Hallmark Christmas in July 🎄 comfort & joy ❤️

[Imzadi]

I haven’t watched that one yet. I’m not fond of the female lead, but I’m willing to give it a try…

I've never seen her in anything. She was kind of lackluster. And it definitely is a once and done movie for me. But, I liked the story well enough.

 

[Imzadi]

Thanks for the Erica summary. Now I will avoid anything they let her do in the future!

Unfortunately, we might not get the choice to not see her in her next movie. I just found out Erica will be in a Hallmark movie coming out in January. She plays one of three sisters, along with Kimberley Sustad, who I do really like. The other sister is Lyndsy Fonseca, who was in the magical train movie that came out a few weeks ago, where she was sent into her past to fix things. So, two of three sisters are watchable. And their mom is played by Barbara Niven, who plays many Hallmark moves. I like her too.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Unfortunately, we might not get the choice to not see her in her next movie. I just found out Erica will be in a Hallmark movie coming out in January. She plays one of three sisters, along with Kimberley Sustad, who I do really like. The other sister is Lyndsy Fonseca, who was in the magical train movie that came out a few weeks ago, where she was sent into her past to fix things. So, two of three sisters are watchable. And their mom is played by Barbara Niven, who plays many Hallmark moves. I like her too.

I think that’s the one where there are 3 movies, and there is a thread (I think a wedding dress) linking the 3 sisters. I might FF through the unwatchable movie…hopefully hers is the first or middle one so we can end on a good note.

The Godwinks actress played Joy in The Good Witch. The first season when she arrived the character seemed kind of shifty, and I just never liked the actress. She was an addition since Bailey Madison left, and it never really worked.

 

[Imzadi]

I think that’s the one where there are 3 movies, and there is a thread (I think a wedding dress) linking the 3 sisters. I might FF through the unwatchable movie…hopefully hers is the first or middle one so we can end on a good note.

Wait, thankfully, that's a different series. (I just found out about that one last night when I was trying to find out what Lacey is up to.) Lacey Chabert, Alison Sweeney and Autumn Reeser are in 3 movies about a magical wedding veil. So, all those movies are watchable, no Erica.

https://people.com/tv/hallmark-trilogy-alison-sweeney-lacey-chabert-autumn-reeser-january/

It also means Lacey is staying with Hallmark. (She may decide to do GAC movies, too, but she didn't sign an exclusivity contract with GAC the way Danica & Cameron Mathison did.)

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Wait, thankfully, that's a different series. (I just found out about that one last night when I was trying to find out what Lacey is up to.) Lacey Chabert, Alison Sweeney and Autumn Reeser are in 3 movies about a magical wedding veil. So, all those movies are watchable, no Erica.

https://people.com/tv/hallmark-trilogy-alison-sweeney-lacey-chabert-autumn-reeser-january/

It also means Lacey is staying with Hallmark. (She may decide to do GAC movies, too, but she didn't sign an exclusivity contract with GAC the way Danica & Cameron Mathison did.)

That is great news all around! I’m so glad she’s only in one movie, and we will see Lacey in more Hallmark movies

 

[Imzadi]

Lifetime: The Holiday Fix Up at 8pm ET / 7CT (re-airs at 4 hours later.)
starring Jana Kramer and Ryan McPartlin and Maria Menounos.
Description: When a designer behind a popular home renovation show returns to her hometown during the holidays to help renovate an inn, she gets paired with a lead contractor who had broken her heart. For him, she’s the one who got away. Sparks fly as they work closely to get the renovations done in time for the inn’s annual Christmas Eve Harborfest. Will they be able to fix the mistakes of their past to build a future together?

I watched The Holiday Fix Up. I liked it. It's a story we've all seen before about saving the Inn. I like the leads. They had chemistry together. I really liked that one of the leads doesn't have to sacrifice in the end in order to be loved.

 

[Imzadi]

The CBS channel tonight is airing a Christmas movie: The Christmas Proposal. It's on after football and 60 Minutes. So the start time is approximate. Also, set your DVR to record about a half hour longer, just in case, so you don't accidentally cut off the end of the movie. 8:30 ET/ 7:30 CT. West coast should be fine with the 8pm PT start time.

Starring Jessica Camacho and Adam Rodriguez.
Description: Maria Winters is a down-on-her-luck chef who dreams of starting her own line of food trucks. She agrees to pose as the girlfriend of Julian Diaz, a hotshot Seattle attorney visiting his family for Christmas, to help him prove he’s the ideal candidate to take over the family firm. But their business arrangement is complicated by the magic of the season as real sparks begin to fly.

I watched The Christmas Proposal which was on CBS. It is still On Demand on Spectrum Cable. The Paramount streaming service is also CBS - or maybe the other way around. I remember last year, Paramount did one Christmas movie. So they are trying to break into the Christmas movie business. This year, there are two Christmas movies CBS is airing. (More on the second movie in the next post.)

I liked the movie. I liked that it was well made, with actors who can act. The production seem to have a bigger budget with all the props & gorgeous sets and locations. And I got the feeling they were able to take more time filming. The writer had written several Hallmark movies I liked. I felt this was one of the better scripts. The dialogue was smart and natural. There were even some funny moments like, "That's a dictionary." The director also had directed many Hallmark movies. So, this definitely had the look, style and feel of a Hallmark movie, with a bigger budget.

This is one of those movies based on a fib, which I generally don't like. The family assumes the Uber-type female driver who dropped off their son, to be their son's girlfriend. And before the two can stop the mix-up, the son realizes he can use the mistake to his advantage, for a while. The only real person the fib would hurt is himself when caught. (Yes the family would be hurt too,) but this isn't like the situation with Lacey Chabert's movie, where she lied, tried to get other people to go along with the fact that she impersonated a real person, and if her posh event failed, it would hurt the royal family's reputation and standing in the community. So, I feel this fib is of a lesser degree, if that makes any sense. The movie had a lighthearted air to it.

 

[Imzadi]

Reminder for tonight:

CBS channel: Christmas Takes Flight

TIME: It is on the channel guide schedule at 8pm ET, but NFL football DID go about half an hour later. So add on an extra half hour to the end time of the movie, so your recording doesn't cut the end of the movie off, if football runs long.
Starring Katie Lowes (of Scandal) and Evan Williams.

Description: It's a holiday battle of wills between pilot Jenny Beckett and number-crunching CEO Matt Connor, who purchases Jenny’s family-owned, regional airline. Matt’s cost-cutting initiatives threaten Christmas when he cancels the airline’s annual holiday charitable benefit for under-served children. Determined to show Matt that the sweetest things in life are worth any price, Jenny rallies the community to help save the event and unexpectedly finds herself falling for the magnate in the process.

The director directed a lot of better Hallmark movies. And the writer wrote a Netflix movie last season.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Reminder for tonight:

CBS channel: Christmas Takes Flight

TIME: It is on the channel guide schedule at 8pm ET, but NFL football DID about half an hour late. So add on an extra half hour to the end time of the movie, so your recording doesn't cut the end of the movie off, if football runs long.
Starring Katie Lowes (Scandal) and Evan Williams.

Description: It's a holiday battle of wills between pilot Jenny Beckett and number-crunching CEO Matt Connor, who purchases Jenny’s family-owned, regional airline. Matt’s cost-cutting initiatives threaten Christmas when he cancels the airline’s annual holiday charitable benefit for under-served children. Determined to show Matt that the sweetest things in life are worth any price, Jenny rallies the community to help save the event and unexpectedly finds herself falling for the magnate in the process.

The director directed a lot of better Hallmark movies. And the writer wrote a Netflix movie last season.

This sounds great -- I will definitely DVR! Thanks so much for the helpful descriptions, you have made this holiday season so much easier to enjoy

 

[PollyannaMom]

I watched two today (thanks to a rather spoiled cat who wanted breakfast waaaaay to early ) - A Very Merry Bridesmaid and A Crafty Christmas Romance. Of the two, I liked the second one better.

I love the lead actress in A Very Merry Bridesmaid, but I didn't like the sister-in-law at first. And I found the Christmas Eve wedding to be really unrealistic. I liked that the childhood friend/crush made her birthday a big deal, though.

A Crafty Christmas Romance uses my favorite of the standard plots - the solving a mystery together one. And we actually have a similar shop (where you can go and paint ceramics and stuff, around here) so that was cool to see.

 

[Imzadi]

This sounds great -- I will definitely DVR! Thanks so much for the helpful descriptions, you have made this holiday season so much easier to enjoy

Thanks. I was reading another recent thread here on the DIS asking about people's hobbies. One person said watching movies. I thought about it, I guess one of mine is watching Hallmark movies and chatting about it with you guys. Sure, there is the Hallmark Facebook group, but with over 455,000 members, I don't know any of them. Whereas, I see you guys on other threads here on the DIS. And we can share the info and opinions we have about the movies and actors & actresses here.

I haven't forgotten about last summer, when there was literally nothing to post about - all of you saw the exact same Hallmark commercials and knew the same info I did, some of you guys helped keep the thread going so we'd all have it when the Christmas season finally arrived. ❤ THANK all of YOU for making this thread a success.

We made it through the Hallmark Christmas season. ❤ The LAST new Hallmark Christmas movie is in 10 minutes. Same for GAC.

Then there are 6 new Lifetime movies, 2 on Netflix and the Christmas movie season is done.

Keep posting your movie likes and dislikes. I have several movies still DVRed to get though in the next couple of weeks before the Christmas mood ends.

Then it's on to January. . . ⛷

 

[Imzadi]

Reminder for tonight:

CBS channel: Christmas Takes Flight

TIME: It is on the channel guide schedule at 8pm ET, but NFL football DID go about half an hour later. So add on an extra half hour to the end time of the movie, so your recording doesn't cut the end of the movie off, if football runs long.
Starring Katie Lowes (of Scandal) and Evan Williams.

Description: It's a holiday battle of wills between pilot Jenny Beckett and number-crunching CEO Matt Connor, who purchases Jenny’s family-owned, regional airline. Matt’s cost-cutting initiatives threaten Christmas when he cancels the airline’s annual holiday charitable benefit for under-served children. Determined to show Matt that the sweetest things in life are worth any price, Jenny rallies the community to help save the event and unexpectedly finds herself falling for the magnate in the process.

The director directed a lot of better Hallmark movies. And the writer wrote a Netflix movie last season.

The CBS Christmas movie is back on track. It started at 8pm after all.

 

[Imzadi]

I watched two today (thanks to a rather spoiled cat who wanted breakfast waaaaay to early )

Your cat might have wanted to watch two Christmas movies today.

 

[Imzadi]

GAC Family: Christmas is You at 8pm ET / 7CT (re-airs at 10pm ET)
starring Becca Tobin, Matthew MacCaul.
Description: Emma Bloom's record label boss gives her an ultimatum: convince her ex-boyfriend and recording star Tyler Thorn to leave his label and join theirs, or find another job.

I lasted about twenty minutes with this movie and had to turn it off. I didn't think the characters "fit" together or had any chemistry. The whole time, the characters went on and on about how the two leads had grown up together, were close friends and eventually were a couple.

Becca Tobin looks about early to mid thirties. However, the male lead, Matthew MacCaul looks to be closer to fifty. He has deep jowl lines, forehead wrinkles. I thought he had a weathered look to him. He even reminded me of the actor who played Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon a Time as a slightly younger brother. I just couldn't get past it. When the leads stood next to each other, no way did they grow up together, close in age. I don't feel Becca had chemistry with him. Or he with her. So, for me, what was the point in watching? If you can make it through, you are better than me.

My suggestion instead for a MUCH better movie to watch Becca in, singing and having chemistry with her male lead, is A Song for Christmas. Kevin McGarry - is close to her age and looks it. Their chemistry together is evident. It was on a couple years ago and is one of my favorites.

A Song for Christmas re-airs tomorrow, Tues, Dec 21 at 12pm ET on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

 

[Kennywood]

My wife and I enjoyed "A Kiss Before Christmas" with Teri Hatcher and James Denton.



The actors/characters were closer to our age, rather than 20-30-something-year-olds.

 

[Imzadi]

This year marks the 15th anniversary of The Christmas Card, which is, according to many people, one of Hallmark's best movies. It was written before the Hallmark Channel even existed and started imposing a cookie cutter "formula" which most of their movies needed to have or follow.

On her webpage, screenwriter Joany Kane talks about how The Christmas Card came about.

"The first week of January 1999, two years before there was a Hallmark Channel, my life changed forever. I met and fell in love with Logger Honey (Dave) and wrote THE CHRISTMAS CARD at the same time. Seven years later the movie based on my screenplay premiered on the Hallmark Channel.​

​

The movie shattered the channel's ratings records, received an Emmy nomination for actor Ed Asner, helped launch the current Christmas TV movie craze, and has often been rated the most beloved holiday movie. To this day (as of this writing in 2021) "The Christmas Card" is still a treasured favorite. I believe it endures because the love with which it was written shines through.​

​

I wrote the screenplay inspired by my love for Logger Honey, and for my mom and dad who were also inspirations - love compelled me, not any movie contract or assignment. I wrote "The Christmas Card" without any idea if anyone, other than my mom, would ever read it.​

​

I'm writing a memoir ROMANCING CHRISTMAS about my path to writing "The Christmas Card" and the magical journey I've been on with Logger Honey since not only the premiere of our love story but also the premiere of the movie made from the screenplay he inspired. If it wasn't for Logger Honey there would be no "The Christmas Card" movie that made it to the screen, and if it wasn't for "The Christmas Card" screenplay I was writing, there wouldn't be a Logger Honey in my life (22 years strong as of this writing.)"​

The Christmas Card is on only two times this year:
Tues Dec 21 at 4pm ET on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Fri Dec 31 at 6pm on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

 

[Imzadi]

LAST 6 Christmas movies this season on Lifetime: ☃

On at 8pm ET and repeats 4 hours later.

Monday, December 20
Candy Cane Candidate
starring Jacky Lai and Jake Epstein.
Description: After facing a heartbreaking city council loss, Julia (Jacky Lai) returns home for some much-needed R&R. Shortly after her arrival, she runs into her old high school rival (Jack Epstein) and goes right back to her old ways.

Tuesday, December 21
The Christmas Ball
starring Deidre Mullins, Nick Hendrix and Caroline Langshire.
Description: Clare (Deidre Mullins) spends the holidays with her Aunt Bridget in England. While there, she digs into her family's history and learns that they used to host Christmas Regency Balls at the manor. In an effort to preserve the family manor, they decide to throw a ball.

Wednesday, December 22
It Takes a Christmas Village
starring Brooke Nevins, Corey Sevier and Alli Chung.
Description: Mayor Alex Foster (Brooke Nevin) has his heart set on throwing the town's Christmas market in the historic mill owned by Darcy's (Corey Sevier) family. The problem: Darcy isn't a fan of, well, anyone, but perhaps, Alex is the one to change that once and for all.

Thursday, December 23
Rebuilding a Dream Christmas
starring Meggan Kaiser, Zane Stephens and Bryson JonSteele.
Description: When Abbey (Meggan Kaiser) receives news that she inherited her grandmother's Victorian home, she returns home to oversee repairs before selling it. That is, until she starts to fall for the repairman and his adorable eight-year-old son.

Friday, December 24
Hot Chocolate Holiday
starring Aubrey Reynolds and Jonny Swenson.
Description: Colette's (Aubrey Reynolds) knows hot chocolate better than anybody — except for Marcus, the new dessert shop owner, apparently. When he starts serving a drink that's nearly identical to her own, she sets on a mission to bring him down.

Saturday, December 25
Writing Around the Christmas Tree
starring Krystal Joy Brown and Curtis Hamilton.
Description: Mikaela (Krystal Joy Brown), a successful romance novelist, doesn't practice what she preaches — until a fellow writer at her Christmas treat shows her that the love stories she writes can be more than merely works of fiction.

 

[Imzadi]

Last 3 Christmas movies this season on Netflix:

December 16
A California Christmas: City Lights
Starring Lauren Swickard, Josh Swickard, Amanda Detmer, David Del Rio, Ali Afshar.
Description: A year after falling in love, Callie and Joseph are happier than ever running a dairy farm and winery, but when business calls Joseph back to the city, the event could derail the romance.

December 22
Grumpy Christmas
Starring Renata Notni, Alex Rose Wiesel, Angélica María.
Description: A family trip to the beach turns crazy when Servando and Alicia, Alma's willful aunt, start an over-the-top competition to control Christmas.

December 24
1000 Miles from Christmas
Starring Tamar Novas, Verónica Forqué ,Peter Vives, Andrea Ros.
Description: This movie follows Raúl (Tamar Novas), a man who loathes Christmas due to his lack of fortune when it comes to the holiday. But when he’s sent on a work assignment that is filled with Christmas spirit, will he be able to overcome his worst nightmare?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Watching “The Nine Kittens of Christmas “ it’s cute.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Candy Cane Candidate
starring Jacky Lai and Jake Epstein.
Description: After facing a heartbreaking city council loss, Julia (Jacky Lai) returns home for some much-needed R&R. Shortly after her arrival, she runs into her old high school rival (Jack Epstein) and goes right back to her old ways.

Just finished watching this. Didn't really like it. She was just too needy, and he seemed to take delight in tormenting her. Just like they were in high school, but it's years later now.