paid a little late. Ridge feels his father doesn’t trust him and his ways and is over controlling. For good reason, from what I saw. Dan is throwing a big Christmas Party for his guests and through mutual friends hires Lexi who is a party planner. It isn’t long before Ridge and Lexi, seeing the rapport their parents have despite their opposite personalities, start conspiring to get them together, hoping they will balance each other out. Ridge hopes that this will get his father off his back and Lexi hopes a serious relationship will keep her mother at home. Needless to say, Dan and June are not the only ones to fall in love and learn from each other. The romances practically write themselves. I would say “no surprises here!” but in fact there is a little fun twist at the end.

This one really worked for me. The plot was nothing new, but the acting was terrific. Amanda Schull brought a vulnerability to her rigid super-capable character that was touching. She often had a sad and confused look when dealing with her mother and daughter which made me really feel for her. But she was funny too. There is a scene with her laminator that….Well. Victor Webster has never looked more attractive and though I mostly sympathized with his father’s frustrations, I couldn’t help but like him. The tension between his mature and commanding looks and his light way with a line was disarming.  John Lowe brought enough jolliness to his role that his pushiness never got too much. And of course Barbara Niven was wonderful as always. She is one of the best Hallmark actresses and stole every scene she was in. I thought the chemistry between the two couples was engaging, but I felt like the romance was secondary to them embracing their own good qualities but also learning some balance. But this was Amanda Schull’s movie. After she starts loosening up a bit, her daughter tells her, “You’re so cool, Mom!” Her surprised and gratified reaction was priceless.  Her stability and hard work helped her raise a great kid who also thinks she is cool. Wow. Is that every parent’s dream? It was a solid start to Christmas Movie season.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story

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The Windy City is Mighty Pretty

This is the third Holiday Touchdown movie Hallmark has done in what appears to be a #CountdowntoChristmas tradition in the making. The previous two…well let’s not go there. Except that the second one was better than the first, and I didn’t much like it thanks to a super-dumb story line involving the secondary love story. I was actually looking forward to this one because I am very partial to the two leads, Robert Buckley who plays Fireman Matt, and Lyndsy Fonseca who plays Avery, a freelance journalist. They did not disappoint, thank goodness. Although not spectacular, this one was the best of the bunch. They are trending upward, at least.

NYC-based Avery is on vacation in Chicago visiting her mother who has recently re-married Ron, a local sports bar owner. Our Heroine is a little discombobulated, because she still misses her late father, and the mother she reunites with at Ron’s bar, is now a sports Bears fan and really loves her new life helping her husband run the bar. She is fully emersed in her whole new community and set of friends. Avery feels out of place in her mother’s life now, and understandably is cautious about fully embracing her nice welcoming Step-Dad. While waiting for her Mom to end her shift*, she has a no-spillage meet-cute with a guy at the bar. Later, she meets up with her ex-boyfriend who works for the Chicago Herald, and she agrees to do a story on a local woman who is about to attend her 500th Bears game. Her first point of contact is her grandson who has been emailing the Herald about doing a story about his grandma’s fast approaching milestone. He turns out to be the same guy she liked at the bar! It turns out that he and his grandmother, along with her very active friend group, are good friends with her mom, new step dad, and their crowd. They are all just like one big happy family! Even though Avery is happy for her Mom’s new life, this still kind of adds to her feelings of alienation, symbolized by her Mom not baking their traditional sugar cookies and baking ginger cookies instead. Yes, the ubiquitous baking/bonding montage is definitely in their future. We meet Matt’s grandmother, Darlene, who is described as a “sparkplug” who “makes friends wherever she goes”, and she turns out to be Marsha Mason of The Goodbye Girl and other Neil Simon scripted plays and movies! Her character could have been super annoying, but played by the accomplished actress, she was beautiful, wonderful, and charming. She also looks years younger than the actor who plays her son, Matt’s Dad. It’s not his fault, it’s just weird casting. While writing the article about Darlene, Matt and Avery build on their initial attraction and fall into “really really like” against the Chicago background, ably assisted by the matchmaking efforts of his grandmother.

**Spoilers**

By the end, Avery and her mother have a heart-to-heart and bake the cookies and Avery turns out to be a “Cornhole Savant” thus bonding with Ron, her mother’s new husband. There is an absolutely hilarious scene at a Cornhole Tournament parodying a classic cliche which is a fixture in all sports movies. You’ll know it when you see it. I am happy to report that the last minute drama before the HEA is not provided by a stupid misunderstanding between Avery and Matt, but by Darlene possibly missing “Da Bears” planned half time tribute to her on the Jumbotron. She made it in time thanks to Matt borrowing a firetruck to careen through the curiously empty (Thank God!) streets of Chicago to get her there. Avery is offered a position at the Chicago Herald which blows away the dark cloud of the perilous long-distance-relationship for the new couple.

Knowing that these football movies will attract a lot of viewers that may not necessarily be Hallmark fans, and, in fact, may indeed be Hallmark-averse, the producers include a lot of scenes to interest those viewers. As with the others, here, there is a lot of talk about Chicago attractions, food, and such, including locations filmed in Chicago to entertain fans of The Windy City. And of course they also do a great job catering to Bears fans with enough history, lore, artifacts, and talk to delight the most rabid devotee. Drifting in and out of various scenes are real retired and beloved Bears players and current star players, many with actual speaking lines. Sadly, we have to be satisfied with just a statue of Mike Ditka (RIP, Iron Mike.) The Irish Nobleman Pub which plays a big part of the story, is a real iconic Chicago institution, although it was never owned by Mike Ditka as the movie fictionally claims. There were welcome cameos by Hallmark regulars Tamara Mobley-Housely and Marilu Henner as well as the same Santa Claus (Abraham Benrubi) that was in the previous Holiday Touchdown movies.

Hallmark seemingly consults with football experts before deciding which football team they will feature in their Countdown to Christmas schedule and pick one that is likely to be successful. So far, being featured in the Holiday Touchdown movie of the year has been more of a curse than a blessing. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Bears’ QB, Caleb Williams who was felled by a torn hamstring in game #2.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
  • Fun Fact: She is reading a 1921 novel by Edna Ferber set in Chicago. So whoever is responsible for that little set addition, Good For You! It was noticed and appreciated.

Love Under the Mistletoe (a.k.a. Operation Mistletoe)

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Hair and Holly

Last night’s (07/25/2026) Christmas in July premiere, the last of them for this year, thankfully, did not disappoint. It met my expectations, set up by the 3 preceding offerings in the series, as basic and only minimally entertaining at best. And it was not so bad as to be deliciously awful. Even the presence of Jen Lilley, my least favorite Hallmark actress, could not push it that low. Like the others, this is one that could not quite cut the fruitcake as a bona fide Hallmark premiere as an original new movie. Like the first in the series, Christmas Under Construction, this is a movie that Hallmark purchased from Hulu and is still being aired there. The other two C in J movies were ones that were wrapped up and sitting on the shelf for two years until Hallmark rescued them and put them on the air.

Ryan (Nick Bateman), a successful financier, returns to his hometown to sell his beloved deceased Grandmother’s (Nan’s) house. He becomes reacquainted with his former high-school crush, Grace (Jen Lilley), an interior decorator. Yes, it was just basic. Plot-wise it was as routine as Snowbound for The Holidays without the talents and appeal of Vanessa Lengies or real snow.  The Christmas decorations were scene stealing and a little tacky but not as over-the-top as Christmas Under Construction. The decorations in that one were so bad they actually constituted a highlight. This one featured a real estate guy that wanted to tear down “Nan’s” home, but he was not evil or powerful enough like in O Little Christmas Market, to be a focus of hissing and booing. This guy is kind of pitiful and ineffectual. When he was trying to get Ryan to sign on the dotted line, he turns around and disrespects and insults him to our heroine while he is standing right there. Yeah, that’ll work. We find out later that our hero (shocker!) didn’t sell to this bozo, but we are deprived of the pleasure of seeing the poor sap getting his comeuppance or even a telling off. (followed by the standard Hallmark change of heart/first step to redemption, of course)

Most of the negativity towards this movie in its first incarnation on Hulu seems to be focused on Nick Bateman’s hair style and whether the eponymous plant is actually mistletoe. Nick Bateman is very handsome and likable in this movie and he has always combed his hair that way, so I am not going to jump on that train. As for whether the plant that Jen Lilley’s best friend is randomly attaching to the ceilings of the town in hopes that Ryan and Grace will kiss, is really mistletoe, I think that the jury is out. It is certainly not holly, as some critics claim. In some scenes it does look like mistletoe, and really, why would they risk not using mistletoe in a movie that mistletoe is such an integral part of the plot? Can you imagine? “The Mistletoe” is played by…”Holly” ? I think it is mistletoe in most scenes albeit probably plastic. As for my main prejudice against this movie, the lead actress, she was a non-issue. Her character was neither despicable nor TSTL* and her portrayal was just fine. Although she and her best friend acted like giddy high-schoolers rather than mature adults, that is just par for the course. Her hair was firmly under control in this one. She still talks too fast and I needed the closed captions when she put more than two sentences together. To end on a positive note, I did like Lisa Michelle Cornelius as “Mayor Sami”.

*Too Stupid to Live

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Snowbound for the Holidays

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The Ski Lodge One

This was the one about the Ski Lodge. You know, the struggling old fashioned family one which is about to be taken over by the multinational resort developer, which will erase everything that made it special with its hateful updates? Like Wi-Fi and indoor plumbing? Haha, I kid. But you get the idea. My goodness this year’s “Christmas in July” offerings have been lame and run-of-the-the-mill. Have they always been like that? Or is it just me? This one starred Vanessa Lengies who has been in some very good Hallmarks which were very good mainly because of her. She plays Cassie Evergreen (last name is Christmas-y instead of first, for a change of pace. The only.) She is  the daughter of the owner of a small chain of boutique hotels who is visiting from the big city to assess the value of Linden Lodge to determine its fair market value. Her mother is an old friend of the owner and if Cassidy does a good job, she will give her a big promotion. She hates the cold. The original owner’s widowed son-in-law, Trey, has equal shares in the lodge which is interesting. He is trying to fight off his father-in-law’s plans to sell. He is a single Dad and technology averse. He still listens to his music on a Sony Walkman and “Could you print that out for me?” All hopes rest on “The Christmas Fest” which will benefit from Cassidy’s computer skills while she drags Trey (Marcus Rosner) kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The big deadline of Christmas Eve (of course) looms, but they do everything but worry about the deadline.

I had a glimmer of hope for this one because of the talents of Vanessa Lengies and a cute scene in the preview with Skywalker Hughes, who plays Lily, Marcus Rosner’s daughter. But not even Vanessa could raise this one above the mundane. I was not surprised to learn that this one is also a movie that has been sitting on the shelf for two years, waiting for Hallmark or someone else to air it. I’m giving it a generous 6 because there wasn’t anything blatantly dumb about it and didn’t make me too mad. It also had real snow (I think). To answer my original question posed in the previous paragraph, Yes, Hallmark “Christmas in July” movies have been pretty much second stringers, at least for the last two years. Last year was the unremarkable “Unwrapping Christmas” quartet. And before that, the only one that rose above the fray was the delightful Rescuing Christmas, which was actually featured on the Hallmark streaming service prior to the Network premiere. So. Next Week’s offering does not look promising either “for reasons.”

Rating: 6 out of 10.

O Little Christmas Market

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Rinky Dink

“Christmas in July” does seem to be the season for unambitious efforts and not breaking out of the tried and true. This one was made in 2024 and I guess has been on the shelf until Hallmark pulled it out this year for their “Poor Man’s Countdown to Christmas”. This one features Katherine Barrell, who has given some nice performances, going for it. She is stars with Hallmark mainstay, Stephen Huzsar. Their pairing was OK. I didn’t have a problem with it.

 I’m not going to go over the plot in detail. Suffice it to say it’s about saving a small town Christmas Market from a big city developer. He was as “bad guy” as these characters usually are, putting the demands of “the board”, and profits ahead of everything, including his son Grayson (Huszar). Unlike his father, Grayson yearns to be creative and to use his architect skills for good to bring communities together and to go outside of the box with his building designs. Unfortunately he is firmly under his father’s thumb and won’t stand up to him or just leave. Katherine Barrell plays Olivia, who is still grieving her Dead Father. Her first priority is saving the Christmas Market he founded as a way to hold on to him. Her hobby is making miniature scenes or dioramas. This plays a pretty big part of the plot as it turns out to be the key to selling the solution that will make Grayson’s father happy and save the market at the same time. Also, she must learn to spend more time with the hobby that she loves, and make her “art” a serious business. She does nothing with her creations when she could be selling her work online or in her own shop. Instead she busies herself with prioritizing everyone else’s business over herself. 

There were a quite few things about this movie that I couldn’t buy into. First of all, I am sorry to say that Olivia’s miniatures seemed pretty rinky dink to me. Other than painting a rock a strange shade of blue (for a rock) and putting teeny tiny little miniature Christmas ornaments on a pre-fabricated tree, we do not see her actually doing any art. At one point, she goes to a hobby shop to buy the little miniature accessories which she arranges on the base. We  should have seen her actually making her miniature buildings from raw materials, or her making the molds of the real people she puts in there. I mean my late mother-in-law put a Hallmark miniature Christmas scene on her mantel every year but that did not make her an artist. She would have hooted at that idea. And it looked much better than these creations.

The merchants or vendors we see selling stuff at the market seem to be very uninvested in doing anything to help themselves or in keeping the (also rinky dink) market afloat. We are never given a good reason why they don’t have the market all year round to make more money. Something about the stalls being old and decrepit? Well, couldn’t they invest a little of their own time and money to fix them up? For their own good? And what’s wrong with a tent and a table? That’s what the food, farm, and craft vendors in our city do at our “Soda City Market”. It takes up 2 to 3 blocks on our Main Street every Saturday all year long. 200+ dealers every week. It’s quite the draw. It looked like there were about 12 at this market. I didn’t see anything that needed any “infrastructure” to sell, except for some guy selling hot soup along with his homemade fudge (!). “Infrastructure” being an electrical outlet. At end they do rally, starting with with a jar for their customers to put change in. Way to go all out, guys! They come through with a huge wad of cash from somewhere to pay for the transport of free metal shipping containers some company was trying to off load. These containers were to be the new stalls for the vendors and my goodness were they ugly. This whole idea seemed pretty spurious to me.

My sympathies were all with the guy wanting to sell the vacant lot to the developer. He was an old guy with grandchildren and all of his money was tied up in that property. He had to sell. But he had to endure the scowls and guilt trips that everyone (especially Olivia) were trying to lay on him. When you’re rooting for the opposition, that’s not a good sign.

Lastly, our hero, Grayson, came across as pretty weak for not standing up to his father or striking out on his own as their values and philosophies were so diametrically opposed. He finally did at the end (about 15 years too late), but before Olivia had to pitch her solution for his development to his scary father, he actually left town! Without a word to her. Olivia had to chase after him. Not a good look. 

One of the themes of this movie is the importance of creativity and willingness to go outside of the box rather than resisting change at every turn. This movie’s showrunners could certainly have taken a page out of their own book because in every aspect, this effort was firmly stuck right there in that Hallmark box.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Renovation Romance (a.k.a Christmas Under Construction)

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It’s an Old Story

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This movie which premiered on the Hallmark Channel last night is actually one from 2024 which has been running over on Hulu ever since. It reunites stars Daniel Lissing and Jessica Lowndes who were last paired together in an old Christmas movie from almost 10 years ago called A December Bride that many remember fondly. If you are a Jessica Lowndes fan, don’t read my review. Although the talented Ms. Lowndes is beautiful if not stunning, I was not a fan of her acting back then, and I still am not despite her conquering at least one of her distracting quirks. Daniel Lissing will always have a place in Hallmarkies hearts for his role of Jack, Elizabeth’s dead Mountie husband, in the popular series When Calls the Heart, a show that I have never been interested in personally. Anyway, the nostalgia factor of the pairing surely accounts for Hallmark acquiring this movie from Hulu for its kick-off to this year’s Christmas in July. It can’t have been anything else.

Chelsea and Jake, who have become “America’s Sweethearts” are the hosts of a reality show called “Renovation Romance” in which the pair guide a couple through their relationship challenges while renovating their home. After filming the last show of the season, Chelsea is looking forward to a vacation with Jake to repair some cracks in their own relationship. Jake is not as enthusiastic and when their boss, Don, proposes to cap their season off with a Christmas Special, he is all for it. Chelsea relents because of a huge check to her favorite charity and because she is a people pleaser. Enter Janice, Cooper, and Cooper’s “country cabin” that he inherited from his grandpa. Their relationship is confusing. I thought they were engaged because the idea is that Cooper wants the renovation so they can live in it together, but later in the movie Don wants Cooper to propose to her live on the air. Anyway, Cooper wants to maintain his grandfather’s old world rustic charm and Janice wants to make it sleek, modern, and re-sellable. Chelsea and Jake have their work cut out for them as the couple’s differing taste in architecture extends to their lifestyle choices as well. Cooper is the proverbial country mouse and Janice is the proverbial city mouse. And the proverb is sited in so many words. In case we don’t get it. To make the project even more complicated, the Cabin is decorated for Christmas within an inch of it’s life even though some demolition will be involved. There are a lot of bows which turn out to be very significant at the end. In the middle of the movie they decide that the cabin needs even more Christmas and they add even more Christmas trees and bows. There are at least 15 trees in one room of the cabin at final count.

After the first episode of the show, Jake and a disgruntled Janice suspiciously go off to New York together on supposedly separate business which leaves Cooper and Chelsea to film the renovation project and work on Cooper and Janice’s relationship all by themselves. This was as awkward as it sounds with them flirting shamelessly, having lots of laughs and chemistry together and being deliriously happy without their partners all in front of the camera. After a lot of Christmas-y shenanigans, carpentry, heartfelt discussions, longing gazes, and futile attempts to communicate with their supposed loved ones, Jake and Janice finally return from New York. Don has decided that nothing would be better than a live reunion and reveal of the newly renovated cabin capped off by the previously mentioned marriage proposal! To her credit, Chelsea puts the kabosh on that notion, but a few minutes before the live show, Chelsea decides to break up with a more than willing Jake. During the live filming, Janice, although she is pleased with the cabin, decides she is not so pleased with living there and breaks up with Cooper even though she still loves him but just has to live in the city. For some reason, at this point, Daniel Lissing decides to look totally heartbroken even though we know that his character Cooper could not have been more pleased and relieved since he is totally in love with Chelsea. It was a very odd acting choice. To save the show, Jake decides that this is a fine time to propose to Chelsea live on the air even though she has just broken up with him. Now this dumpster fire, in the right hands, could have been absolutely hilarious, but the whole thing just comes across as cringe. Foregoing her people pleasing ways, after a tense inner struggle, Chelsea turns him down, turns to the camera, and gives a fine speech to their live audience all about knowing that they would prefer honesty to having everything wrapped up with a big happy, but phony, bow. She walks off and then ruins the whole thing by kicking herself off camera for being an idiot for sacrificing the ratings by all of her silly honesty and authenticity and wishing she had just gone along with Jake’s proposal on the air! But don’t worry, Cooper swoops in with words of wisdom and a big kiss. And just to put another big bow on it, all of the drama has resulted in the live special being a massive hit after all, so she’s happy again. Do Janice and Jake get together? No bows tying up that story, I’m afraid.

Almost everything in this movie missed the mark with me by a little or a lot. But frankly, I think the worst thing about it was the Christmas Decorations. Also, at the end, the cabin looks exactly the same as it did before the so-called renovation.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

The Christmas Baby

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Two Wise Women and a Baby

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Erin (Ali Liebert) and Kelly (Katherine Barrell) are a happy couple just as they are. They are two successful women with large families and good friends. Their lives are full and complete and they have no desire to add children to the equation. But in the words of an old proverb, “Man plans, God laughs”. Erin is still at her store and rushing to get ready to attend an awards ceremony where Kelly is receiving an award for her production design. She hears someone enter her closed store and rushes out from the backroom only to find a baby boy in a carriage attached to a handwritten note.

“Kelly and Erin, I know you will take good care of him. His name is Nicholas. I’m sorry. I tried.”

Erin takes the baby to the event and together the couple decides to call social services. They are lucky enough to get lovely Barbara Niven who plays Betty, as the assigned case worker. Despite her assurances that a nice foster home awaits the baby, they ultimately  decide to take care of little Nicholas (nod to the season) temporarily over Christmas. Unlike Three Wise Men and a Baby the abandoned baby plot is not played for laughs. It is not without lightness and humor, but in the end, it is a quiet, sweet, and gentle story about a couple who opens up their lives and decides to redefine what it means to be a family. 

The two are never really in serious conflict, but Erin is decidedly more open to the idea of adding a baby into their lives. In fact, she is all in almost from the very beginning. Practical Kelly, on the other hand, is more reluctant and concerned about getting too close to Nicholas lest the mother show up and take the baby back after coming to her senses. As well she should be. She is unsure whether they can give him the stability and consistency he needs. I was a little surprised that Erin was full speed ahead with fostering the child given the possibility of having the baby taken away hanging over their heads. Or worse, being the baby’s foster parents for an extended time while waiting to adopt, before such a thing happens. Kelly is also concerned with the disruption to their lives and navigating the social challenges. She shares that she has always known in her heart and down to her toes who she is supposed to be and who she was supposed to love, but doesn’t know how to raise a child in a world that she herself does not understand: A world where complete strangers just look at her and think that she is wrong. But seeing how much it means to Erin and also falling for little Nicholas herself, Kelly puts her concerns to one side and they start the paperwork to be Nicholas’s official guardians and foster parents on more than just a temporary basis. Both women’s families and friends are part of their lives and are with them for the holidays. Their mothers are also important parts of their lives. The fathers, however, are absent and unaccounted for as far as I could tell. They even make friends with their grouchy neighbor and they inspire him to mend things with his estranged daughter. They will need all the support they can get when Betty calls with the scary news that the mother has turned up and wants to meet with them. 

Ali Liebert and Katherine Barrell have always been favorites and they give wonderful and authentic performances in this. There is a lot of conversation and introspection in this one but it was well balanced with happenings in their lives and steps forward and back. And always the question of who the mother is (it is obviously someone they must know), what will happen if or when she comes back, and why did she do what she did?  I was still left with some questions and concerns at the end which hopefully will lead to a sequel next Christmas.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

A Make or Break Christmas

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White or Colored Twinkly Lights?

I hate-watched this one off and on through most of it. But there were glimmers of goodness. There were lots of on-target cultural references:  Lessons learned from Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Iyanla Vanzant, Friends, and Wings, and some so on-target that I am apparently too out of the loop to get them. (Dom Toretto? Fast Five? What’s that?). Even though I have never been a fan of either Hunter King (Liv) or Evan Roderick (Daniel) the chemistry between them was really good. For once, I actually liked a role Evan played, faults and all. He made a character that could have been as annoying as she was in his own way actually lovable. Hunter King, his costar, played a character who was very grating at first, but got less so as she started to redeem herself. Also there was one hilarious scene where Daniel’s Mom gives them a painting representing what she sees as the couple’s future together. It was so funny, I can’t even describe it. Actually I can. Imagine a Margaret Keane sad big eyed waif painting but with a family of cheerful elves and done by a 6 year old.

Liv and Daniel meet at a friend’s Christmas Party and the attraction is sudden and mutual. We flash ahead one year and look back on their year’s courtship in flashbacks. It is now Christmas again and they are definitely together to the point of having bought a huge house together. They’ve known each other less than a year are not even engaged. Yikes. In their first scene in the present, they are making Christmas preparations for their families, including siblings and a grandmother, to visit for the holiday. It will be the first meeting for the two families and their first introduction to the new house. Typically Liv is all stressed out, and Evan is not, which leads to a huge fight and a break up. But in order not to ruin everyone’s Christmas, they will pretend to their families that they are still a happy couple.

 Right from the start, at the party where Liv and Dan first meet, Liv really got on my nerves. Because she is such a perfectionist and control freak she basically takes over her friend’s hosting duties for her friends party in her friends house. She calls it “helping.” A year later, in their new home, Dan has put Liv’s beloved Christmas Village out on display as a surprise for her. Liv is delighted but as they are going over the Christmas plans, Liv proceeds to rearrange all the pieces into the “right” configuration. We can see that this makes Dan feel bad. The planning devolves into an argument where we see all of the problems in their relationship summarized. We learn that Dan is irresponsible, disorganized, and unreliable, and Liv is hypercritical, controlling, and inflexible. Dan does everything to avoid stress, and Liv is all stressed out all the time. All this is symbolized by Dan’s decoration of the Christmas tree. Because of lack of planning, the tree is only lit on the top half and with, according to Liv, “frivolous and unreliable” colored lights instead of Liv’s, according to Dan, “rigid and controlling” white twinkly lights. Although I understood Liv’s frustration with Dan’s ways, it was her behavior and attitude that really got on my last nerve. Everything has to be perfect for Christmas because her mother and father are just like her and snipe at everything that doesn’t match with their personal preferences. As Liv herself says, they are “out for blood.” When Dan forgets to order “The Gobbler Farms Christmas Turkey” which Liv’s father apparently can’t live without, it is the last straw. Although everyone in their two families have their irritating ways and outrageous behaviors, except Dan’s mother who is a dear, Liv’s parents are truly insufferable. But in true “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” fashion, Liv and Dan find themselves uniting in the face of numerous family challenges, and come at last to the understanding that they balance each other out and are better together than apart. They acknowledge their own faults, vow to change, and they love each other. 

The last scenes, which include Dan’s Christmas present to Liv, are actually touching and romantic. And, much like Dan and Liv’s relationship, the last 20 minutes or so (minus a really cheesy speech by Grandma), evened out the annoying parts of the previous 100 minutes for me. So it turned out to be a respectable but not spectacular “7” for me.

On a final note, although it is not spelled out, this Hallmark is notable for having an unmarried couple in the same bedroom and bed, at least before they broke up. Now the couple are not exactly living together full time, which is blamed on him still having a lease on his apartment. But, in truth, it probably has more to do with Hallmark not wanting to cross that particular line. Maybe next Christmas.

Rating: 7 out of 10.