Me too!
I like having the TV keep me company in the background while I'm doing other things.
The storylines are easy to follow, even if I've missed a section. Having seen some of these movies
a few times 
before, they are even easier to follow. And the movies all end happily.
As for the cast, I think Hallmark, in the last few years, has really put more money into their casting budget, so they are able to pull in better B/C-Listers. The more better actors they cast, the more and better new actors they will be able to cast. It's a win for everyone. James Brolin not only starred in his Christmas movie last year, he was able to direct it too. That must have been a big lure for him. And he got to have his wife sing the title song for his movie. It just "happened" that he directed a movie that had the title of the famous song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas."
He then starred in and directed one of the Hallmark summer movies last summer. So they must have told him they would keep writing films especially for him and his age range, to keep him happy to film future films.
I also saw an interview where one movie was made in 42 days of filming. So the stars aren't away from home for very long, to shoot in Vancouver. (Kind of ironic that Hallmark is considered a classic American, home-spun company, yet they film all their movies & TV shows in Canada.
No offense to Canada intended!
)
Apparently, their "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movies, not their
basic movies, have always had better A/B-Listers. Before the Hallmark Channel, the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movies used to just be specials on TV once or twice a year, during the holidays. There is a list online of all the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movies and yes, ALL the stars were well known, who later became big stars. Like Glenn Close was in an old one - way before
Fatal Attraction. Hallmark always makes sure the writing is top-notch for the "Hall of Fame" movies, to be able to get huge stars to agree to do them.
The Christmas Train, that is re-airing this week, with Danny Glover, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Dermot Mulroney & Joan Cusack is a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie.
And because Hallmark is able to pay more for
some actors, especially this past year, I've noticed that they sometimes seem to skimp on paying for better writers.
In some cases, it's quite obvious that the budget wasn't spread around very evenly, some stories are so badly written and there are definitely C-List actors in it.
OR, their new thing is to do sequels & trilogies on what was a good first movie. But, the second & third installments, not so great. More like hurried, rush jobs to put a sequel together for the same actors.
I saw a preview special Hallmark did of an upcoming Lacey Chabert movie. They are filming it in South Africa on safari. They made a huge deal about how they've never done an overseas endeavor like that before. The budget had to be huge to fly everyone over to film, including the crew & equipment. I really hope that doesn't mean a LOT of budgets for other films got cut to shoot that ONE film and we will see it in the bad writing later on in 5-6 other movies.
But, for all my complaining, I'm happy Hallmark Christmas week is here.
We're not the ones with the issues. Negative. Derisive. Shaming. 
Not giving it up. 
