692 TV Christmas movie reviews recommending which to watch and which to avoid

The 2019 Season Has Started!!!

For twenty years my wife and I have made a hobby of watching all the TV Christmas movies possible during the holiday season and placing them in one of four categories: must see, very good, okay to watch once and the worst Christmas movies of all time. We're posting these lists of made-for-TV Christmas movie reviews to help people looking for good entertainment find the best and avoid the worst.

Our criteria for a good movie is that it has an interesting and believable plot with Christmas as an important element, competent acting, avoids cliche'd characters, doesn't contain crude humor or violence and doesn't have smart-aleck children. Also, since the Christmas season is supposed to be a joyful time of year we prefer movies that are light and happy. We limit ourselves to live action films rather than animated movies. Starting with the 2012 season we had to add another limitation to the movies we'll try, which is that we are no longer able to stand watching movies based on the painfully overworked Christmas Carol concept where the ghosts of past, present and future visit a scrooge-type person and turn him or her into a Christmas loving individual. After enduring eleven of them over the years we finally reached our limit. From now on we'll list titles of these movies in the "Okay To See Once" list but not formally review them. If you aren't sick of the Christmas Carol theme you may want to try one of them.

Almost all TV Christmas movies follow the standard formula of someone discovering happiness over the holiday season, usually by falling in love. Formula movies don't bother us as long as they're done well.

The movies are listed in alphabetical order within each of the four sections, ignoring introductory "A"s and "The"s. Within a section the best movies have yellow titles with green descriptions to make them easier to spot. These are movies we've enjoyed watching several times. Green 'plus' signs at the end of a description flag better movies in that category. The worst movies in a category are indicated by red negative marks after their descriptions. Movie titles starting with numbers are listed as if the numbers were spelled out. For example, The 12 Christmas Wishes would be placed as if it was The Twelve Christmas Wishes. This lists movies of similar titles close together so they can be differentiated more easily.

If you're a returning visitor and notice that some of the movies have been moved to different categories, it's because at the start of the 2016 season we re-evauluate many of them and move those we look forward to rewatching every year into the top category while others, though they are excellent but not watched as often, were moved down.

After the reviews are comments about the Christmas movie genre in general and how specific years did.

So, without further ado... here are our lists!

The Best Christmas Movies Of All Time:

These are the very best Christmas movies we've found. They stand up to repeated viewings and form the heart of our Christmas movie library.

 
A Charming Christmas

Julie Benz is both gorgeous and totally believable as a all-business store manager who's heart is won over to the Christmas spirit by a handsome Santa working the holiday at her store. The acting is excellent, production values are first rate and the leads attractive and perfectly matched. We enjoyed this movie so much we purchased it on DVD. +++

NEW!!! Check Inn To Christmas

A lady lawyer comes home to help with the family inn and strikes up a friendship with the manager of a competing inn, whose family has an amicable feud going on with her's. The two lead character join forces to prevent their inns from succumbing to a national resort chain. This movie was a delight from the first scenes and only got better with time. The two leads are attractive, believable and have great chemistry together. Outstanding production values, a good background soundtrack, beautiful scenery and an excellent supporting cast make this a must see movie. Extra credit should go to the writers who came up with a lot of entertaining and believable banter between the two leads. We really liked this movie. ++

 
NEW!!! Christmas In Montana

Kellie Martin and Colin Ferguson are perfect as a couple brought together to save his family ranch. Simply put, this movie is without flaw. Every scene, character and situation rings true. This is one we'll be buying as soon as it's available on DVD. ++

 
Christmas in My Hometown (Please see "A Holiday For Love" below.)

The Christmas Ornament

While predictable, this is a pleasant, attractive movie about a lady bicycle shop owner and a Christmas tree seller falling in love over Christmas. Stars Kellie Martin. After rewatching this movie we decided it deserved to be promoted to the "best" category because it holds up to repeated viewings. It has more dramatic moments than the rest of our favorites, but the happy ending makes up for it. Fans of the science fiction series Firefly will enjoy seeing Jewel Staite (Kalie in Firefly) in a supporting role. Available on DVD.

 

The Christmas Wish

Neil Patrick Harris (Dougie Houser) is very good as an executive taking over his deceased father's real estate business. Along the way he discovers there's more to business than making profit, finds someone to love, and solves a mystery in his father's past. This is an outstanding movie that succeeds by doing everything perfectly. (Available on DVD.) +

Christmas In The Air

This is thoroughly enjoyable, attractive movie about an overloaded widowed father who hires a professional organizer to help him get ready for an important business meeting while balancing familial responsibilities. The predictable happens, but it happens so entertainingly that the movie never drags. Hallmark is famous for mixing in beautiful scenery in its movies and this one is no exception, featuring several stunning landscapes. We liked this movie enough to purchase it on DVD. After rewatching it in 2018, we decided it was so good it deserved to be moved up into the 'best' list.

 
A Crown For Christmas

A recently fired maid, played by the always good Danica McKeller, gets a job as a nanny to a handsome young king's unruly daughter. The maid wins the young daughter's heart and the king's love. While this is a painfully overworked plot, in this movie it's fresh and interesting. We rank this as one of Ms. McKeller's best performances. She's simply a delight to watch.

After a repeat viewing, we found we enjoyed it so much that in 2017 we purchased it on DVD. It's simply a great, sweet and innocent movie. Rewatching this little gem again in 2018 convinced us it was one we could look forward to watching again and again so we moved up from the 'very good' to the 'best' list. +++

 
A Holiday for Love

Often listed under the alternate title Christmas in My Hometown, this light romantic comedy revolves around a tractor company executive forced to go back home to size up the local factory for downsizing. Disguised as a tractor purchaser, the town thinks he's really there to place an order that could save the factory. Along the way he's thrown together with widowed mother Melissa Gilbert. They fall in love and of course everything works out in the end after some bumps in the road. This isn't a perfect movie because Gilbert's young daughter is cast in some unusual situations as the leader of an adult choir and an elderly man with mild dementia seems out of place, but the total effect is uplifting. One of the things I enjoy about this movie is that the plan devised for saving the factory is totally believable. While this movie may not have the knock-down greatness of some of the others, it's still one we enjoy year after year. (Available on DVD.)

A Joyous Christmas

An inspirational speaker promoting a 'me first' philosophy is saved from a potentially fatal car accident. As she seeks to show her appreciation to the woman who saved her, she re-evaluates her position. In a parallel plot, she finds romance in a local event producer hired to stage her next show.

This is a perfectly crafted movie. The male and especially the female (Natalie Knepp) leads are very attractive in both appearance and personality. Ms. Knepp's performance is so genuine and endearing that all by itself itself it makes this movie a must-see. Her smile beams out of the screen with delight.

While most of the movie has a dramatic tone, there are enough light moments to maintain an enjoyable and entertaining balance between the two. Production values were extremely high. There is an unlikely reveal near the end, but hints about it were dropped several times throughout the movie so that it didn't feel like it came out of nowhere. Most importantly, the plot was totally original. We'd reviewed 491 movies by the time we found this gem and had assumed we'd "seen it all." We were delighted to discover we were wrong. We heartily recommend this movie and have purchased it on DVD. ++

 

Off Season

Outstanding acting all the way around, interesting characters, good production values and an excellent screenplay with several believable twists make this movie about a boy suspecting a man (Hume Cronyn) vacationing at a hotel in July of being Santa Claus a joy too see. Is he or isn't he? You'll have to watch to find out. About our only complaint is the smarmy hotel manager, who we didn't like at all.

We both loved this movie and aren't alone in our opinions. This made for TV feature was nominated for five Emmys and won two. (Available on DVD) +

Rocky Mountain Christmas

Lindy Booth looks fantastic as a young woman returning home to the family ranch for Christmas. While there, a famous actor shows up and talks the owner into letting him work as a ranch hand so he can get the experience needed for his next movie. Comedy and romance ensues. This movie is without flaw and is so much fun to watch we've purchased it on DVD so we can watch it again and again. ++

 

Window Wonderland

The female and male romantic leads are interesting, attractive characters that exchange a lot of funny, entertaining banter as they compete to see who is more successful at decorating a department store's windows. The plot is similar to The Christmas Song and has a similar ending, though it's more believable and fun in this incarnation. It also had three entertaining twists that were pleasant surprises. In spite of the store's manager, who we found to be too flaky to be believable, we find this movie holds up to repeat watchings. What makes this movie stand out from all the other competition-themed movies is that the competition isn't mean spirited.

Window Wonderland is our favorite Christmas movie to watch. It has so many funny moments and is so well done that it's an absolute delight. If you want to know what we like in a Christmas movie, just watch this gem.

As of December, 2018, the only DVD we could find was from classicmoviereel.com, and it turned out to be a pirated copy taken from the Hallmark channel. While the commercials were deleted, it still had the in-movie over-lay advertisements and Hallmark logo. It was a wide screen copy, but the focus was slightly soft, there was noticeable jitter anytime someone moved quickly and it was darker than the original. We decided we'd rather DVR it and zip through the commercials than watch this illegal and poor quality copy.

Very Good Christmas Movies:

In spite of their weaknesses we enjoyed the following movies enough to want to purchase DVDs of them:

 
All I Want For Christmas

Unbeknownst to her, the son of a widowed mother who works at a charity shelter wins a toy store promotional contest titled, "All I Want For Christmas." His wish: a husband for his mother. Mild comedy ensues as she agrees to it in exchange for the toy company saving her mission. As she's working her way through the "husband" applicants she forms a mutual attachment with the toy store owner's rich son. The problem is a long-time family friend is also in love with her. The inevitable happens but not before everyone has to work through several plot twists that keep things interesting.

This TV Christmas movie does everything right: the acting is universally good, the characters interesting and believable, production quality is high and the plot has a few interesting surprises. It also avoids many of the mistakes of lesser movies: there are no hokey special effects and even the bad guys are as much victims of their circumstances as the mother. Still, the movie lacks the spark that would normally lock it into the "must see" list. Also, the lead actress appeared to be very tired and weary looking. Still, it left us with a satisfied warm glow so we've added it to our library. (Available on DVD.)

A Bramble House Christmas

A lady care giver receives an inheritance from her last patient that turns her life around. The man's estranged son meets her to learn if she conned the money out of his father, discovers she didn't and falls in love with her. This is a nearly perfect, touching Christmas love story with excellent writing, acting and production values. Autumn Reeser is particularly good as the care giver. One problem is that during the first few minutes of the movie the son acts so angry that we almost turned it off. But, upon meeting her he quickly and believably changes and from then on it's one of the most believable romances Hallmark has ever put on. A bigger issue is that near the end of the movie, the man's sister shows up and confronts the care giver with such venomous anger that it almost ruined the story. Even though she quickly regrets what she did, the damage had been done. Think of it like this: imagine a beautiful painting and while you're looking at it a tarantula slowly walks across it. Long after the spider has left, the recollection of it taints the memory of the picture. That's what this one scene did to this movie. Still, it's too good a Christmas movie to be placed in the good-to-watch-once list so we only moved it down one step from the 'best' christmas movies with a - as a caution to prospective viewers. Available on DVD.

 
NEW!!! Christmas At Dollywood

Danica McKeller is great as an event planner staging the 30-year anniversary of Dollywood, Dolly Parton's theme park. Superior acting and production values make this a perfect Christmas movie. Our only caution, and it's a small one, is that the movie comes across as an infomercial for Dollywood in general and Dolly Parton in particular.

 

Christmas At Grand Valley

The always entertaining Danica McKeller plays a struggling artist visiting home over the holiday. While there she meets and falls in love with the corporate executive sent to evaluate the local lodge for sale. The acting, writing and production values were absolutely top tier in this thoroughly well made movie. We particularly enjoyed that the writers came up with a very interesting twist on the Gift Of The Magi theme near the end, yet were creative enough to modify it so the movie ended happily rather than tragic. We liked this movie a lot and heartily recommend it. +

 

Christmas At The Palace

Merritt Patterson is absolutely gorgeous and totally believable as an ice skating choreographer who helps put together an ice skating program for the royal family of a small European country. This movie works perfectly on almost every level: acting, plot and production values. We particularly liked that instead of one happy romance, the movie gave us two. Our only reservation is the actor playing the king. He just didn't strike us as appealing or real. But, Ms. Patterson is so radiant we hardly cared.

 
NEW!!! Christmas At The Plaza

A lady historian gets the job of organizing an art history exhibit at the world famous Plaza hotel. While there she strikes up a friendship with the hotel's Christmas decorator. This is a very good light romantic movie that's a great night's watch.

 
NEW!!! The Christmas Club

An elderly lady loses her Christmas Club savings and a ballet teacher and corporate adviser join forces to help her, romance ensues. This is a very pleasant, soft spoken moving that's a joy to relax into. We didn't appreciate the cliche'd bump in the road to their romance near the end. but that's a minor quibble for a movie that gave us so much enjoyment.

 
Christmas Homecoming

Julie Benz and Michael Shanks are letter perfect as a military widow and the injured soldier who rents an apartment from her while he recuperates. This is a perfectly gentle, romantic light drama that holds your attention even though it's obvious what's going to happen. It's a great example of how excellent acting and writing can elevate a familiar plot. We liked this movie a lot and look forward to adding it to our DVD collection.

 
NEW!!! Christmas 9 To 5

A lady journalist goes undercover at a struggling department store, falls in love with the manager and tries to save the store. This is simply a fun movie to watch. We enjoy it enough to recommend it to everyone and if it holds up to repeat viewings, may bump it up to the 'best' list. +

NEW!!! Christmas Scavenger Hunt

A lady real estate broker goes home for the holiday and to manage the sale of an iconic landmark to a developer. While dealing with problems related to that, she's thrown together with an old boyfriend and the expected happens. The two leads were very attractive, well acted and projected an entertaining chemistry that made this movie a lot of fun to watch. This is one we may want to purchase when it comes available on a DVD.

Dashing Through The Snow

A young woman is mistaken as a terrorist and a handsome FBI agent is assigned to accompany her on a car trip to her home to discover her mission. A nice level of humor, attractive scenery, some mystery and one of the best soundtracks Hallmark has ever applied to a movie make this a good choice to watch. +

One of our pet peeves is the cliche'd bump in the road in the romance placed near the end of every film. It happens in Dashing Through The Snow but is much more acceptable because you can see it coming from the very beginning of the movie. In most movies, it comes out of nowhere and the characters' over reaction makes the entire scene feel contrived.

 
Debbie Macomber's Mrs. Miracle

This loose remake of Mary Poppins has a magical nanny help a widowed father cope with his two sons over Christmas, resolve his feelings about the loss of his wife and find love. The male and female leads are extremely appealing and handle their roles perfectly. The miracles performed by the nanny are subtle and kept to a minimum. What nudges this movie up from the "okay to see once" list to the "very good" category is the interesting fact that although the lead characters have completely different problems, those heartaches effect their lives in similar ways. Only by seeing someone else trapped by anger and hurt do they come to realize how the same feelings affect their own lives. On the down side is the sad fact that the boys playing the father's sons were poor actors, bad enough to almost relegate this movie to the "only okay to see once" list. -

 
A Different Kind Of Christmas

Shelley Long (Cheers) looks great as a city attorney running for mayor. Complicating things is the legal chaos created by a man playing Santa when he sets up a permanent residence in a local neighborhood. There are several unexpected and believable plot twists that kept us wondering what was going to happen next. Good acting all the way around make this an entertaining choice. (Available on DVD.)

Regarding the DVD; if you purchase it avoid reading the front cover. It contains a spoiler that ruins one of the major twists in the movie. I think it's criminal when marketing people sacrifice a key element in a movie in their frantic rush to sell it. In this particular case they not only give something away, they do so in a way that makes the movie appear to be different than it is. +

 
A Gift To Remember

A woman who questions her own capabilities helps a man with amnesia discover who he is and in the process learns to believe in herself. This is an excellent movie that takes a cliche'd plot and through good acting and interesting writing, turns it into something special. The two leads are attractive and believable and the story develops with a sincere tone lacking in every other amnesia-themed movie we've watched. To be honest, the spirit of Christmas doesn't play an important role even though Christmas decorations run hip deep. Changing a few decorations would have enabled it to take place anytime of the year. But, we enjoyed it so much that we didn't care.

 
A Gingerbread Romance

This is a great movie about a lady architect who teams up with a single father baker to win a life-size gingerbread house contest. The situations were interesting and there were no obnoxious characters. The lead actress was particularly good at projecting an enthusiastic, positive character without stepping over the line into appearing bubbly.

 
A Godwink Christmas

A lady antique expert finds a new life and romance while visiting Martha's Vineyard over Christmas. The very good movie stars the always great Paul Campbell as an innkeeper who's a kindred spirit to the antique expert. The only thing keeping this from being a must-see movie is that too much time is wasted on her problems with her current romantic interest instead of letting the audience enjoy her budding new romance, which is so attractive it doesn't need an outside conflict to make it interesting. Also, it's strongly hinted that she's going to buy an antique store in Martha's Vineyard, but that detail is left hanging. It left the movie feeling incomplete. Still, most of it is good enough to want to see again. In particular, Paul Campbell was outstanding.

 
NEW!!! Holiday For Heroes

A lady coffee shop owner starts a pen pal relationship with a soldier overseas. When he's assigned to a base near her they meet and fall in love. This is an extremely attractive, gently paced romance that held our interest through the entire show. It's so well done that after watching it once, knowing what's going to happen doesn't reduce the experience of rewatching it. This one's probably going to end up in the 'best' list very soon. ++

 
Hometown Christmas

Despite being filmed in summer to reduce production costs, we liked this movie a lot. It's about a new lady doctor returning to her southern hometown for Christmas and reconnected with her high school sweet heart. All the characters were attractively portrayed and the writers came up with a few twists on potentially cliche'd situations that kept us entertained.

 
NEW!!! Magical Christmas Shoes

A lady CPA works with the young owner of her favorite hometown candy store to save it from closing. From the very first scenes this movie caught our attention as a winner. Both leads are attractive and were very well acted. They had that chemistry that just makes it fun to watch them together. This is one we'll want to get on DVD and may move it up to the 'best' list after seeing if it holds up to repeat viewings.

 

Miracle on 34th Street

A classic from 1947 that's best seen in the colorized DVD version, (The 2006 Special Edition with two disks) not only because this is one movie that clearly benefits from color helping to show the bright Christmas scenes and Mrs. O'Hara's gloriously red hair to the best advantage, but because the original film was restored prior to colorization and upgraded to Dolby stereo so it's considerably sharper and sounds much better than black-and-white versions. Colorization quality varies depending on the amount of effort put into it. I'm happy to report that the quality of colorization on this movie is the best I've ever seen. The acting is universally excellent, except perhaps for a very young Natalie Wood, but it's beginning to look a little dated, hence the '-.' (Available on DVD.) -

 
NEW!!! Mistletoe And Menorahs

Kelley Jakle is absolutely radiant as a toy designer who needs to learn about Jewish traditions, so she teams up with a teacher needing similar information about Christmas customs. The production values are top notch, all the acting is good and the background behind many of the traditions is interesting. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying comedy that may very well make it into the 'best' list after we see how it holds up to repeat viewings.

 
Once Upon A Christmas Miracle

This a thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully written, acted and produced movie about a girl falling in love with the man who saved her life with a liver transplant. Don't let the plot put you off. The tone is light and happy for most of the movie without being frivolous, yet doesn't shy away from dealing with some of the problems such a couple would face. It's a great love story with lots of humor. We liked it a lot. +

 
NEW!!! Picture Perfect Christmas

The always excellent Merritt Patterson give another outstanding performance in this Hallmark movie about a professional photographer spending the holiday in her small hometown to help care for her injured grandmother. While there she connects with her neighbor who's adopted his orphaned nephew. The two leads work well together and a good supporting cast rounds out this very enjoyable flick. As we were watching it, we were struck by how good the background music was. Instead of the incessant, repetitive plinking on a synthesizer too often used to reduce production costs, this one featured real songs played on what sounded like real instruments. The improvement to the viewing experience was so great we hope more films in the future copy it. This movie was a lot of fun to watch. Don't be surprised if it gets moved up into the 'best' list next year if, as we expect, it holds up to repeated viewings.

NEW!!! Random Acts Of Christmas

A single mother journalist finds love and a rekindled Christmas spirit searching for the identity of a secret Santa. Both leads were attractive both in type and nature, well acted, and production values excellent. Add to all that a well written and interesting plot and you have a very good Christmas movie.

 

A Royal Winter

A newly graduated lady lawyer goes to a small European country to escape her uncertainty about joining a big law firm. While there, she meets the country's prince who hides his identity from her. They fall in love and in spite of his interfering mother, end up happily ever after. This much-used plot works very well in this incarnation. Our only complaint is that the queen, played by the always great Samantha Bond, is trapped in a cliche'd roll as a manipulative mother who wants her son to marry a princess instead of a commoner. Her acting is impeccable, but the character appears in so many movies that we kept thinking, "...here we again." We wish the writers could have come up with a new twist on this over-used character. Having said that, we both agree that Ms. Bond does more with the roll than any other actress who has taken it on. +

The Santa Suit

I have to confess that I'm embarrassed to recommend this movie. It's a painfully cliche'd and predictable story about a heartless toy company owner who is taught to value generosity. He gets thrown out of his company because the real Santa makes him appear as a santa to everyone, ends up living in a shelter and working at a toy store as Santa. Along the way he learns the value of compassion and embraces the spirit of Christmas. Having learned his lesson he's turned back into himself and proceeds to make things right in his company and help a little girl he met while working in the toy store. There are several awkward scenes where we see the CEO (Kevin Sorbo) as he is yet everyone else sees him as Santa. The shifts back and forth are jarring and give the first 20 minutes of the movie a Twilight Zone feeling. There are also a few lame special effects that usually sour us on a movie. We also didn't enjoy the character of a toy store's "dark side" elf. Finally, production values were on the low end.

Yet the bulk of the movie feels true as Sorbo slowly comes to understand the Christmas spirit. He's very good at this and by the end of the movie we were left with a warm Christmas glow. The key to his success is that he portrays the character as someone who's a victim of his own cynicism, which makes it easy to empathize with him. Another plus is the female lead, who manages to create a wonderfully sweet character who never crosses over into being sappy. If you try this movie and don't enjoy it, I completely understand. But in spite of its weaknesses, we bought into Kevin Sorbo's performance enough to purchase it. We're pleased to comment that it not only holds up to repeated viewings but improves with familiarity. The Santa Suit is a 2010 movie and is available on DVD. -

 
Small Town Christmas

A best selling author visits the small town that was the inspiration for her book, meets a man from her past and discovers love. This is a great movie that almost made it onto the 'best' list.

 
Switched For Christmas

Candace Cameron Bure is absolutely beautiful as twins who trade lives over the holidays. The production values are top notch and the situations entertaining.

 
Tis The Season For Love

This movie, starring the always beautiful Sarah Lancaster, is outstanding in almost every way but had been placed in the 'avoid at all costs' list for several years because it had such an annoyingly loud musical sound track that in many scenes it was impossible to understand what the actors were saying. This problem persisted through repeated viewings. Then in 2018 we purchased it on DVD in the hopes that the sound tracks had been re-edited. We're glad we did because unlike all the times we had DVR'd it, this time the music was greatly toned down, either that or by setting our sound system to 'portable,' which mutes the bass and amplifies the higher notes, we corrected the problem in-home. We now like this movie a lot and highly recommend it, at least on DVD.

The plot has failed broadway actress Sarah Lancaster coming home over the holiday to find love and a new purpose in life. +

 
A Twist Of Christmas

Two single parents with different parenting philosophies end up with each other's Christmas gifts for their children, get thrown together as they correct the mistake, are forced to help each other and end up falling in love. The first twenty minutes are a little hard to watch because they are both so self-centered that it made them extremely unappealing. But, as they're forced to work together, their natures and relationship attractively and believably evolves into one of mutual affection and respect. We feel the movie would have been much better without their bickering at the beginning. The love story that develops between them is so well written and acted that it didn't need an initial conflict to make it interesting.

An added bonus is that the actors playing their two young children were also very good.

One minor issue we had was that casting went out of its way to make sure every major ethnic group was represented, as if someone on the production staff was charged with making sure all the ethic boxes were checked off to ensure the movie was politically correct. It was so obvious that it felt manipulative. Another shortcoming was contriving a problem between the two leads just when they're starting to fall in love. They get over it and everyone ends up happy in the end, but this happens so often that people watching know it's the obligatory bump-in-the-road that happens toward the end of every romantic movie. It's so predictable, expected and artificial that audiences universally groan every time it happens. The situations up to this point were fresh and entertaining. To burden an otherwise excellent movie with such a cliche'd plot element weakens all the good work that went into the middle of the film.

A more serious problem was the most blatantly imbedded commercial we have ever seen in a movie. Near the end of the first scene, the two leads spent several minutes fighting over a particular toy, with repeated close-ups of the toy. The very first commercial following it was how people watching the movie could purchase the very same toy. This was even worse than in the Kay Jewelers movies with a close-up of a Kay Jewelers ring box being opened in the last scene. If this is successful, all too soon every made-for-TV movie will have such imbedded commercials as a matter of course. We hated this marketing ploy so much we almost relegated this movie to the 'avoid' list.

It speaks volumes about the acting and most of the writing that in spite of these problems, we both enjoyed and recommend this movie. -

Good Christmas Movies:

All I Want For Christmas

The plot of two children conniving to reunite their divorced parents has been overworked to the point where it is cliche''d. Nonetheless, we're recommending this movie because it does it much better than most. The older brother and younger sister are given oddly mature dialogs, yet the actors make it sound both believable and entertaining. Twice we laughed out load at great sight gags and Lauren Becall is outstanding as their overly sophisticated grandmother.

 
All I Want For Christmas

Ridiculous story about a self absorbed lady advertising executive who receives a mind-reading pin from one of Santa's elves and uses it to further her career. She was so violently conceited that we almost turned this one off early. But it held our attention long enough to watch it all the way through. We rate this as one of the worse movies in this category. - -

NEW!!! Always and Forever Christmas

Mrs. Santa Claus helps a young lady executive while she's visiting home to sell her grandfather's Christmas toy store to rediscover the Christmas spirit and find love. The perky Mrs. Claus was okay, but such a cliche'd character that we couldn't warm up to this movie. A young, nervous shop assistant didn't ring true for us. All that being said, this isn't a bad movie, though we don't look forward to rewatching it.

 

Angel of Christmas

An anti-Christmas reporter gets an assignment to write a story about a Christmas angel her great grandfather carved. While researching the angel's history, she find love and embraces the Christmas spirit. We found this movie okay to watch once, but it dragged in several places so much we had to fight the urge to fast forward. It would have been more interesting if it had focused more on solving the mystery than her budding romance. Having said that, all the characters were attractive to watch and we had fun spotting several actors in small roles that had been seen in lead roles in older films. Technically, we had two complaints. First: the carved angel was in many scenes and, frankly, it had such a hang-dog expression it didn't look very angelic. This may sound like a small point but every time its face came on screen we cringed. Second: the story line was weakened by several supposed magical acts caused by the angel and a virtually impossible coincidence that enabled the writer to resolve all the mysteries surrounding it. Finally: this is the second 2015 Hallmark release by Crown Media that suffers from a very muffled vocal sound track. We had to turn up the volume very high to hear what was being said and even then the voices were hard to understand. It wasn't just that they were soft, but also that the pitch was unusually low, as if all the high notes had been clipped. At first we thought our hearing or our audio system was malfunctioning, but when we'd switch to regular programming the sound went back to normal.

Angels and Ornaments

We found this Hallmark movie about an angel helping two old friends discover they belong together very slow moving and contrived. Worse still, the casting was off. The three main actors didn't seem to fit together. It wasn't a bad movie but it felt like a waste of time by the time we got to the end of it. -

 
Angels In The Snow

Two families get marooned by a blizzard and one learns the value of love from the other. This is one of the best UP network productions we've seen. Although it suffers from some cliche'd family problems, a young girl who's a little too sweet to be believed and her voice over narrations artificial, it held our interest enough to want to see the ending. We're recommending it as barely okay to see once. -

 
Angels Sing

This is a drama with Willie Nelson as Santa, helping a family man rediscover the Christmas spirit after having lost it due to a tragedy in his youth. We found the plot sad and the acting so lame that we started fast forwarding after only 30 minutes. The ending was predictable and cliche'd. It felt more like an excuse for aging country music stars Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Kris Kristoferson to sing a few tunes. There's nothing offensively wrong with this movie so we're listing it in the okay to see once category instead of the avoid list. - -

 
A Baby For Christmas

A young African-American couple have to deal with the pending birth of their first child and a big family Christmas get-together. This is a well acted movie that avoids most of the expected stereotypes. That's all good, however, we found the action slow and bland. Production values struck us as slightly drab, but that might be because we've watched so many Halmark movies, which tend to be very bright and perhaps even over saturated in colors.

 
NEW!!! Baking Christmas

The family matriarch of a famous bakery decides to retire and challenges her three adult children to a baking contest to see who inherits the bakery. This is a great movie that works on so many levels it's impossible to list them all, but I'll try: great acting by every single character major and minor, an interesting plot with a surprise ending that was thoroughly satisfying, entertaining characters, none of which were cliche'd stereotypes, a competition that was entertainingly amicable, and the joy of watching the always good Tim Reid (WKRP In Cincinnati.) It was so good we didn't even mind that it was filmed in summer to reduce production costs. So, why wasn't it listed higher in the 'very good' or even the 'best' categories? Because it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. Christmas was hardly even mentioned, except as the excuse to get the matriarch out of the bakery for a Christmas vacation. Normally this would have relegated a movie to the 'aviod' list not because it was a bad movie, but because it wasn't a Christmas movie with Christmas and the Christmas spirit a major element of the plot and therefore violated one of our prime criteria. But this movie was so good we simply couldn't bring ourselves to do so. By all means give it a try. We're sure you'll be surprised by how much you enjoy it. Just don't expect a true Christmas movie.

 
The Best Christmas Party Ever

A woman gets passed over for a promotion in the event planning company she works in and has to train her new boss. This is a remake of the watchable Hats Off To Christmas. Fans of the original Avengers British TV series of the 1960s will be interested to see how Linda Thorson, who took over from Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) has aged. She plays the retiring head of the company. We rated the acting as being better and the characters more interesting, believable and attractive than those of Hats Off To Christmas.

The Bishop's Wife

While this movie violates our criteria against movies with angels and magic, it does it so well and is so perfectly acted and written that we believe it should be on everyone's must-watch list. From 1947, Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven are letter-perfect as Grant (an angel) comes to earth to help Niven (the bishop) remember the meaning of Christmas. This movie is hilarious yet has great heart without crossing the line into sappiness. It used to be listed in the 'best,' then 'very good' lists, but recently we decided that in spite of it's many good points, sadly, its black-and-white photography, full frame aspect ratio and dated appearance renders it something that these days is fine to watch once, but not something we look forward to rewatching on a regular basis. (Available on DVD.)

 
Black Nativity

This is a well made, well acted and well written drama about a troubled youth being forced to live with his strongly religious grandparents over Christmas. It's so good in so many ways readers may wonder why it isn't ranked higher. The reason is that it has so many dreary, sad and desperate scenes that it quickly gets to be too heavy. We acknowledge that we prefer light, superficial comedies to serious dramas such as this, so please take this review with a grain of salt.

 
NEW!!! A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas

A big city lady hotel manager goes home to help with her sister's wedding. While there she connects with a single father thinking about selling the small hotel her family once owned. The leads are attractive and play off each other very well. We liked this movie a lot. +

 
A Boyfriend for Christmas

A young girl asks Santa for a boyfriend, which he promises to deliver in 20 years. Twenty years later the same Santa brings her together with a boy she met briefly in her youth.

 
Broadcasting Christmas

An ex-couple compete for the same broadcasting job. This plot has been showing up frequently in the last fews years. When done well, such as in the outstanding Window Wonderland, it can make a great movie. Unfortunately, Broadcasting Christmas fails. The problem is that the competition is conflict driven, instead of fun driven as it was in Window Wonderland. Also, this movie has almost nothing to do with Christmas. It could just as easily taken place any time of the year. -

 
Chandler Christmas Getaway

A heat wave hits so the extended Chandler family decides to go camping for Christmas. Filmed in summer to reduce production costs. Good acting and production values. Good, but nothing special and the connection to Christmas is almost nonexistent. It could have taken place any time of the year.

 
Carol for Another Christmas

This 1964 movie starring Sterling Hayden and Ben Gazarra follows the now painful-to-watch Christmas Carol plot. We couldn't stand to view it so we're placing it in this list to give it the benefit of the doubt.

 
A Case For Christmas

A sporting goods manufacturer sues Santa as a merchandising ploy. Santa accepts the suit and hires a struggling lawyer to defend him. This movie borrows several plot elements from the great Miracle on 34th Street. Dean Cain is good in a difficult role to make believable. In spite of a few lame special effects, some over-the-top acting by the manufacturer and a particularly silly special effect in the last 30 seconds of the movie we're listing this one as okay to see once. The Santa is better than most and the movie focused on Christmas and the Christmas spirit.

It's interesting to compare this one to The Santa Suit, which just barely made it into the "must see" list. They both have the same number of pros and cons but I believe The Santa Suit works much better because Kevin Sorbo's performance is more touching and his love interest is more believable than Dean Cain's in A Case For Christmas, who struck us being vacant.

 
The Cheaters

This 1945 comedy is dated, production quality is low and the connection to Christmas is weak, but I found enough mystery in it (is the girl really the heir, will the bankrupt family that inherits if she doesn't find out break down and tell her the truth, is the alcoholic actor bought in as a charity case good or bad?) to want to watch it all the way through.

 
NEW!!! Christmas A La Mode

To keep her beloved father's failing dairy farm out of the the hands of creditors and developers, a young woman starts an ice cream flavor contest. In every way this was a good Christmas movie to watch, but as much as we enjoyed it we didn't have any reason to want to watch it again. Hence the 'good' instead of 'very good' ranking. Good acting and production values suggest others may think better of it. So by all means, give it a try!

 
Christmas Angel

An unemployed young woman is hired by her neighbor to help him in his activities as a secret Santa. Along the way she recaptures the Christmas spirit and finds love. This movie features very good acting and an interesting plot with entertaining twists. It's touching without stepping over the line into sappiness. +

Christmas Angel

Enjoyable, interesting movie about a young girl's unselfish wishes for others coming true. The movie revolves around Kevin Sorbo playing a doctor who finds love with a single mother and a mysterious old woman living in his rundown house. The star of the show is the young girl played by Tamera Mowry-Housley. She's one of the best young actors we've ever seen. She's in almost every scene and carries the movie in a natural, believable style. On looking back much of her behavior is too adult for a child her age, yet her acting is so good she pulls it off. There were several unexpected twists and turns that avoided many of the cliche'd situations too many movies of this type feature. It also had excellent production values. So, why isn't in one of the top tier lists? Five times during the movie the writer killed the momentum of the plot by interjecting a religious moment which, although totally appropriate in a movie about Christmas, felt forced, like an imbedded commercial. This is to be expected because the movie was released by PURE/FLIX, a clean-movie Christian company. Having said that, I can't emphasize enough that these scenes are not nearly as heavy handed as movies from The Christian Network. They weren't wrong. They just didn't ring true. Interestingly, the emphasis was on God, not Christianity. It had a nondenominational sense. Another problem was that during most of the movie Kevin Sorbo seemed out of place, as if he wasn't sure about how to portray his character.

 
Christmas Angel in the House

Intriguing and well made movie about a hurting couple and a boy who comes into their lives to help them heal. This comedy-drama kept us thoroughly entertained and wondering what was going to happen next. We didn't like the ending, but then the way it ended is something many people will approve. Besides that, we found the Scottish (Irish?) accents sometimes hard to understand and the soundtrack drowned out the actors voices in a couple of places. Another problem is that Christmas hardly played any role at all in this movie. However, it was made so well we didn't feel it deserved to languish in the "avoid" list.

Christmas Around The Corner

Following a business setback, a lady executive from New York rents an apartment in a small Vermont town, where she finds new purpose and love. This is an excellent movie loaded with interesting characters, unusual situations and great acting. We liked it a lot but it would have been better if the writers had used more of the friendly banter between the two leads and dropped several heavily dramatic scenes. +

 
Christmas at Cartwright's

Alicia Witt is a single mother out of a job who ends up, with a little discrete help from an angel, getting hired as a department store Santa. Wallace Shawn was perfect as the whimsical angel helping her out. The few magical moments are so understated that they do not reduce the film's credibility. This movie is okay as a good-to-watch-once flick, but when together, the daughter and mother acted a little too sweet and endearing to be believable, the story line seemed a little uneven, her attempt at a German accent while playing Santa sounded too childish, the store's special event planner was unattractively mean and the romantic lead's bahavior didn't seem realistic.

 
Christmas At Graceland

A single mother travels south over the holiday for business. While visiting Graceland she meets and reconnects with a man from her past. The plot was too predictable and the acting too superficial for us to buy into this movie. It's not a bad movie, it just didn't have anything special to hold our interest.

 
NEW!!! Christmas At Graceland: Home For The Holidays

A free spirited museum assistant curator working the holiday at Graceland takes a side job as a nanny for the three children of a busy, super organized single father. We enjoyed this movie a lot, particularly the excellent production values.

Christmas At Holly Lodge

A handsome executive is sent to a family ski lodge to size it up for development. In the process he falls in love with both the location and the attractive lady owner. What makes this movie so much better than many that follow a similar plot is that the executive isn't a jerk. He's a nice, likable guy from the start and the actor portraying him makes his conversion from a lodge-developer to a lodge-saver totally believable. On the downside, the lady lodge owner pulls some mean spirited tricks on him once she discovers his true purpose for being there, which put us off her. All in all it was a good movie to watch once, but after re-watching it we decided it wasn't one we could look forward to seeing again, hence it's being downgraded from the 'very good' list. +

 
Christmas Bells Are Ringing

This is a very attractive movie about a lady photographer visiting home over the holiday to attend her father's wedding. While there, she reconnects with a man from her youth and the expected happens, but in a thoroughly entertaining way. We found the male and female leads particularly attractive and perfectly matched. Give this one a try and we think you'll like it. +

 

The Christmas Box

Hard working father gets talked into moving his family into a huge house to look after an elderly lady. Although she at first seems unfriendly and he's openly sarcastic, in time everyone learns to care for each other. The biggest problem is that the father is so rudely critical at every turn and remains that way so long that he turned us off to what otherwise would have been a very nice movie. This was enough for me to vote that it go to the "avoid" list. My wife felt it belonged in the "see-once" category. Some people may feel uncomfortable about the blatant pro-Christian message at the end. -

 
The Christmas Calendar

A small town lady baker receives a Christmas calendar in the form of a doll house. As she opens a door each day, the town becomes obsessed with figuring out who sent it. This is a likable movie weakened by a few cliche'd characters, like a mean competitor willing to do anything to make her fail, and some grade B acting.

 
Christmas Camp

A Christmas ambivalent lady advertising executive is sent to a Christmas Camp in a quaint town to get inspiration for an upcoming project. While there she falls for the owner's son. This is another cookie-cutter Hallmark movie. It lacks anything original and doesn't have enough character chemistry to make up for its blandness. Still, it's an okay movie to watch once if there's nothing better on.

 
The Christmas Card

An army sergeant in Afghanistan receives a random Christmas card from a girl in the states. He goes to find her and the predicable ensues. This movie is entertaining to watch because of the beautiful mountain scenery of its location as well as a host of interesting and well-acted supporting characters. The weaknesses are a stereotypically self centered boyfriend, the marginal acting ability of the male lead and several scenes of what many will consider forced patriotic themes. The movie is also a little too sweet for some viewers. In spite of these issues we enjoyed it enough to place it near the top of our "see once" list. +

 
A Christmas Carol (5X and counting)

The Dickens classic has been brought to the big screen in its original format four times: 1938 starring Reginald Owen, 1951 starring Alistair Sim, 1984 starring George C. Scott and 1999 starring Patrick Stewart. In addition to these original format versions, the concept of ghosts representing Christmases past, present and future visiting a miser has been adapted for television and too many cheap knock-off movies to be counted. The problem with watching one of the originals is that most people have seen so many of the weaker adaptations that they are sick of the plot. Consequently, the four originals suffer from having the concept over exposed, even though all were critically acclaimed when released. That's the main problem I have with them, which is why I'm listing what are considered classics in the "see once" group. Other considerations include the unavoidable fact that the 1938 and 1951 versions, though excellent, are so dated in style that it's hard to get into them. The 1984 version suffers from George C. Scott's unattractive interpretation of Scrooge after he turns good. My preference is for the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart. The worst is the Kelsey Grammer musical costume version.

 
Christmas Catch

A Christmas-loving lady police detective goes undercover to capture a jewel thief over the holidays. This was a low-budget UP network production that had a few interesting moments, but dragged in too many places. That and a musical soundtrack whose tone sounded out of synch with the movie tempted us to use the fast forward button often enough to suggest this movie might be okay to watch once, but just barely.

 
Christmas Catch

This is movie uses the so overworked Christmas Carol plot that we couldn't stand to watch it. We're placing it in this list rather than the 'avoid' list to give it the benefit of the doubt.

 
NEW!!! The Christmas Chalet

A single mother has to spend the holiday in the same chalet as a writer because of a double booking error. The expected happens. This over used plot combined with the male lead's unattractively cynical attitude toward Christmas almost tempted us to give up on this movie. An over worked hand held camera technique didn't help either. But, one half hour into it her love interest suddenly changed into a more human character and the film became an enjoyable experience.

 
Christmas Connection

A Christmas-indifferent flight attendant returns a gift lost by a young girl on her flight and finds romance and the Christmas spirit with the girl's widowed father. We felt that the lead actress's acting was affected. But, the inclusion of the mystery of how her parents met compensated for this.

 
NEW!!! The Christmas Contract

Pushed by her lawyer friend, a lady signs a contract with the friend's brother to accompany her over Christmas back home so he ex and his girlfriend don't she her without a partner. The expected happens. This is a common plot and while the movie doesn't provide any surprises, it's done well enough for a pleasant viewing. Our biggest problem is that the lady appeared a bit to old for the man going with her.

 
Christmas Cottage

This "fact inspired" story of how Thomas Kincade began painting has a lot to recommend it. The acting is good and the story line interesting with some truly moving moments toward the end. The problem is that there are also several totally unnecessary scenes that sour the overall effect: like an unattractive Christmas display competition between two neighbors, a cliche'd vamp teasing the town's promoter, a pointless pageant that falls apart and so on.

 
The Christmas Cottage

A lady architect is snowed in with her ex-boyfriend in an enchanted cottage that's supposed to make anyone who spends the night fall in love. While it's predictable, this movie is well made enough to warrant a single watching.

 
Christmas Cupid's Arrow

A lady literature professor uses a dating app called Cupid's Arrow to find her perfect match. He turns out to be a jerk but he convinces a friend, another literature professor at her college, to write love poems for him in secret to impress her. This overworked Cryrano plot made it easy to predict how things were going to turn out. Another weakness was the male professor. He struck us a unbelievably awkward for a successful PhD and widowed single parent. -

 
Christmas Cure

A successful big city lady doctor returns to her small town home for Christmas to discover her doctor father is retiring and closing an important clinic. During her stay she reconnects with her high school boyfriend and makes some big decisions about what she wants. Pleasantly predictable and attractive Hallmark production.

 
Christmas Encore

A struggling actress is about to give up on her acting dreams when she gets a chance to play in a remake of A Christmas Carol. While this movie takes place over Christmas and the plot involves a Christmas play, the fact is that it isn't about Christmas or the Christmas spirit as much as it is about someone striving to realize a dream. Because of this it almost got classified as one to avoid. We couldn't bring ourselves to do so because the acting was so good. So, if you don't mind a Christmas movie that doesn't focus on the spirit of Christmas, you might enjoy this one.

 
Christmas Festival Of Ice

Young, small town lady lawyer works to save the town's traditional ice sculpting contest and finds romance in the process. This is nice, comfortable, attractive movie that does everything right and nothing wrong. It doesn't quite have the perky brightness we require to be a "must see" movie, but it's a good watch nonetheless. +

 
Christmas for a Dollar

Slow moving tale of a struggling single father of four during the great depression who only has a single dollar to offer his children to buy presents. We felt the situations and characters were too quaint and cliche'd to recommend this movie but it wasn't bad enough to place it in the "avoid" list.

 
Christmas For The Books

This is another of the lady-needs-a-fake-boyfriend-for-the-holiday-to-help-save-her-job movies. This time she's a relationship expert who's been dumped by her boyfriend and takes up with a man who's just been dumped by his girlfriend because she followed the expert's romance advice. I wanted to put this in the 'avoid' list because of the overly familiar plot, predictable ending and the fact that I didn't believe the female lead. My wife was more charitable so we compromised by putting it in the 'okay' list with a - warning.

 
Christmas Getaway

A man and woman rent the same log cabin over the holiday and are forced to share. This is apredictable, often-used plot that works remarkably well in this iteration. The leads are attractive and their developing romance fun to watch. It's a nice, undemanding movie to relax to and enjoy. +

 
A Christmas Gift

Michael Trachenberg (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) plays a reporter who finds a man who, as a young boy, sent her a secret Santa gift that changed her life. As she writes an article about his work with children, they develop a romance. This is a predictable drama with no surprises that's okay to watch once, but we found it boring. It felt like a one note song because there wasn't any humor to offset the melodrama. Fans of Ms. Trachenberg might be put off by how much weight she's put on.

A disturbing trend this year, which can be seen in this movie, is the use of mixed-ethnicity romances to bolster weak movies. As we watched this one we couldn't help feeling that it was a trick the production company used to spice up a rather bland story. It felt oddly racist in that it was using race as a vehicle to sell the movie.

 
Christmas Harmony

The lady assistant and girlfriend of an arrogant country singer gets dumped and returns home, where she discovers love and recognition for the talented song writer and singer that she is. The first 20 minutes were painful to endure because the country singer was so cruelly abusive and self centered it almost poisoned the rest of the movie. But once she got home and started a romance with the handsome man that saved her when her car broke down, it became a fun movie to watch.

 
Christmas In Angel Falls

A lady angel is assigned the task of instilling the Christmas spirit in a town that's lost it. During the process she falls in love with a handsome fireman. This movie is better than it sounds. The instilling process isn't as easy as she thought and its gradual process makes it believable. Additionally, as the story develops she uncovers some of the under-laying personal problems of several key people and helps resolve them, which keeps things interesting. The movie ends as expected, but it's handled better than most of the similar movies we've reviewed. The biggest problem is that we felt the lead actress was a little too bubbly. We accept she's supposed to be an angel and therefore have a positive attitude, but jumping and skipping for joy was a little over the top.

 
Christmas in Boston

A double identity switch makes this familiar tale of pen pals meeting over Christmas more interesting than most movies using this theme. Not great, but tolerable if there's nothing better on. One oddity is an almost black and white scene of a bridge seen from the side in the distance with a lady in bright pink framed in a square of lighter pink walking without moving. It has no apparent connection to the movie. We rewound and watched it again and still couldn't figure it out. Very strange.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Barbara Stanwyck scintillates as a big city newspaper woman cornered into posing as a country-bred homebody to entertain a GI for the holiday. Supporting her are an interesting mob of diverse characters that avoid being cliche'd stereotypes. This movie's a lot of fun, though I have to admit I didn't care too much for the first fifteen minutes about the GI on a life raft and later manipulating a nurse into getting steak for dinner. Some critics complain that the script needed tightening but it worked for us. Having said that, its black-and-white photography and narrow aspect ratio, when coupled with the unattractiveness of the first fifteen minutes, makes this movie one we haven't looked forward to rewatching in so long that we decided it had to be removed from the 'very good' list. (Available on DVD.)

 
Christmas Incorporated

This is a harmless but predictable story about a young woman hired by a wealthy young man as a personal aid. What he doesn't know is that due to a mix-up with resumes, she's not the ivy league assistant he thought he was hiring. She convinces him to save a factory from closing and along the way they fall in love. Like many Hallmark productions, this movie was hurt by a several scenes where the musical background was so loud the people were hard to understand. But, it wasn't as bad as many of Hallmark's movies from previous years.

Christmas In Evergreen

A lady veterinarian and a widower are thrown together over the holiday. This was an attractive movie with attractive people, but the acting felt uneven and the writing contrived. Also, the saccharine opening, the use of a magical snow globe and occasional appearances of Santa in plain clothes made it hard to resist the fast forward button. Still, the movie didn't have anything terribly wrong with it so we're giving it a reserved nod. One positive note is that the Santa was one of the best looking Santas we've ever seen.

 
Christmas In Evergreen

The opening scene, with Santa talking to a storybook while it magically flips its own pages, struck us as childish. The storybook appeared several more times, turning a page to mark a new chapter in the story. This, and the childish appearance of the book, turned us off. All of the actors appeared to be trying too hard to be endearing, giving the movie an artificial look. There were a few screen inserts and a stop-motion plate stacking scene which felt gimmicky. Still, this movie about a young lady going home for the holiday wasn't as bad as some of the slasher movies in the 'avoid' list so we classed it as okay to see once, but just barely. -

 
NEW!!! Christmas In Evergreen, Letters To Santa

This movie left us feeling cheated because the plot was interesting and the two leads had excellent chemistry, but the use of an animated storybook at the beginning (accompanied by a voice over that sounded like the narrator was speaking to young children), more storybook scenes after commercial breaks, a weak supporting cast, the appearance of Santa and far too many overly cute expressions from children ruined what could have been a movie good enough for the 'best' list. -

 
NEW!!! Christmas In Evergreen: Tidings Of Joy

A lady writer goes to Evergreen and gets involved in the town's search for a Christmas time capsule. Once again the writers used a magic storybook opening with voice overs that sound like they were intended for children. We didn't find this either cute or quaint. The story was interesting, but the female lead acted too exuberant, almost bubbly, to the point where she wasn't a believable character. Another oddity was Hallmark's use of two of its mainline actresses in supporting roles. Once we'd seen them playing leads, we expected them to take over. When they didn't, we started asking ourselves why they were being used in such minor roles. It made it hard to decide on whom to focus. -

 

Christmas In Homestead

This is the best famous-actress-comes-to-a-small-town-to-shoot-a-move-and-falls-in-love-with-the-handsome-inn-keeper movie we've seen so far. While this plot has been used at least three times before, they were all very light romantic comedies. In this version there's just enough drama to make the movie more human. We liked it a lot. +

 
NEW!!! Christmas In Louisiana

A lady executive goes home for the holiday and reconnects with the Christmas spirit and an old boyfriend, who she'd won a Christmas contest with when they were in high school. We felt the production values were so low the film ended up looking superficial. Characters that didn't ring true and an uneven, overly busy pacing didn't work for us. This one almost got relegated to the 'avoid' list. -

 

Christmas In Love

The head of a corporate bakery company sends his efficiency-obsessed son to their small town bakery to learn the business. While there he falls in love with the resource officer assigned to show him the ropes. Not bad, but it felt a little contrived because the 'undercover boss' theme is so familiar. Another problem was one of credibility. It's hard to image a small hand run bakery could make enough money for the executive offices to be in San Francisco.

Christmas In Mississippi

A lady photographer returns home for the holiday and falls back in love with an ex-boyfriend with an little help from Santa in plain clothes.

 
NEW!!! Christmas In Rome

Lacey Chabert stars as a recently fired tour guide in Rome who gets a job helping an American businessman close a deal by guiding him through the intricacies of Roman culture. We we're crazy about the male lead and the movie seemed more like a travelog than a Christmas movie.

 
A Christmas In Tennessee

A struggling single mother and baker fights a developer visiting the town to take it over. They connect and the expected happens. The leads are attractive and believable and the plot, while predictable, is interesting. All the acting is excellent, except for the man's lady assistant, who we felt was over the top. Mr. and Mrs. Santa put in a couple of appearances to help the lady baker because her daughter wrote a letter to them asking for help. I don't know why this was added because it wasn't needed and reduced the movie's credibility, but it was done very low key so it didn't turn the movie into a joke. The only downside is that the mean assistant commits a crime in an attempt to close the deal and apparently got off scot free. Because of this, the ending of the movie felt incomplete.

 

Christmas In Vermont

Lady executive is sent to a small town in Vermont by her cold hearted boss to sell off a struggling company. Instead she helps save. This plot has been used too many times, but I'm happy to say this is one of the best versions. +

 
NEW!!! Christmas Jars

A struggling lady journalist finds love while searching for a secret Santa. The production values were weak and there were too many dramatic moments for this to be a fun movie to watch. But, it has heart so if you're looking for a movie that isn't as light and comedic as we prefer, this might be one to try.

 
Christmas Joy

Lady focus group analyst goes home for Christmas to help an injured aunt during Christmas and finds love. An all around good movie, but we felt the musical soundtrack was loud enough to be distracting. It's boarderline so many viewers may not be bothered by it.

 
Christmas Kiss II

Knowing how bad the original Christmas Kiss movie was, I felt distinctly uncomfortable when the opening credits began rolling by for Christmas Kiss II. I'm happy to say I was delightfully surprised at how much better this new version was. In this iteration the lady aid to a company's director falls in reluctant love with her boss's playboy brother. The acting is universally good and the plot was more believable. The only real negative was the playboy brother's sometimes-girlfriend. She was so unattractive in every way that we cringed every time she came on screen. In spite of this we liked this movie almost enough to bump it up to the "very good" list. What keeps us from doing so is the unbelievably obvious imbedded commercial at the end of the movie for the sponsor: Kay Jewelers. It was so blatant it almost ruined the entire movie for us. I assume the idea was to advertise the company. For us it had the opposite effect, it has completely alienated us from ever wanting to go into any Kay Jewelers again. If it had been handled with a little subtly we could have let it go without comment. However, it was done in such an insultingly obvious way that we hated it.

 
Christmas Land

A New York executive inherits her grandmother's house, Christmas theme park and tree farm. She plans to sell but is won over by the charm of the town and a budding love interest in the country lawyer helping her. This Hallmark production looks great, has attractive actors and good production values. Most importantly, it features a much better sound track than many Hallmark releases. While predictable, it's still a very enjoyable movie to watch, which raises an interesting question: Why isn't it good enough to be in the "very good" category? The answer is that besides the fact that there is so little comic relief that this drama feels like a one-note song, while the two leads are attractive, believable and interesting, they don't have the same spark, or chemistry, as the two leads in Window Wonderland. We invite students of Christmas movies to watch both and see the difference. +

 

The Christmas List

A woman perfume expert in a department store begins receiving everything on a joke Christmas list her friend drops in Santa's mailbox. Production values were a little weak but this movie was more watchable than the plot suggests.

 
The Christmas List

A woman finds love fulfilling a Christmas bucket list of all the things she thinks go into a perfect Christmas. Along the way she discovers love. This was an interesting idea and all the players were attractive. Our biggest problem was that Alicia Witt, whom we've enjoyed in several other movies, projects an artificial sense of quirkiness that rendered her character unbelievable. We felt many of her expressions and mannerisms came across as childish. It's a shame because had she played it a little straighter this could have been a must-see movie.

 
Christmas Lost And Found

A young girl visiting her grandmother accidentally throws out a set of cherished Christmas ornaments. They begin reappearing under mysterious circumstances. As she gathers them, she falls in love with a acquaintance from her youth and decides to remain in her home town. Some of the acting was uneven and situations felt contrived. Overall we felt this movie lacked the spark necessary to promote it into the 'good' or 'best' lists.

 
Christmas Made To Order

An overworked architect hires a professional decorator to decorate his home for a big family get together and to entertain them over the holiday. They fall in love, he learns to embrace the spirit of Christmas and family and they both build up the courage to pursue their dreams. This was a very enjoyable movie, but we felt the lead actress was a little too bubbly and the male lead habitually used an expression that was so wide-eyed that it made him look slightly maniacal. We also groaned at yet another chiche'd bump in the road to their romance ten minutes before the end of the movie. This plot element is becoming so ever present that it's getting irksome. Still, 98-percent of the movie was a pleasure to watch so it's one we recommend. ++

 
Christmas Magic

Lindy Booth is absolutely radiant as a recently deceased young woman who has to help a struggling single father before she can get into heaven. This is the best movie of this genre we've ever seen. The acting is universally excellent, particularly by Ms. Booth who's able to portray a sweet woman without stepping over the line into silliness or childishness. The plot is predictable and some viewers may criticize the ending as being a cope-out, yet it's done so well that we didn't find it objectionable. The single biggest weakness was two brief scenes where the male lead sings what's supposed to be a touching song. We didn't think the song was very good and the vocal voice-over was obvious. However, this is a very minor problem with an overall good film. +

 
A Christmas Melody

A widowed mother returns to her hometown with her young daughter to start a new life. As she struggles to fit in, she begins a romance with her daughter's music teacher, who she asks to help her daughter write a Christmas song. Most of this movie is enjoyable, in particular a very good soundtrack, which is unusual for a Hallmark production. What almost ruined it for us was Mariah Carey, who plays a domineering, braggart PTA mother. Between her marginal acting skills and her trying to play an unattractive, cliche'd character, we almost gave up on this movie. But the two romantic leads were attractive and appealing enough to help us make it through to the end.

What I'm going to say now isn't very nice, but I'm doing it not to be mean to Ms. Carey but as a warning to her fans who may want to watch this movie because she's in it. She doesn't look very good. Her weight is up and her face appears so bloated that her skin looks painfully tight. When she speaks her lips move with difficulty as if she's had one too many face lifts or was wearing too much make-up. The problem isn't so much that she looked unattractive, but that she just didn't look normal.

 
NEW!!! A Christmas Miracle

A lady journalist has an idea stolen by her boss, so she comes up with an even better article about reuniting an estranged father and daughter. Good acting, production values and an interesting plot make this a good movie to try. We would have enjoyed it more if it had more humor and less melancholy.

 
NEW!!! A Christmas Movie Christmas

Another remake of the over-worked Christmas Carol plot. This might be a great movie but this tired theme is so familiar we can't bring ourselves to attempt watching it.

 
Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane

Alicia Witt and Colin Ferguson have several funny scenes in this movie about a girl returning home to help sell the family house. While enlisting the aid of an antiques dealer, Ferguson, to help her appraise the contents, she discovers secrets about her recently passed mother as she falls in love with him. Not everyone is a fan of Ms. Witt's acting style, but we felt it worked in this movie, mainly because she toned down most of the mannerisms that many people find difficult to believe. If nothing else, the outside of the house is so gorgeous that it's worth giving this movie a try just to see it. +

 
Christmas on the Bayou

Big city career obsessed single mom goes down south to her small town home for Christmas, falls in love with her childhood boyfriend and decides to stay. Formulaic but the acting was mostly good so we're giving this movie a nod. The weakest part was appearance of Ed Asner as a reclusive old man who may be Santa. Also, this was another movie filmed in summer to reduce costs.

 
A Christmas Pact

Childhood friends meet at Christmas as they grow up and eventually fall in love. This was so predictable that after two minutes we knew what was going to happen. Predictable isn't bad if it's done interestingly. Unfortunately, this movie felt bland. It's not a bad movie, and if you haven't seen the same plot done better you might enjoy it.

 

Christmas Pageant

Melissa Gilbert plays a demanding Broadway director who gets fired and the only job open to her is directing a small town's Christmas Pageant. We hate to knock a Melissa Gilbert movie but this is one that just barely made it into the "okay to see once" list. The biggest problem is that several supporting characters were supposed interesting or quirky, yet they came across as clownish and even childish. Additionally, there was a child actor that wasn't very good. The plot was predictable and several scenes were contrived. Still, it wasn't offensive as so many of the movies in the "avoid" list so we decided to kick it up a level.

Christmas Perfection (sometimes also listed as A Perfect Christmas or Holly's Holiday)

A career obsessed ad executive who wants "the perfect man" hits her head on the way to work and is helped by the man of her dreams. It turns out he's really a store mannequin who's come to life. The ridiculous plot, three supporting characters that were unattractively unbelievable and a painfully cliche'd ending would suggest this is a movie that deserves to be relegated to the "avoid at all costs" list. Additionally, it has almost nothing to do with Christmas and absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas spirit. Yet it kept us guessing what was going to happen next and we caught ourselves laughing out loud at several very funny scenes so we bumped it up to the "okay to see once" category.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Recipe For Romance

To save her struggling inn, the lady manager enters a cooking contest with the help of a disgraced chef staying there. We found some it it a little corny and slow, but otherwise there's nothing wrong with it.

 

The Christmas Shepherd

An attractive widow losses her dog, which gets rescued by a widower and his young daughter. The two adults eventually meet, resolve who should keep the dog and fall in love. While this sounds formulaic, excellent acting and a mature treatment of the problem associated with the dog made this movie thoroughly satisfying. The tone for the first half of the movie is very somber, but appropriately so. Our only complaint is that it suffers from another one of Hallmark's overly loud music scores. The music itself is very good, it's just played so loud that in some scenes it drowns out the actors voices. We liked this movie very much but not enough to buy it on DVD.

This movie was moved down out of the "very good" list in 2015 because after rewatching it we decided it was a little too heavy going. It's good, but not the happy sort of movie we prefer watching over the Christmas season.

 
Christmas Song

Two music teachers compete to see whose students can win a Christmas singing contest. The winner gets to keep his or her job. Along the way the competing teachers fall in love and the contest ends predictably. The lead actors were good and except for failing to iron the wrinkles out of the fake snow blankets in one scene, production values were extremely high. There were some problems with the teenage singers, particularly one high school girl who looked more like a 20-year old playboy model. Best of all the spirit of Christmas was emphasized but not heavy handedly.

 
A Christmas Song

A famous lady singer gets stranded in a rural town and a family welcomes her into their home until her staff can get back to her. During her stay she falls in love with their guitar playing son. This movie has a familiar plot but was better than others we've watched because it had several entertaining banters between the leads that were very believable and entertaining. The biggest problem was that when the two finally sang "the Christmas song" it wasn't very good and the male lead in particular didn't sound very good. Even worse, Hallmark repeatedly posted a large count down clock advertising another movie. This was so distracting we almost deleted the movie without finishing it. The only reason we stayed with it was to be able to write this review. The movie earned a solid "+", but Hallmark's almost ruining it to promote another show ended up giving it a. - We're sure it would be better on DVD, but still not good enough for us to want to purchase it.

 
The Christmas Spirit

Two people on opposite sides of a town's redevelopment project have an auto accident and end up in comas while their spirits roam around trying to figure out how to get reconnected with their bodies. This was one of the hardest movies for us to rate. On the negative side, the special effects were lame, the concept ludicrous and the continuity weak because at first the spirits can't interact with anything physical then all of a sudden they can do everything from using computers to showering people with paper... all the time while still being invisible and not able to be heard. On the plus side, most of the acting was good, the writing acceptable, the production values very good, the Christmas spirit well represented and while the ending was predictable, getting there was interesting enough for us to not fast forward or give up on the movie altogether. In the end we decided it wasn't bad enough to be sent to the avoid list where it would languish beside slasher movies like Black Christmas. So we're classing it as okay to see once, but with a very strong caution in the form of a negative mark. -

 
A Christmas To Remember

Lady TV star decides she needs a break from work, drives into the country, crashes her car, get amnesia and is helped by a friendly, and painfully attractive, stranger.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Town

This is an extremely attractive movie with some of the best production values you'll ever see. It's about a teacher (Candace Cameron Bure) getting waylaid in a small town while on her way to a new job. While there she finds love, a new purpose in life and discovers a secret from her past. This almost made it into the 'very good' list but there were a few too many somber moments in the beginning that created a note of melancholy. It's subtle, but enough to make us not interested in watching it again even though it was so well made. +

Christmas Trade

Father and son trade bodies and confusion ensues. This concept has been done many times before but not as well as it is in this movie by the UP network. The success is due to the two lead actors managing to establish certain behavioral characteristics before the change, then maintain them after the actors have changed rolls. Even though the end result was a foregone conclusion, it held our interest. The connection to Christmas was weak, but we still enjoyed the movie.

 
The Christmas Train

A journalist takes a cross country train to find material for a story and rekindles a lost romance. Forced acting, artificially quirky characters and a ridiculous last minute reveal almost sent this movie to the 'avoid' list, but the unusual setting kept us interested in it enough to recommend it to be tried once. Though, we found it hard to resist pressing the fast forward on the remote several times.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Unleashed

A woman's dog runs away during her trip home for the holiday and she enlists the aid of an old boyfriend to help find him. The situation struck us as so contrived that we had a hard time accepting it. Also, the dog mischievously watching from the sidelines as they search for him gave the impression he was acting as a matchmaker to bring them back together. This seemed farfetched. Still, it's not quite bad enough to put in the 'avoid' list so give it a try if there's nothing better on.

 
Christmas Under Wraps

A big city lady doctor gets trapped into accepting a post in northern Alaska over the holiday season. While there she finds love and happiness. Candace Cameron-Bure, Hallmark's replacement for young female roles now that Kelly Martin has moved on to more mature roles, does an acceptable job of making this simple movie mildly entertaining. Except for a predictable surprise ending, weakened by a cheap special effect, and several gross continuity errors like green grass, snow only a few inches deep and bright daytime sunlight in late December in a town supposedly 300 miles north of Anchorage, this movie was a harmless diversion. The connection to Christmas is almost non-existant until the last quarter of the movie but we enjoyed it enough to list it in the "okay to watch once" list.

 
A Christmas Village

A lady public relations executive visits a small town to promote a cookbook she's written. While there, she discovers an ex-employee has launched a vicious attack in an attempt to destroy her reputation. As she fights back, she meets and helps a single father running a struggling Santa's Village. This is a low budget BYU production that really deserves to be in the 'avoid' list because of poor production values and a lot of weak acting. We placed in the 'okay-to-watch-once' list because the lead actress, Madeline Leon, is so good she single handedly almost saves the movie. She projects so much positive energy and life in a completely believable manner that we sat through a very poor movie just to watch her. If any Hallmark executives read this review, they need to sign her up as soon as possible. She's as good as the best Candace Cameron-Burr, Kelly Martin or Sarah Lancaster can offer and still young enough to have a long career.

 
The Christmas Wife

Sad, tragic and thoughtful, this isn't our usual fare for Christmas. Yet Jason Robards and Julie Harris' performances are so unforgettable that we rank this as one of the most touching Christmas movies of all time. He plays a recent widower who looks for someone with whom to spend the holiday. Harris supplies the companionship but she has a secret that tragically keeps them apart. The movie ends on a hopeful note that leaves the viewer believing that, at least for Robards, the future holds promise. (Available on DVD.)

After many years on the "must see" list, we decided this movie had to be down graded. It's excellent in every possible way, but that fact is that it is very sad and could have taken place any time of the year. The Christmas spirit really doesn't play a roll in it. Having said that we encourage everyone to watch it because it's so good as a touching and effective drama. +++

 
Christmas Wish

For no good reason, a spoiled rich girl and poor orphan switch bodies when they make similar wishes at the same time. Confusion ensues, they learn the value of their own lives and eventually get back together with the help of an angel. Sounds pretty bad yet I found it interesting enough to watch through to the end so I'm not dropping it into the "avoid" category. Place this one at the very bottom of the tolerable-to-see-once list. - -

 
A Christmas Wish

When her husband deserts her, a mother of three heads north for a new start. We're recommending this movie as okay to see once with severe reservations. The background music is dreary and the unrelenting sequence of bad luck that haunts her for almost the entire movie is depressing. At the very end she finally breaks down in tears, prays for help and over the last four minutes of the movie all of her insurmountable problems get resolved. I found it farfetched and unsatisfying. On the good side there are many entertaining characters and we never quite knew where it was going. Several scenes with blatently strong Christian themes may make some people uncomfortable.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses

A lady decorator gets an important job arranging a Christmas party for a prominent family while being pursued by two handsome men. There's a lot to like about this movie and for the most part we enjoyed it. The only reason it isn't listed higher is that there wasn't enough chemistry between the principles. Another very minor issue, and we admit this is almost too small and picky to mention, is the Donna Mills, who plays the mother of one of the love interests, was wearing so much dark eye makeup that it made her look like she was sick. This seems like something easy to ignore, yet every time she was in a scene the black around her eyes demanded so much attention it was distracting.

 
Christmas With A Prince

A prince visiting the States injures his leg and for security reasons, ends up in the children's cancer ward of a hospital, where he meets and falls in love with a lady doctor he met when they were younger. This movie is a lot of fun to watch, mainly because the doctor's brother is hilariously entertaining as the movie's comic relief. The writers came up with a lot of unexpected incidents and funny comments that the actor delivered perfectly. I wouldn't be surprise to hear that the leads were put out by his stealing every scene he was in, though if they did not a trace of it showed. It's almost a shame that the prince was such an impossibly handsome and muscular guy because it makes it tempting to write him off as another Hollywood hunk. But he carries the role very well. The romance between the doctor and prince evolves so attractively that we were a little disappointed that the writers fell back on some cliche'd conflict scenes toward the end of the movie, but that's a small price to pay for all the fun we had during most of it.

There were two major problems with this movie. Early on, there are several shirt-off scenes showing the prince's impressive musculature. Now I'll be honest, if I had muscles like his I'd want to take off my shirt to show off as he did. But in a Hallmark-like movie, it came across as gratuitous. It was as manipulative as having the lead actress in a scene where she walks around in her underwear. The other problem was the mean, gold-digging princess to whom he's supposed to be engaged. She's so viciously unattractive in so many ways that we considered placing this movie in the 'avoid' list. Fortunately, fast forwarding saved it.

 
NEW!!! Christmas With A Prince, Becoming Royal

In every way possible, this sequel to Christmas With A Prince is better than the first incarnation. In it, the prince and lady doctor have to navigate the problems associated with a royal marrying a commoner. The biggest reason it's better is because the number of mean characters was reduced from three to only one: the evil princess from the first movie. About the only downside was that she was so viciously mean that her eventual comeuppance didn't seem enough to balance the scales. On the plus side, the conflict she creates raises believable questions as to whether the Prince and doctor should or shouldn't get married. We thoroughly enjoyed it and may add it to our Christmas movie library. +

One big negative is an imbedded commercial for Hershey's Kisses in one scene that was so obvious it made us wonder if Hershey's paid for the movie.

 
Christmas Wonderland

A lady art auction house executive goes home to babysit her sister's children, meets her high school sweet heart and falls in love. Not bad, but predictable with no brightness to elevated it into the 'good' or 'best' lists.

 
Coming Home For Christmas

The movie is about a young lady taking a job managing the huge house of a wealthy but unhappy family over the holiday. Contrived acting during the first half of the movie, a female lead acting too flighty and an embedded commercial for Folger's coffee that was both clumsy and blatant almost sent this movie to the "avoid" list. It improved enough in the second half and had enough original ideas to kept us interested so we moved it up into the "okay to see once" list.

 
Comfort and Joy

A successful business woman fast-forwards to a future in which she's a happy wife and mother. This movie has better acting than many Christmas movies. The only weaknesses were the clumsy way the fast-forward was accomplished and the visually jarring way she returned to the present. Because of the acting and screenplay it almost made our "must see" list. On the other hand, the terrible way time travel was handled nearly got relegated to the "avoid" list.

 

A Dad for Christmas

A young, single father kidnaps his newborn son to prevent his girlfriend for giving it up for adoption. He runs away to his curmudgeon grandmother's lodge to hide out. Following several incidents the movie wraps up in a court case with the predictable result. Some good acting and a few interesting twists make this movie marginally worth seeing, though it's connection to Christmas is almost non-existent.

 
Dear Santa

Vacant, over-indulged 30 year old rich girl is threatened by her affluent parents to have her allowance cut off unless she starts to lead a meaningful life. At the same time she finds a Dear Santa letter from a young girl asking for a wife for her widowed father. The rich girls investigates, falls in love with him and helps save a soup kitchen he runs. This movie is so weak that at one point the writers are so desperate that they have two adult women indulge in a food fight to maintain viewer interest. Viewers are also left wondering if she initially pursued the father because she was trying to avoid being cut off, was simply curious or was seriously interested in him. The biggest problem with this movie is that the lead character is played unattractively ditzy. The character improves by the second half of the movie but by then the damage has been done. The only thing that saves this film from being delegated to the "avoid" list is that the lead actress has such an exuberant, infectious smile that's it's impossible to resist. -

Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas

A widow and a writer trade houses over the holiday and find love. For the most part this is an excellent movie with interesting situations and attractive characters. We really wanted to elevate it to the "Good but Flawed" category but there was one problem that was so overwhelming that it ruined the movie for us. The problem was Tom Cavannah, who played a Boston writer trading his condo for the widow's snowbound cottage. He portrays the character with such frenetic unattractiveness that it poisoned the excellent acting by the other three main characters. He's rude, negative about Christmas, sarcastic about country life, unfriendly to children, critical of neighbors offering him Christmas cookies to welcome him to the community and nearly abusive to an unexpected guest who tries to help him with his novel. Had he made this character entertaining instead of gratingly annoying this might have been a must-have movie.

 
A December Bride

A lady has to attend her cousin's wedding, who's marrying her ex-fiance'. To save face she goes with an old acquaintance and events conspire to have everyone think they are engaged. The obvious happens. The acting is good and for the most part the situations entertaining. The biggest problem is that the only connection to Christmas is that she's an interior designer and once in a while she's seen handling a few Christmas decorations. It isn't really a Christmas movie because the main plot could have taken place any time of the year.

 
A Diva's Christmas Carol

Vanessa Williams stars as a mean singer in yet another version of the over worked Christmas carol theme. We couldn't stand to watch more than five minutes because the plot is so familiar. On the principle that a film is innocent until proven guilty, we're placing it in the "okay to watch once" list.

A Dog Named Christmas

A mentally challenged young man talks his parents into letting him adopt a dog from the local pound for Christmas, then works to have other people in the town do the same. The acting and writing are generally good but I thought the connection to Christmas was weak.

 
A Dog Walker's Christmas Story

Circumstances bring together a man dog walker and lady dog hater over the holidays to save a dog park from developers. The expected romance ensues. The leads are attractive and the story is pleasant enough to watch but the movie plodded so much we had to fight the urge to hit the fast forward button.

 
A Dream Of Christmas

A dissatisfied wife wishes she was single to pursue her career. An angel grants her wish and the wife learns the true value of what she had in her first life. The second we saw her fall backwards off a ladder and hit her head before waking up in her new life we knew how the movie was going to end... and it did just as predicted. This plot device never works not only because it's so lame but because it's so overused. Having said that, this is as good a version as we've seen, although it does suffer from a few too many cliche'd characters.

 
Enchanted Christmas

Former dancer, who's now a widowed single mother and corporate trouble shooter, returns to her hometown to renovate a lodge and runs into her former dance partner and boyfriend. The predictable happens. Other than the male lead's acting feeling a little weak, this is an attractively watchable movie. But, it seems a little bland to us so we can't recommend it any more than for a single viewing.

 
Engaging Father Christmas

This sequel to the very good Finding Father Christmas takes place one year later. The plot revolves around the couple who fell in love during the first movie moving toward an engagement, but an old boyfriend complicates things. This is an attractive movie that okay to watch once, but without the interest of the first movie's mystery, watching the two leads fall in love and her learning the joy of Christmas, it comes across a little bland.

 
Entertaining Christmas

The daughter of a super-mom who's also a television personality tries to fill her shoes by representing her in a small town. While there, she finds her own direction and romance.

 
Every Christmas Has A Story

A lady TV personality gets caught on camera stating that she doesn't like Christmas. She's sent to a small Christmas-themed town for redemption with her ex-boyfriend and now producer. Comedy and romance ensues. Colin Ferguson is so much fun to watch we didn't really care how good the movie was, but it ended up being excellent. Give it a try!

 
NEW!!! Every Day Is Christmas

Yet another version of the painfully overused Christmas Carol plot where ghosts visit a mean character and convince him to embrace the Christmas spirit. This might be a great movie, but after watching 11 versions of the same plot we simply can't stand to sit through another. Give it a try if you haven't overdosed on this plot yet.

 
Eve's Christmas

Unhappy business woman is granted her wish to go back 8 years to change the decisions that lead to an empty life. This movie irked me because with a few minor improvements it could have been great. The acting was universally good, photography acceptable and the storyline, while predictable, was handled as good as can be done. The problems are that the star upon which she made her wish, the pixie dust sprinkling off it when she does and the too-hip African-American guardian angel were unnecessary. The writers and director should have had enough faith in the actors ability to sell the story without these cheap sight gags. Also, the lead got unattractively drunk too often in the early scenes making her less appealing. If these detractions had been avoided this movie would have easily made it into the "must see" list.

 

Fallen Angel

Gary Sinise's outstanding acting makes this mystery of a man discovering love in a girl from his youth an outstanding film. But, its constant dramatic tone with no comic relief makes it a bit heavy going. We admit we like it and have a copy of it in our collection, but as superficial as this sounds we prefer lighter, happier Christmas movies, which is why we reclassified this movie into the "good to watch once" category. Still, we hope you'll give this great film a try. ++

 
Falling For Christmas

An injured figure skater finds romance at a mountain rehabilitation facility. The movie itself is okay, though predicable. The biggest problem is her pushy trainer, who is such a cliche'd character that we cringed every time he came on screen. A couple of embarrassingly clownish antics did nothing to endear him to us.

 
A Family For Christmas

A successful journalist/newscaster begins questioning her choice of career over love when Santa magically teleports her into the life she might have had as a stay-at-home mother. Comedy ensues. The plot is familiar and the conclusion predictable, but the acting is mostly good and unlike many of Hallmark's releases, this movie has a pretty good musical soundtrack.

 
Farewell, Mr. Kringle

A Christmas hating reporter is sent to a heavily Pro-Christmas town for an article about the local Santa Clause. During the story she re-embraces the Christmas spirit and falls in love. cliche'd and predictable, I nonetheless was interested enough in how everything was going to work out that I'm placing this movie on the "okay to see once" list... but just barely. It suffers from many weakness, including being filmed in summer to save production costs even though it's supposed to be in winter (green lawns, trees in full leaf, flowers blooming all over the place, bright, warm, sunny weather,) a couple of minor characters that didn't ring true, a Santa who looks a little too harsh for the part and the impossible coincidence of two people meeting who had almost identical Christmas tragedies. - -

 
Finding Christmas

Two men exchange houses for the holiday and both find love. The male leads were weak and the connection to Christmas slight, but it's not the worse Christmas movie we've ever seen. One problem I had was that the New York lead had an almost reptilian look.

 
Finding Father Christmas

This is a great mystery drama about a lady going to a small Vermont town to learn the identity of here father. Outstanding acting from everyone, very attractive lead actors, superior production values and an interesting mystery kept us entertained the entire movie. The only thing holding it back from being in the 'very good' category is that a little more humor would have lightened the mood and made the movie more fun. This movie was followed by a slightly less successful sequel titled Engaging Father Christmas. +

 
Finding John Christmas

This sequel to A Town Without Christmas has an almost identical plot but benefits from better acting and avoiding the original's melancholy by not opening with a child announcing a plan to kill herself. Peter Faulk again plays an irritating and enigmatic angel, which is a distraction from what other-wise would have been a better movie. The connection to Christmas is very weak. One scene at the beginning of the movie that may offend some viewers shows a man draping an American flag around a dog and letting the flag drag on the ground.

 
Finding Mrs. Claus

A neglected Mrs. Claus flies to Las Vegas to grant a young girl's wish for a husband for her single mother. Santa follows to bring her back. I'm embarrassed to admit I laughed out loud several times during this movie. Christmas characters playing against type created many humorous scenes and some suggestive humor was unexpected and very funny. The overall effect was goofy fun. The two leads and all of the supporting cast were good, particularly the girl playing the young daughter. The greatest weakness was Mrs. Claus, who was played a little too silly. The ending was soppy but we'd had so much fun by then that we didn't mind.

 
Fir Crazy (sometimes titled Oh Christmas Tree)

Sarah Lancaster is simply gorgeous as a lady executive fired on Thanksgiving and ends up running her family's Christmas tree stand over the holidays. The movie itself is a predictable Christmas romance that's okay to watch once, but her appearance and performance elevate it to one of the best in this category. Our one quibble is that her initial reluctance to make the tree stand a success bordered on irresponsibility, which made her character less attractive at first. ++

 
Four Christmases and a Wedding

This is a weak remake of the excellent Four Funerals and a Wedding. In it, a couple meet and fall in love each Christmas but professional obligations always tear them apart, until the fourth year where they settle down and get married. Our biggest problem was that the lead actress used so many quirky facial expressions and clumsy behaviors that she came across as ditzy and therefore unbelievable. But some people may see her as simply perky.

 
The Gift of the Magi

This Hallmark Channel update of the classic has good acting and acceptable production values, in spite of a few scenes of lush green grass along side artificial snow. Although there are many happy moments, the overall tone was a little too sad for our tastes. -

 
A Gift Wrapped Christmas

A hard working, single father executive hires a a lady as his personal shopper over the holiday. Her expertise not only helps him save time, but assists him in improving his business and brings him closer to his son. This is an attractive movie made interesting by her unusual profession. Like many of the Hallmark movies, this is a low budget production by the Lifetime channel. What's different about it is that the movie's director used a much better soundtrack, which was an enormous improvement over most Hallmark productions. Hallmark should watch this movie and learn from it. +

 
A Grandpa for Christmas

After a car accident sends a mother to the hospital, her daughter goes to live with a grandfather she never knew she had. After some initial problems she ends up liking him and plays the lead in a school musical. Not great but harmless. Our biggest problem was the young girl playing the daughter was too talented a singer to be believable and her performances so affected that they seemed artificial and forced. Still, Earnest Borgnine and a bunch of other older actors have a lot of fun playing retired actors when they are, in real life, retired actors.

 
Guess Who's Coming For Christmas

Jaded country singer spends a week with a small town family as promotion gimmick. He rediscovers his roots and falls in love with the older daughter. The biggest problem with this movie is the unattractive self-centered behavior of the male lead that goes on for far too long. Still, the situation was interesting and most of the acting good enough to have it listed here instead of the avoid list. But, we're giving it a negative mark because it was so predictable. -

 
Hats Off to Christmas

Lady store manager has to train a New York executive hired for the promotion she was expecting. The male lead starts off as a stereotypically arrogant professional, but quickly comes around to embrace his position. The expected romantic attachment occurs but the characters were attractive enough that it held our interest.

 
Hearts of Christmas

Dedicated lady doctor and new budget obsessed hospital CFO butt heads over the forced retirement of a popular pediatric doctor while at the same time becoming romantically involved. Some sentimental moments are overplayed to the point where they come across as corny. But, the biggest problems are the cliche'd ending and the disclosure of an unbelievable coincidence that combine to weaken this otherwise okay Hallmark production.

 
A Heavenly Christmas

A workaholic lady executive slips, hits her head and wakes up an angel who is assigned to help a struggling single father. This is a remake of the much better Christmas Magic starring Lindy Booth.

 
Heaven Sent

An eight year old girl angel flies to Earth to help a troubled marriage. The science-fictiony animated opening of a comet flying to Earth, the angel, was high end work, but seemed out of place for a Christmas movie. The first ten minutes are so heavy with desperation that it may turn some viewers off. The girl angel was a little too cute and the fact that she was invisible to everyone except the main characters struck us as gimmicky. Still, the movie had enough quirky moments that kept us interested so this is one you may want to give a try.

 
His and Her Christmas

This one was a near miss. Most of the story was entertaining, well-acted and interestingly written. It revolves around two competing journalists meeting and falling in love while they battle each other in their articles over the virtues of Christmas. What ruined it for us is that on two occasions, just when we'd been set up to expect them to begin acknowledging their feelings for each other, the female reporter explodes in a maniacal tirade at the other reporter. The virulent and irrational nature of these outbursts were unbelievable and ruined what might otherwise have made it to our "must see" list. +

 
Holiday Affair

Robert Mitchum plays a footloose man who courts a excessively practical single mother (Janet Leigh.) She resists for many good reasons but in the end is won over by his sincerity and charm. This black and white classic is a little dated and just barely okay.

 

Holiday Affair

Weak remake of the Robert Mitchum-Janet Leigh classic of 1949 but the acting isn't as good. If you haven't seen the original you might enjoy this one.

 
NEW!!! Holiday Hearts

The always watchable Paul Campbell is a doctor who agrees to take care of an injured friend's young daughter with the help of his childhood girlfriend. You can guess what happens. Our problem with this movie is that Paul Campbell is a better fit to a more out-of-the-ordinary type of character than the straight doctor he plays in this movie. This may be our type casting him because he's been that sort of character in so many other movies. Also, his cluelessness about some Christmas activities didn't ring true. Still, production values were excellent and we enjoyed it, so by all means give it a try. It's just that there are other movies we liked a lot more so this one only gets a 'good' ranking. One thing to look out for is the gorgeous inn Hallmark found that is the home of the female lead. Many of the rooms are so attractive they almost steal scenes.

Holiday Inn

1942 classic about a nightclub owner who doesn't like to work. His solution is a "holiday inn" that's only open during holidays so he can take the rest of the year off. The plot's fluff but Bing Crosby sings, Fred Astaire dances and Marjorie Reynolds does both. What more could you want? This movie is available in a special three-disc DVD set. One of the DVDs features an outstanding restored and colorized version that has to be seen to be appreciated. The quality of the colorization is outstanding. There is absolutely no ghosting or blurring. This film was colorized by Legend Films, the world leader in the latest colorization technology. You'll honestly think the movie had been filmed in color.

This movie was originally in the "must see" list. After re-watching it in 2013 I became aware that in all honesty it has several serious problems that are just barely overcome by the outstanding performances of Fred, Bing and Miss Reynolds. Specifically: cliche'd African-American stereotyping and a particularly offensive black-face routine. Intellectually I understand that these were condoned in the era in which the movie was made, but emotionally I feel that by today's standards they are totally unacceptable. And no, I am not African-American. I'm about as much of a conservative WASP as you're ever likely to find. Yet even I was embarrassed to watch parts of this film.

 
Holly's Holiday (sometimes also listed as A Perfect Christmas or Christmas Perfection)

A career obsessed ad executive who wants "the perfect man" hits her head on the way to work and is helped by the man of her dreams. It turns out he's really a store mannequin who's come to life. The ridiculous plot, three supporting characters that were unattractively unbelievable and a painfully cliche'd ending would suggest this is a movie that deserves to be relegated to the "avoid at all costs" list. Additionally, it has almost nothing to do with Christmas and absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas spirit. Yet it kept us guessing what was going to happen next and we caught ourselves laughing out loud at several very funny scenes so we bumped it up to the "okay to see once" category.

 
Home For Christmas Day

Catherine Bell tries to convince her daughter to avoid a romance with a soldier about to be deployed because his might be killed. This movie struck too somber a note for us.

 
Home for the Holidays

Lady struggles to create a home for two orphaned children of a recently deceased relative.

 
Homegrown Christmas

The always lovely Lori Laughlin stars as a successful business lady who sells her company and returns to her small home town for the holiday. While there she reconnects with a childhood boyfriend. We found this to be a very watchable movie. The only scenes that made us feel uneasy where those where her business drive took over and made her push people a little too hard.

 
Hope At Christmas

A single mother from New York city goes home for Christmas and finds love in the town's forth grade school teacher. This is a well made movie with nothing wrong, but it struck us as a little bland. It lacked the brightness to kick it up to the 'very good' list. Additionally, it was filmed a little too darkly. It made it feel like it was perpetually overcast, giving the movie a heavy appearance. Still, this is a nice comfortable movie for a quiet night. +

 
A Husband For Christmas

After watching hundreds of Christmas movies about circumstances bringing two career-oriented people together who eventually fall in love, it was a pleasant surprise to find one that came up with a a new twist. In this version, a lady executive is given a choice by her boss: platonically marry a talented foreign designer so he can stay in the country and work for the company in exchange for her receiving a promotion to senior vice president... or get fired. The writers enable her to take the offer in a way that doesn't make it seem like she's selling herself. Most of the acting was good and avoided almost all of the African-American cliche'd stereotyping seen in many African-American themed movies. We particularly enjoyed the lead actress. Two small quibbles were that the connection to Christmas and the Christmas spirit was minor and most of the unattractive characters in the movie were white. This was so obvious that had the ethnicities been reversed, the NAACP would have sued the production company.

 
Ice Sculpture Christmas

A brief encounter between two children leads to their reconnecting many years later and entering an ice sculpture contest. We thoroughly enjoyed this romantic comedy because while it was predictable, the characters were mostly attractive and interesting. One character was a cliche'd meany, but the rest made up for her. +

 
If You Believe

Cynical lady editor gets knocked out and starts hallucinating about being haunted by herself as she was when she was eight years old. Her younger self pokes and prods her into changing her ways and everything ends happy. This isn't a Christmas story because it could just have well taken place anytime of the year. Another objection is that through most of the movie the lead character is so mean she's unappealing. But, it's interesting to watch because the young actress playing her younger self is very entertaining and happens to be one of the first roles for the actress playing "Claire" on the television series Heroes.

 
I'll Be Home For Christmas

James Brolin plays a widowed father returning home for an old friend's funeral, and ends up bonding with his estranged daughter. We didn't care for this movie because the daughter was a little too abrasive throughout the movie.-

 
I'll Be Seeing You

This 1944 movie looks slightly dated in a few scenes and while it takes place over Christmas, the connection to Christmas is weak. It's really about two damaged people finding at least the promise of love. Because Christmas plays such a minor part of this movie we'd normally place it in the "avoid" list. However, Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers are so appealing we kicked it up a class.

 
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Young boy sees dad dressed like Santa kissing his mom on Thanksgiving and thinks he's trying to steal her away. His solution is to act as bad as possible to keep Santa from showing up. Good acting by everyone and several entertaining surprises kept us wondering what was going to happen next. It dragged a bit toward the end but it's still okay to see once. +

 
It's A Wonderful Life

The classic starring Jimmy Stewart as a poor banker who's saved from suicide by an angel sent to show him that his life has meaning. There are several hilarious moments mixed in with truly tragic scenes. The biggest problem with this movie is that it's been aired so many times it suffers from over exposure. Most critics rate this as a "must see" movie. For us, the tragic scenes overpower the good ones so much that it leaves us feeling a little melancholy, which is why it's not up in our must-see list.

 
It's Christmas, Eve

Country singer LeAnn Rimes plays the temporary superintendent of a struggling school system. She falls for the music teacher of one of the schools at which she may be forced to cut the music program and decides to work with him the save the program. This is a well made, well acted movie with excellent production standards. Unlike too many of Hallmark's movies, this one does not suffer from a generic, repetitive, overly loud background music. We liked it al lot but felt it lacked the brightness of must-see movies such as Window Wonderland and Charming Christmas.

 
Jingle Around The Clock

Two advertising executives work over the holiday to create a commercial for an important product and discover love in the process. This is a very attractive romantic comedy where what little competition is present is nonconfrontation. This is one that's definitely worth a try. +

 
Jingle Belle

A lady jingle writer is sent home over the holiday by her boss to get over a case of writer's block. Comedy, romance and rediscovery result. This is a nice, bright movie that might have made it into the 'very good' list if if wasn't for an annoying, repetitive, generic, constant plinking-style musical background. This sounds like a minor point, but it was so incessant by the end of the movie it made it hard to listen to what was happening.

 
Journey Back To Christmas

A comet time warps a 1945 nurse into 2016. Candace Cameron Bure looks the part and the movie avoids most of the expected situations. No, she didn't just hit her head and it was all a dream and no, she didn't fall in love with the handsome policeman who helps her. Another nice feature is that there is only one cliche'd mean character, who thankfully isn't on screen long enough to spoil the movie. Production values are also extremely high. The problem is that the movie and everyone in it moves so slowly that I confess we started fast forwarding out of boredom. We rate it as okay to watch once but don't feel guilty if you too fast forward through the slower scenes.

 
Last Chance For Christmas

Prancer splits a hoof so Mrs. Claus sends her stable master to an Alaskan reindeer farm to get a replacement. Along the way the clueless stable master falls in love with the farm's owner, saves her business and helps the heartless business man who's forcing her to sell to embrace the Christmas spirit. As silly as this sounds, we found this movie very enjoyable up to the last five minutes. It is a sweet, attractive romantic comedy with some very entertaining twists on Mrs. Claus, elves and the logistics of Christmas. It would have made it into the "very good" list if the ending hadn't been so weak and ther head eld didn't look, sound and act so scruffy.

 
Last Vermont Christmas

A widowed mother takes her daughter back to the family home for one last family Christmas because her parents are selling the house to fund their retirement. While there, she meets her high school boyfriend and the predictable happens. This was a good looking movie, though a little bland. Our biggest problem was that the youngest of the three returning daughters, an immature, twenties-something college drop out who had to move back home because she was a failure as a singer, decides she doesn't want her parents to sell the house so she makes a game out of sabotaging the sale. Her willingness to ruin her parents retirement and financial future for her own selfish reasons struck us as so irresponsible that it ruined what otherwise might have been a very good movie.

 
Let It Snow

A young lady resort expert is sent to a quaint mountain lodge by her cold hearted father to develop a plan for tearing down the existing lodge and building a new one. While there she discovers the magic of Christmas and falls in love with the owner's son. This is a predictable but harmless movie that we enjoyed enough to watch without getting the urge to fast forward.

Love Actually

A pleasant, if somewhat busy, movie about six couples in love over Christmas. While it features an all-star cast featuring Hugh Grant, the movie doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas. It could just as well taken place any time of the year. Still, the writing, acting, plotting and production values were so high we have to recommend it as good to watch once.

 
Love Always, Santa

Young girl writes Santa asking to help her widowed mother find happiness. A children's book writer moonlighting as a store Santa gets the letter, answers it, the mother reads it and they start a pen pal relationship. Eventually they meet and the expected happens. We found this movie okay, but slow moving and a bit dreary at times.

 
Love You Like Christmas

This is a very attractive, well made movie about a lady advertising executive who gets detoured to a small town and finds love. The leads were particularly appealing and production values were high. One small quibble is that the male lead's young daughter seemed a little too perfect. +

 
Maggie's Christmas Miracle

A Christmas hating, over protective single mother hires a handsome tutor to help her son over the holidays. The predictable follows. The two leads were attractive and it was nice watching them fall in love. But this movie lacked the sparkle needed to elevate it to a higher ranking. Also, there was a noticeable anti-male under current created by so many husbands of both major and minor characters divorcing their wives.

 
Magical Christmas Ornaments

The mother of an anti-Christmas lady editor starts sending her ornaments from her youth to help her embrace the holiday. Each time she receives one something happens that makes her think the ornaments are magic. This movie kept us interested enough to see how it turned out, but there were too many times when we wanted to fast forward to give it more than an okay-to-watch-once rating.

 

Magic Stocking

A young girl purchases a stocking, which turns out to be magic and helps her widowed mother re-embrace the Christmas spirit and find love. This is an outstanding movie in many ways. The acting is universally good, the characters attractive and interesting, production values are excellent, the plot is entertaining and the magic is presented so subtly it doesn't ruin the movie's credibility. Best of all, although it's a Hallmark production it isn't ruined by one of Hallmark's signature generic, repetitive, overly loud soundtracks. Both the quality of the soundtrack and its volume are perfect. +

 
A Majestic Christmas

A pro-Christmas lady fights to save a historic theater, the Majestic, from a heartless developer. This is an overly familiar plot helped by good production values and acting.

 
The Man Who Saved Christmas

An interesting and entertaining movie about the true story of the toy builder who invented Erector Sets who first endorses, then rejects, the government's policy of cancelling Christmas in favor of buying World War I war bonds. We thoroughly enjoyed this movie but after watching it felt no reason to purchase it to watch it again, which is why it's in the "okay to see once" list.

 
Married By Christmas

Lady executive of a family business must get married before Christmas to prevent her slightly flaky sister from inheriting the company. While the lead actress is a little too hyper and the movie has a distracting Hallmark-like generic soundtrack, it held our interest and avoided the obvious cliche''d ending so we give this one a mild thumbs up.

 
Marrying Father Christmas

In this third entry to the Finding Father Christmas and Engaging Father Christmas, The couple who met in the first movie are finally getting married. This time out, the movie is mostly about the girl discovering more secrets from her past.

 
Marry Me at Christmas

A cliche'd hunky famous actor travels to a small town to help with his sister's wedding and falls in love with her bridal coordinator. There's nothing terrible about this movie but there's also nothing to make it stand out enough to want to ever watch it again.

 
Marry Me For Christmas

This is a another repeat of what's becoming an overly used plot: Business woman hires an employee to act as her fiance' over Christmas to satisfy a mother pressuring her to get married. The writing and acting was tolerable but the familiar plot, predictable ending and an annoyingly repetitious soundtrack ruined it for us.

 
Marry Us For Christmas

This sequel to the previous movie follows the confusion as the couple from the first movie try to organize their wedding over the holiday at the same time as dealing with the bride to be's mother thinking about marrying a younger man. This movie boasts a slightly better soundtrack than the original and has better production values than most African-American movies.

 

Meet Me In St. Louis

This 1944 musical classic revolves around the turmoil of a turn-of-the-century family's impending move away from their beloved St. Louis. While many people rate this as a must-see movie, we placed it in the "worth-seeing-once" category because it seemed dated and Margaret O'Brian's performance was over the top in places. Still, Judy Garland's singing is great, particularly her heart-rending delivery of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

 
Meet the Santas

This sequel to Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus where the couple suffer through many trials as they try getting married isn't as funny as the original. It suffers so much from Steve Guttenberg's painfully artificial "Ho Ho Ho" that it almost got relegated to the "avoid" list. But, it had enough funny scenes to make it just barely tolerable for a single viewing.

 
Memories Of Christmas

A young lady executive returns home over the holiday to settle her mother's estate and discovers love in the handyman helping restore her mother's house. What made this movie much better than so many others following the same plot is the lead actress, who succeeded in realistically portrayed a business professional with the proper mix of drive and intelligence. Far too often the role is played heartlessly, coldly and over the top. This characterization was spot on. +

 
NEW!!! Merry And Bright

A handsome efficiency expert locks horns with the attractive CEO of a struggling candy cane company. The leads are attractive and well acted, but the plot is so formulaic that the movie felt contrived from the first scenes. An annoyingly loud, repetitive, piano-plinking background soundtrack didn't help. It's a shame because with a few minor changes this could have been a much better movie.

 
NEW!!! Merry Christmas Match

A young woman struggling to keep her father's antique store open meets the rich heir of a realestate conglomerate. Most of the characters were attractive and likeable, but too many scenes struck us as contrived and uneven for a strong recommendation.

 
Midnight Clear

This movie is about five pitiably tragic intertwined stories about people suffering through personal problems on Christmas Eve. While the tone is almost totally somber, most of the performances were very good and the movie doesn't conclude with somehow everything working out in the end. Without getting preachy, the stories end with glimmers of hope. This is a tough movie to watch, but mesmerizing, like a train wreck in slow motion. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I never wanted to turn it off. The weakest performance was by Stephan Baldwin, Alec Baldwin's brother.

 
Mingle All The Way

A lady develops an app to help people find platonic dates for professional events. She's forced to use it herself and it matches her with a man she doesn't like. Over the course of several dates, they come to respect and eventually love each other.

This movie follows the all to familiar plot of starting with the two leads in confrontational situations, forcing them together and eventually having them fall in love. The problem in this film is that the confrontational period lasts over half an hour. Making things worse is that during this time they trade many mean spirited personal insults. It gives the movie an unpleasant tone for so long that their eventual reconciliation seems unbelievable.

Other problems are her mother, who's unattractively pushy and dismissive of her career, and the inconsistency of her being disappointed that the family isn't going to decorate together, suggesting she likes Christmas, then half an hour later claiming she doesn't like all the hassle of decorating.

Still, the production values and acting were good so we don't feel it's right to relegate it to the 'avoid' list, but we can't whole heartedly recommend it either.

 
Miss Christmas

Chicago's official city Christmas tree locator tries to convince a holiday hating farmer to donate his beloved tree. Brooke D'Orsey (Evan's wife in the TV series Royal Pains) looks gorgeous as the tree finder, but her enthusiasm was enough over-the-top that her character came off as being too bubbly, almost immature, in several scenes. Other than that minor quibble we both agree that this is an attractive looking movie which, though the romance develops as expected, the tree issue resolution wasn't the cliche'd ending we anticipated.

 
The Mistletoe Promise

Two people hurt during past Christmases come together in a pact to help each other professionally over the holiday. The obvious happens. Our biggest problem with this movie was that there was no chemistry between the two lead characters. Their banter came across as affected. Minor quibbles were that the main actress had an extremely severe look, as if makeup had pulled her pony tail too tight and an annoyingly generic Hallmark soundtrack, though thankfully it wasn't overly loud.

 
NEW!!! The Mistletoe Secret

A lady inn owner works to have her struggling town win a TV travel show contest to save it. Actor Tyler Hynes creates a very interesting and entertaining character as the TV show host's ghost writer, sent to the town to secretly write articles about it. A good supporting cast and attractive locations add to this movie's enjoyment. +

 
Moonlight and Mistletoe

The daughter of a "Santa" who runs a Christmas Village store overdoses on Christmas in her youth and ends up a Christmas-hating business woman. When her father has an accident she grudgingly returns home to help. She discoverers that the business is bankrupt and against her will tries to fix things. Predictably, while she's doing this she rediscovers the Christmas spirit, finds love and manages to solve all the financial problems. This is a formula movie that handles the familiar plot adequately. My biggest problem with it is that for the first 40 minutes the grown daughter is so rudely self absorbed that it's hard to develop any empathy for her.

 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Super organized business woman recaptures the Christmas spirit and finds love from a stranger who circumstances conspire to have stay at her house over the holidays. The plot is predictable, the super-model mother too gorgeous to believe and her her mop-haired son a cliche'd character. What saved this movie for us was Henry Winkler's outstanding performance as her mischievous uncle and matchmaker. The romantic male lead was also very good. An odd stop-motion sequence of her trying to prepare a turkey and a dream scene were awkward, but as a whole this movie satisfied us. +

 
Mr. St. Nick

Kelsey Gramer is interesting as Santa's rebellious, playboy son who eventually is forced into taking over for dad. Several lame special effects, a particularly irksome wizard and an annoying immigration officer ruin what might otherwise had been an okay flick. I rate it as worth watching once... but only if you're in a charitable mood. -

 
Murder She Baked: Plum Pudding

A lady cookie baker in a small town solves the murder of a Christmas tree lot owner while fending off two suitors. The mystery didn't hold our attention, there were too many overly perky characters that gave the movie an artificial feel and a couple odd scenes where we see the lady baker mechanically scanning crime scene details in a way that felt overly artsy left us bored and dissatisfied with this movie. Many scenes had a busy, almost frantic feel that made the movie seem noisy. We almost put it in the "avoid" list, but didn't feel it was bad enough to languish beside the likes of Bad Santa. -

 
My Christmas Dream

This is a very pleasant movie about a lady department store manager who fires, then rehires an artist to help her earn a promotion by creating a memorable Christmas Display. +

 
My Christmas Love

Best friends discover they are in love after he starts sending her anonymous presents to cheer her up after being jilted by her boyfriend. Our problem with this movie is that the female lead tried for sweet and perky but came across as flighty. Additionally, there were so many picture-perfect handsome men they gave the movie an artificial look.

 
A Nanny For Christmas

A young lady advertising executive gets fired and the only job she can find is being a nanny for the female boss of a rival advertising firm. The movie just barely made it into the "okay to see once" category. It's filmed in LA to reduce production costs, the situation that lead to her being fired was implausible, her ending up getting fired a second time because she broke rules but saved her new boss's company was ridiculous, her lying to a love interest about her job was cliche'd, her hard-as-nails boss's sudden turn around to become a nice person in the last few minutes of the movie was unbelievable and although it takes place during Christmas it doesn't really have that much to do with the holiday. It could just as well have been made for any holiday or none at all. However, the acting was universally good and the writers avoided the worst possible cliche' of her boss being a single man and having them fall in love. Even though much of the plot was difficult to accept, we felt there were enough good points to avoid sending this film to the Christmas movie dungeon by listing it in the "avoid at all costs" group.

 
Naughty And Nice

This is very pleasant movie about a Los Angeles radio shock jock who gets demoted to a small country station where he falls in love with his super-nice co-host. The two leads were enjoyable to watch and a few minor twists kept us interested.

 
Naughty or Nice

Please do not confuse this movie with the terrible film of the same title starring George Lopez. This one is about a young woman who accidentally gets Santa's Naughty or Nice book on the same day she gets unfairly fired. The plot sounds ridiculous, but the way the woman is slowly seduced by the knowledge in the book makes it an interesting movie. Special effects are kept to a minimum and well done when they are used. Things wrap up a little too neatly in the end, but we watched the entire movie without cringing so we're recommending it as okay to see once.

 
The Nativity Story

This is a well-made, biblically accurate costume drama about the birth of Christ.

 
The Nine Lives of Christmas

A fireman and veterinary student are brought together by a cat that adopts him. This is a very pleasant romantic comedy with attractive actors that was almost ruined by yet another of Hallmark's overly loud, generic soundtracks. At times it was as loud as the people talking.

 
Northern Lights Of Christmas

A lady pilot inherits a ranch in Alaska. When she visits it to sell, she discovers a new path for her future and love. This was fine to watch once, but it didn't hold our attention enough to recommend it for additional viewings. The biggest problem was that the lead characters didn't appear real to us.

Northpole

An elf and a boy team up to re-instill the Christmas spirit in a small town and in so doing increase the joy of Christmas, which in turn sends sparks of happiness into the upper atmosphere, which in turn creates the northern lights, which finally causes happy snow to fall on the town of Northpole (where Santa lives) and power the toy factories. The description sounded so childish that I confess I was prejudiced against this movie before seeing the first scene. Making matters worse, it was another of Hallmark's seasonal productions, which have the reputation of cliche'd plotting and cheap production values. What I got instead was a well-crafted and entertaining movie that we both thoroughly enjoyed. The music score was the best of any Hallmark production we've watched. The special effects were first class. All of the staging at the Northpole was outstanding suggesting this was not an inexpensive film to make. The acting was good, except of Robert Wagner and Jill St. John playing Mr. and Mrs. Clause. They seemed ill at ease, as if they knew they didn't belong. At first we thought the girl playing the elf was a little too sweet, but then a young elf should be sweet. The plot kept us guessing as to where things were headed and continually surprised us. Young children will be able to enjoy this movie because the two main characters are a 13 year old elf and a 10 year old boy. Adults will appreciate the predicable but well acted romance that develops between the boy's mother and his teacher.

We're placing it in the "okay to see once" category because we're not sure if it has enough re-watching potential to purchase it on DVD, which is our indicator that it deserves to be bumped up to the "very good" list. Having said that I have to emphasize that it's one of the best entries in this list. If you give it a chance you might be pleasantly surprised.

 
Northpole: Open for Christmas

In this excellent sequel to Northpole, a lady executive inherits a run-down Christmas lodge, restores it and falls in love with the handyman helping with the restoration. We rate this as even better than the original. The leads are attractive and exchange some entertaining dialog. As with the original, all production values are very good. We thought the story line was a little more believable this time around. This movie's weakest point is that it's overly cute and sweet in too many places.

 
NEW!!! Nostalgic Christmas

A lady toy executive (the always lovely Brooke D'orsy) from New York goes home to help her father sell his toy store. While there she meets and falls in love with the hunky widower of a young girl. Love follows. This was a pleasant movie, but we felt it lacked the personal chemistry between the leads to bump it into the higher rankings. Additionally, the overly perky, generic, repetitive, synthesized plinking used for the soundtrack quickly became annoying.

 
NEW!!! No Time Like Christmas

A lady advertising executive finds an antique pocket watch in an antique store that used to belong to a boyfriend. Assisted by a mysterious man, she tracks the boyfriend down.

 
November Christmas

Beautiful production values, a strong cast, and interesting characters make this a good movie about a town that comes together to give a sick girl what may be her last holiday. The tone is extremely somber and the connection to Christmas is limited to just a few minutes. This is really a story about family grief over the loss of children.

 
Oh Christmas Tree (sometimes titled Fir Crazy)

Sarah Lancaster is simply gorgeous as a lady executive fired on Thanksgiving and ends up running her family's Christmas tree stand over the holidays. The movie itself is a predictable Christmas romance that's okay to watch once, but her appearance and performance elevate it to one of the best in this category. Our one quibble is that her initial reluctance to help make the tree stand a success bordered on irresponsibility.

On The Twelth Day Of Christmas

A woman plays secret Santa to a man she met ten years earlier to help him rediscover his lost Christmas spirit. This movie is okay, but it seems to move very slowly. One obvious continuity issue is that neither actor aged a day between their first meeting and their second meeting ten years later.

 
One Special Night

James Garner and Julie Andrews are good in this story of older people finding love, but for some reason it didn't click with us. It's not really a Christmas movie since it could have taken place anytime.

One Starry Christmas

This is a watchable, if predictable, movie about a lady astronomer who falls for a cowboy she meets on a bus on her way to meet her overly practical boyfriend in New York. We found the supporting cast a little weak and contrived, the idea of a rodeo on Christmas day in New York unbelievable, a singing interlude artificial and poorly voiced over, the bright stars shown could not be seen in the heart of New York and that her dissertation in astronomy sounded more like a sociology subject. Nonetheless, the lead actress was a delight to watch and overall the movie held our interest. One very positive comment is this Hallmark movie had a much better soundtrack than many of their productions.

 
On Strike For Christmas

A taken-for-granted wife and mother goes on strike to convince her family to help out over the holiday. Her idea catches on and soon all the wives in town are also on strike. This movie had an interesting plot that held our interest. What was particularly good was that after a few stumbles, the family figures out how to pull it off in their own way. The wife discovers that her way isn't the only way yet she's still indispensable. Keeping things balanced helped make this a watchable, though certainly not great, movie. The biggest problem I had with this movie is that it was obviously filmed in summer.

 
On The Second Day Of Christmas

This is very similar to the classic Remember the Night recommended in the "very good" list. A department store security guard catches a lady thief and her young niece accomplice. The store owner forces him to take them home over Christmas until they can be arrested after the holiday. As expected they fall in love and everything ends happily.

 
Operation Christmas

A widower and divorcee meet and fall in love. This common plot is greatly enhanced by superb acting and the difficult and unusual problem of his being an active duty ranger on constant call to combat zones. None of the situations were cliche'd like they are in so many movies. Sadly, patriotic themes often render a movie corny. I'm happy to report that is not the case in this film. They are handled excellently and honestly. We both liked this movie a lot. It would be on our "buy" list except it's a little too dramatic for the light and happy movies we prefer this time of year. ++

 
NEW!!! Our Christmas Love Song

Alicia Witt is excellent as a country singer accused of plagiarism. She goes how to find proof she's innocent and during the process reconnects with an old boyfriend. This is a very good movie. We would have enjoyed it more except for the mean spirited attack on her by another singer. Everything works out in the end, but it was just harsh enough to give the movie an edgy feeling.

 
Our First Christmas

Familiar tale about the angst of blending two families over the holidays. It avoids many of the cliche's typical in this sort of movie and worked pretty well for us. Two problems: the lead actress was unattractively obese and a hinted-at romance between two secondary characters was never developed.

 
A Perfect Christmas Sometimes also listed as Holly's Holiday or Christmas Perfection

A career obsessed ad executive who wants "the perfect man" hits her head on the way to work and is helped by the man of her dreams. It turns out he's really a store mannequin who's come to life. The ridiculous plot, three supporting characters that were unattractively unbelievable and a painfully cliche'd ending would suggest this is a movie that deserves to be relegated to the "avoid at all costs" list. Additionally, it has almost nothing to do with Christmas and absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas spirit. Yet it kept us guessing what was going to happen next and we caught ourselves laughing out loud at several very funny scenes so we bumped it up to the "okay to see once" category.

 
The Perfect Christmas Present

A too-busy executive hires a professional gift buyer to find the perfect gift for his neglected girlfriend. The hunter and girlfriend end up falling in love. This movie had an interesting and novel plot and several entertaining situations. The only problem was we felt the acting was a little uneven, giving the movie a slightly false note.

 
The Perfect Gift

Like all movies produced for The Christian Network, this one blatantly pushes the Christian religious ethic. This may make some people uncomfortable not because it's wrong, but because how it's done is so heavy handed. The plot is that Christ, as a homeless drifter, visits a church during Christmas and helps build a nativity scene. While doing so he helps a minister, a divorced mother, her spoiled daughter and neighbors discover the true religious meaning of Christmas. Mechanically, there are several things wrong with this movie: The daughter is too unattractively spoiled, the church's pastor is too coldly businesslike and a fanatical activist is too mean about challenging a church's right to put up a nativity scene. But, there also just as many good points: the divorced mother and under-pastor are interesting, well acted characters, the movie doesn't shy away from the fact that the drifter really is Christ and there were several interesting historical facts revealed about Christmas itself.

In spite of its technical weaknesses this movie mostly held our interest so with some reservations we're recommending it as being okay to watch once.

 
Pete's Christmas

Another reworking of the now-tired Groundhog Day concept. This one isn't very good, but it's different enough to take a chance on watching once. This time the person doomed to repeat Christmas is a teenage boy. What's different is that unlike the other movies of this theme he's not a jerk who learns to be a nice person by endlessly repeating the same day. This time he's a nice guy and it's everyone else who are the jerks. After experiencing the worst Christmas imaginable, in which his parents completely forget to get him anything while all the time blaming him for everything that goes wrong even though it's not his fault, he wakes to learn he has to relive this nightmare Christmas over and over. After indulging in a little harmless revenge, which doesn't work out as he'd hoped, he learns the secret to happiness is working to make everyone else's Christmas as perfect as possible. Our biggest problem with this movie is that for much of it he is relentlessly bullied and lied about by his older brother, patronized by his younger brother, completely ignored by his parents, except when they blame him for something someone else did, and the butt of every cruel injustice by everyone in the town. It's so brutally unfair that after the first twenty minutes we had such a strong feeling of violation that we almost turned it off. But... it actually is about Christmas, it honestly looks like it was filmed in winter, production values are good, and while everything turns out good in the end, it didn't happen all at once. The viewer sees how the happy ending is created through the boy's efforts.

 
Poinsettias For Christmas

A lady city planner goes home to help save the family poinsettia farm. While there, she falls in love with the hired hand. This is a nice, if not memorable, movie with adequate acting and good production values.

 
Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe

Darcy Fitzwilliams (Lacey Chambert) goes home for the holiday and locks horns with an ex-high school boyfriend. This Christmas movie is predicable but its production values are very high and the acting is very good so it's a good movie to watch. Our biggest problem is misrepresenting it through the title, which suggests it's going to follow a similar plot and character set as Jane Austin's classic Pride and Prejudice. It doesn't. The lady Darcy isn't arrogant and conceited. Her male antagonist, a chef named Bennett, isn't prejudiced against her. They bicker and disagree, but the foundation for it is more about differing concepts for a party they have to plan together than her pride and his prejudice as in the original novel. In 2018 there were several Christmas movies capitalizing on the popularity of Jane Austin's work, and this seems to be one of them hoping to pick up a few extra viewers by loaded the title with words suggesting her work. Still, we enjoyed it but doubt we'll ever want to see it again.

 
A Puppy For Christmas

A girl discovers the true meaning of Christmas while spending it with the family of a coworker. This one was a little too slow and schmaltzy for us.

 
NEW!!! Radio Christmas

A big city radio DJ has to move her popular Christmas show to a small town when her station's transmitter breaks down. While there romance ensues. This movie had some nice acting and good production values, but for us lacked that extra spark needed to elevate it to the 'very good' or 'best' lists. But, we wouldn't be surprised if other viewers though it was great. It just didn't quite work for us.

 
Recipe for a Perfect Christmas

An all-for-business lady food critic blackmails a struggling chef into dating her vivacious mother. The critic and chef fall in love and his restaurant ends up being a success.

Remember the Night

Another classic, this time from 1940. Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck hit every note perfectly as he plays a district attorney prosecuting her for shoplifting on Christmas Eve. Through a series of comic mistakes they get thrown together for the holiday. She teaches him compassion as he shows her the value of honesty. Hilarious at times, the movie ends on a tragic, though promising, note. Great by any standard, even though two minor characters' behavior and a few situations seem dated. This used to in the 'best' list but after rewatching it we decided that because it's black-and-white, is narrow screened and has a dated style, we can no longer recommend it that highly. It's still a great movie, just not one we look forward to rewatching. (Available on DVD.)

Return To Christmas Creek

The daughter of an estranged family returns to the family lodge, where she finds love and reunites her family. One of the brighter elements in this movie was the always great Kari Matchett in a supporting role. We'd love to see her as the lead in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Good acting all the way around makes this an excellent choice. The only reason that it didn't rate higher is that it seemed a little formulaic.

 

Road To Christmas

Lady TV producer is forced to work with the boss's son to put together a Christmas TV show, the predictable happens. The leads were attractive but she struck us as a little too hyper and he was unattractively patronizing long enough to turn us off to his character. Their conflict over the nature of the show felt contrived. There were a few animated inserts that seemed out of place. Still, most of the movie was enjoyable.

 
NEW!!! A Rock And Roll Christmas

An estranged mother and daughter singing duet are brought back together for a Christmas recording that could save both their faltering single careers. The movie had a different and interesting plot, but there was too much anger and melancholy during the first half for it to work for us. Still, it was well made and when they sang they sounded believable so by all means give it a try.

 
Romance At Reindeer Lodge

A Christmas-hating young woman wins a free Christmas trip to Jamaica... in Vermont, She gets trapped there and slowly bonds with a handsome fellow traveler, not knowing he was sent to foreclose on the lodge. They join forces to try and save the lodge and of course, romance and rediscovering the Christmas spirit results.

 
The Rooftop Christmas Tree

Battling lawyers are assigned by a small town judge to work together to help a man who's arrested every year for violating building codes by putting a Christmas tree on his roof. Our biggest problem was that Tim Reid's (WKRP In Cincinnati) acting didn't seem real. Another issue was that production values were so low that the entire movie looked dull and bland. There was a dimness or darkness to it that made us think they cut down on the number of lights to save a little money. It's not a really bad movie, just a poor one. -

 
Royal Christmas

This is a predictable but pleasant movie about an American girl who falls in love with a college boy who's secretly a prince. They go to his country for Christmas, where she battles his mother who insists he give her up for a more appropriate duchess she wants him to marry. Jane Seymore is a little too vicious as the disapproving queen and the whole plot has been done so many times it's become cliche'd. Our biggest problem was with the male lead, who had a lower class English accent while his mother and everyone else he grew up with had upper class accents. This sounds like a small point but it weakened the film by reducing his credibility. Yet production values are excellent and the palace is so beautiful it steals several scenes. Two interesting plot twists helped brighten the story line.

Royal New Years Eve

A prince incognito falls for the assistant and talented dress designer of a conniving, selfish president of a fashion company. If you can overlook what sounds like the male lead's fake British accent, this really isn't that bad of a movie. The problem is it isn't about Christmas even though it's promoted as one. It begins on Christmas Eve but most of it takes place after the holiday. Still, it has several fun moments and is too enjoyable to be listed with the slasher movies in the 'avoid' list so we're placing it in the 'okay' list.

 
Santa Baby

Santa's daughter, who ran away to become a high-powered corporate advisor, returns when dad is laid up with a heart attack. Much better than it sounds largely because Jenny McCarthy is very believable as an intelligent business woman. The outcome is predictable but there are a few unexpected twists along the way that make it worth-while. Elves are always difficult to portray; this movie does it as good as we've seen. Mrs. Claus, in particular, is spot-on as far as what one expects: lively, cheery and perky without stepping over the line into sickening-sweetness. (The title Santa Baby comes from a song played during the movie and refers to Santa's grown daughter.)

 
The Santa Clause

A great idea presented only adequately. Tim Allen's character was so sarcastic for most of the movie, to the point where we felt he didn't really want to be with his son, that it soured the whole movie for us. Two scenes with flatulence humor may seem off-color to some viewers. One curiosity is that when the original Santa slips on Tim Allen's roof, the stunt man's hand catches the edge of the fake-snow blanket and throws it into the air. It's odd why Disney Studios would let such obvious mistake make it through to the final film.

 
Santa Clause 3

After the disappointment that was Santa Clause 2, we were prepared for the worst in this third installment of the series. To our mutual surprise, we enjoyed much of it. The story line is interesting, situations unexpected and Martin Short, who in general we don't like, is deliciously mischievous as a disgruntled Jack Frost scheming to take over Christmas. Particularly noteworthy are the special effects, which are excellent and not overused. The reasons this movie didn't make it to our "Must See" list are the use of flatulence humor, some bathroom humor, an offensive scene where Santa wheelbarrows his in-labor wife at a dead run to the infirmary oblivious to the fact that such a rough ride could endanger both her and the baby and finally that her parents, brought up by Santa to be with her, are so relentlessly mean and manipulative that they sour the Christmas spirit.

 
The Santa Con

A newly paroled con man uses his skills to bring a family back together by Christmas. While this movie had many entertaining and a few very funny scenes, an extremely unattractive alcoholic husband almost ruined it for us. If he'd been portrayed as someone to be pitied instead of down-right ugly during most of the movie, this would have made an enjoyable caper flick.

 
Santa's Boots

A workaholic lady executive visits home over the holiday, gets forced into playing an elf and falls for the man playing Santa. This was okay for a single viewing, but it didn't click with us enough to want to watch it gain. In fact, the urge to use the fast forward button on the DVR was difficult to resist.

 
A Season For Miracles

A jobless, homeless sister of a drug addict mother who's in jail kidnaps her sister's children so they won't be placed in foster homes. They end up living in an abandoned house in a small town where she falls in love with a policeman. Predictable feel-good movie with cliche'd situations and characters. But the lead actress is very good and so attractive that the movie is worth seeing once.

 
Secret of Giving

A 1903 frontier widowed mother with a sick son struggles to keep a banker from foreclosing on the family ranch over Christmas. Into the scene wanders a stranger with a hidden past. This movie starts off with virtually every cliche'd situation imaginable yet comes across very effectively, largely due to the outstanding acting of Reba McIntyre. As the story develops, several interesting twists are interspersed with humorous moments to make this a pleasant, if not memorable, viewing experience. +

 
Secret Santa

A very good movie about a slightly cynical reporter (Jeannie Garth) who goes to a small town to discover the identity of an anonymous Christmas gift giver. Along the way she finds serenity, a new life, a possible love interest and the Secret Santa's identity. What makes this movie good is that while the lead character is cynical, she's not too cynical or mean so that viewers can empathize with her. The weak points are a ridiculous minor character and the fact that the implied romantic relationship is never developed. We're left wondering about whether it's going to happen or not. There was also a missed opportunity with her old VW bug that left us feeling cheated. +

 
NEW!!! Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen

The all-work CEO of a toy company hires a Christmas enthusiast to stage a party for important clients. As they work to put the party together, they influence each other and love grows between them. Much of the acting seemed awkward at first, then we realized it was an attempt to mimic the structured Georgian behavior depicted in major movie releases of Jane Austen's great novel Sense and Sensibility. It was entertaining for a while, but around the halfway point it started feeling artificial and overly cute. We think the director was trying for 1800s quaint, but in some instances ended up with goofy. Still, this movie had enough fun moments to recommend it, but only mildly.

Note: The title suggests a take off on Jane Austen's novel. Other than using the same names we didn't feel there were enough parallels to justify it so we consider the title misleading.

 
Sharing Christmas

The plot of a developer buying up a family Christmas store and threatening to tear it down to build condos has been used so many times it's almost cliche'd. In this movie it's handled in a fresh and entertaining way. The developer isn't mean or anti-Christmas and in fact didn't even know about the Christmas store. When she finds out, she explains to the young man in charge of managing the takeover that she's sincerely sorry, but she's as much trapped by the project as him. We're given a glimpse into the real workings of such a deal when she explains that all the available retail space has already been leased and that there is a long waiting list for any openings. Her hands are tied not only because of that but because if she managed to find space for the store, her investors would be cheated because they were promised returns that a quaint Christmas store can't provide. All this adds a realism to the movie that others using a similar plot fail to achieve. This movie proves that stereotypical mean people aren't required to create the conflict required to carry the plot. In this case, it's not the people that are the problem, just the development. By doing so the audience is able to empathize with many more characters and in so doing, create a closer bond with the movie.

Another plus is that the young store owner and man charged with managing the real estate deal gracefully glide into an attractive, non-confrontational romance that's beautiful to watch. This movie may not have the brightness of A Charming Christmas or Window Wonderland and it drags a little with the introduction of side stories involving minor characters, but it's still a great watch. We liked it a lot.

So, why was it taken out of the 'very good' list? In 2018 we rewatched it and found the background music was loud enough to be distracting. It felt like it was trying to compete with the actors instead of supporting them. Worse still, at several points the tone of the music didn't match what was happening on screen. For example: when the shop owner gets the eviction notice, the music tones down a little but is still too bright and perky for the drama of the scene. It almost sounded like the composer never watched the movie when he or she wrote the score. It also sounded generic and repetitious. It's a pity because it reduced an otherwise outstanding movie to something that was just good. +

 
A Shoe Addict's Christmas

Candace Cameron Burr is a department store executive who's put in charge of a ball to support the local fire department. One night she gets showed in at the store and is rescued by a handsome fireman, who happens to be the point man at the fire department for the ball. Romance ensues. The leads are attractive and work well together. What doesn't work is a dithery guardian angel sent to get Ms. Burr's life back together and reinstill her Christmas spirit. This turned what could have been an attractive movie into a goofy waste of time. There were enough good moments to keep it out of the 'avoid' list, but just barely. One minor issue is that she isn't really a shoe addict. She likes shoes because she used to play dress up with her mother's shoes. Using the title of 'addict' was misleading.

 
Signed, Sealed/Christmas

This movie is about a postal team that specializes in answering dead (unaddressed) letters to Santa. The idea is very good and the movie handles several dramatic scenes dealing with religious themes better than any we've seen. The problem was that several adult characters acted in such an unbelievably childish manner that they ruined the movie's credibility. It's a shame because it could have worked as a straight drama or even as a light comedy had a more mature form of comic relief been employed. A minor quibble concerns the title, it should have been, A Signed and Sealed Christmas. The diagonal seems out of place.

Silver Bells

Bruce Boxleitner is mostly good as a win-at-all-costs sports reporter who's sentenced to community service as a Salvation Army bell ringer for accidentally assaulting a referee at his son's basketball game. He's a sometimes comical victim of his own drive to be the best. He slowly comes to realize the error of his ways, but in a way that's not sappy or overly emotional. The movie was thoroughly entertaining and avoided any cliche'd revelations or magical endings. If the supporting cast had been stronger we probably would recommend this as good enough to purchase the DVD. This is a Pure/Flix offering so there are a few pro-Christian scenes. However, these are handled better than usual. Please believe us that such scenes are totally appropriate in a Christmas movie. Our problem with them is that they are usually so poorly written and awkwardly presented that they simply don't work. +

 
Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus

Santa's son has to find a wife before Christmas. This has been done many times but this version kept us entertained. Steve Guttenberg plays Santa's son a little too sweetly and his artificial "Ho Ho Ho" came too often but in spite of these problems it was fun watching his romance with a Christmas non-believer develop. +

 
Sleigh Bells Ring

Santa's magic sleigh brings a single mother and old flame back together. This movie is better than that brief synopsis suggests. The magic is so subtle that it adds mystery in that it makes you start wondering if it really is magic or simple happenstance. We wanted to like this movie more than we did, but the acting struck us as affected, the mother's daughter was a little too sweet and everything had an artificial feel.

Snow Bride

Predictable romantic comedy about a lady reporter trying to get the inside scoop on a wealthy family and ends up falling in love with one of the sons. Although it takes place over Christmas it really has nothing to do with the holiday. It could just as well taken place any time of the year. It's not very good, but then it's not terrible either. This one almost got sent to the "avoid" list but we felt charitable.

 
A Snowed In Christmas

Bickering journalists, she a neat-freak while he's a slob, get snowed in at an inn supposedly built by the original Santa Claus. They end up helping to save it from being destroyed to make room for a larger hotel. Their selfish, childish, constant fighting for almost the entire first half of the movie was annoying and unbelievable. Having a couple who appear to be the real Santa and wife who run the inn felt a little too cute. The second half of the movie, where the journalists start acting like adults, saved it from being relagated to the 'avoid' list, but just barely.

 
Snowmance

A woman who's frustrated in love builds a snowman to represent her perfect man, and he suddenly appears the next morning when she discovers the snowman has disappeared. This movie is much better than it sounds with first rate acting and great production values. Best of all, the writers avoided both of the expected cliche'd endings and came up with something believable while managing to retain the hint of magic that sweetened the story. +

 
The Sound Of Christmas

A lady piano teacher fights to save her school from a corporation planning to turn her building into offices at the same time she's falling in love with the business man negotiating the deal. We could tell how things were going to work out early on in this movie but that didn't stop us from enjoying it. Lindy Booth looks as great as ever as the female lead, though she tended to giggle a little too often. The intent was to make her appear younger, but several times it came across as unbelievable. We thought the male lead looked a little bland, but this was a pleasant change from the parade of cookie-cutter, square-jawed, impossibly-handsome Hollywood males that seem to have dominated the season.

 
The Spirit Of Christmas

A lady lawyer discovers the house she's the executor of is haunted by a handsome ghost. The predictable happens. This movie is more of a murder mystery than anything else and has almost nothing to do with Christmas. Still, by avoiding most of the ghost cliche's it held our interest to the end so we're grudgingly placing it in the okay-to-see-once list.

 
Stolen Christmas

Thief drifts into a small town and helps the locals build up their businesses so the bank's deposits increase, which he then plans to steal. Love and compassion turn him around. While it's predictable, the story was done well enough that it might have made it to the "good" list if the lead actor, Tony Danza, didn't look so old and weary that many of the scenes he was in were uncomfortable to watch. This movie almost got banished to the "avoid" list. What saved it was that the ending wasn't sickeningly sweet like so many TV Christmas movies.

 
Surviving Christmas

Ben Afleck plays a shallow, lonely business man who ends up at his childhood home over Christmas and hires the dysfunctional family living there to pretend to be his family so he can relive the happy Christmases of his youth. Many hilarious sight gags and an outstanding supporting cast almost make up for Afleck's over the top performance. The problem is that he's supposed to be a successful, wealthy advertising executive, yet no one who acts as flaky as he does could ever have made it in the corporate world. The movie's credibility also suffers from his paying the ridiculous amount of $325,000 for a few days of the family's life. Several sexually related scenes may offend some viewers, either because of the subject matter or the clumsy way in which the scenes were handled. I wanted to relegate this movie the the "Avoid" list, but several scenes had me laughing out loud so it got bumped up to the "barely okay" list.

 
NEW!!! A Sweet Christmas Romance

A couple competing to win a baking contest start off confrontational but end up working together. This was a pleasant movie with attractive leads. Definitely worth watching at least once, though we wish the confrontation hadn't lasted as long and hadn't been so ego driven. It would have been a lot more fun had they worked together right at the start, discovering they had complimentary strengths.

 
The Sweetest Christmas

This enjoyable Christmas movie revolves around a struggling lady chef who gets help from an old friend in preparing for a gingerbread contest. They fall in love as expected and after a bump in the romance end up together. The weakest element in this movie is the male lead's young son, who is played a little too sweet to be believed. However, that is a minor quibble. One thing I particularly liked was that the gingerbread structure she baked really did look like it could win a contest. +

 
NEW!!! Sweet Mountain Christmas

A famous lady singer gets snowed in on a visit to her hometown and is forced to re-evaluate what she wants from life. During the process she rekindles her love for a childhood boyfriend. This movie has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it has enough problems that while we watched all of it, we doubt we'll ever do so again. The fact that the singer has the mannerisms and the approximate looks of a young Dolly Parton and Dolly is heard singing a couple of background songs makes it feel like an infomercial for Dolly Parton. Also, for far too long the lady singer is so demanding of her ex boyfriend to somehow get the snowed-in roads cleared so she can give a performance in New York that she comes off looking selfish and unreasonable.

 
Three Wise Women

Another Christmas Carol movie. This time a hospital administrator is Scrooge. We couldn't stand to view another film using this overworked plot.

 
Time For Me To Come Home For Christmas (The title may be reduced to: Time For Me To Come Home Xmas because some DVR title blocks can't support the entire title)

This is a very attractive, thoroughly enjoyable movie about two people struggling to get home for Christmas. Thrown together by circumstances, they gracefully form a mutual attraction. In spite of the painfully cliche'd conflict scene toward the end of the movie as their romance is starting to take off, we enjoyed this gentle and entertaining movie a lot. +

 
The Tree That Saved Christmas

A woman returns home to help her parents save the family Christmas tree farm. Many Christmas movies suffer from weak supporting casts. This one was a pleasant exception. The entire cast, with the exception of the bitter bank president, is believable. The plot may sound familiar, yet good production values and a good story line kept us interested in it to the very end. The final resolution was a bit cliche'd, but made acceptable by carefully setting it up. What prevented this mostly dramatic production from getting nominated into the "very good" category is that with the exception of one brief sight gag in the opening scenes, there wasn't any humor in the movie. It's not overly sad, but a few laughs during it would have lifted the mood enough to make it one we'd like to see again.

 
The Twelve Days Of Christmas

A struggling photographer wins $50,000 and becomes a secret Santa. What makes this movie so good and believable is that the man doesn't instantly turn into a secret Santa. Events slowly draw him into the roll. We caution prospective watchers that this is a low budget Up Network release so the production values aren't as glittering as most of the Hallmark movies. Also, the tone of this movie is surprisingly somber considering how much good he's doing, But it held our interest so we recommend giving it a try.

 
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

Young girl struggles to change a town policy banning all dogs. Some good acting and writing make it worth a try if nothing else is on. The biggest problem for us was the dog catcher, who was played too mean to be funny and too silly to be believed.

 
The Twelve Wishes Of Christmas

Lame silliness about a woman who squanders 12 wishes granted by a fairy-God-mother. It's clumsily filmed in summer to cut production costs. The connection to Christmas is minimal and several hip hop songs don't fit the mood of the movie. It also gets preachy in a couple of sports. Still, the female lead is enjoyable and the second half of the film is interesting as she has to deal with the negative consequences of her wishes. In spite of it's flaws we enjoyed watching it, though we doubt we'll ever want to see it again.

 
NEW!!! Twinkle All The Way

A super organized lady event planner and a free spirited decorator are forced together to build a set for their daughters's Christmas play. We liked this movie and would rate it higher except the female lead was so hyper she came across as being on the verge of a panic attack. It gave the movie a harshness that turned us off to it a little.

 
NEW!!! Two Turtle Doves

A woman returns home to settle her late mother's estate, part of which requires her to repeat twelve of her family's Christmas traditions. While doing so, she falls for the lawyer representing her mother. The 'two turtle doves' refers to her favorite Christmas ornament, which has gone missing. The male lead was excellent and believable but we felt the female lead was a little uneven. There also seemed a little too much sweet hugging and ecstatic joy over seeing old friends to be believable. Otherwise this movie might have made it into the 'very good' list.

 
Undercover Christmas

An FBI agent takes a rough-around-the-edges nightclub waitress home over the holidays to protect her from the criminals she's supposed to testify against. The predictable follows in this poor remake of Remember the Night. Still, the acting and screenplay were good enough to hold our interest so we're giving it the nod to see once.

 
Under the Mistletoe

Ghost of a recently deceased father returns to help his son and wife get on with their lives. Very predictable and we thought the wife showed too much anger to be attractive but it had some fun moments. An interesting twist is that the ghost was as befuddled as the living characters. Some questionable special effects and a cliche'd ice hockey game at the end weakened the movie but all and all we'd recommend giving it a try.

 
A Very Country Christmas

Super famous country single returns to his small home town to rediscover his roots. During the process he meets and falls in love with a single mother. While there's nothing really bad about this movie, it almost got relegated to the avoid-at-all-costs list because it starts with him running out on a concert disappointing what looks like 50,000 fans, getting caught speeding then being let off because the lady police officer that stops him gushes over him to an embarrassing degree when she realizes who he is and him playing a mean joke on his future love interest when they first meet. The sum of these acts made him look like an inconsiderate jerk. We also felt the falling-all-over-themselves adulation of the women he meets was sexist and cliche'd. -

 
A Very Merry Mixup

A newly engaged girl travels to meet her fiance's family and accidentally ends up at the wrong house, where she falls in love with that family's son. Predictable but harmless movie that held our interest enough to enjoy watching once. The biggest problem is that the female lead acts childishly ditzy for the first half of the movie. Towards the end she presents a well-acted dramatic moment that was very effective. This movie also suffers from another of Hallmark's generic music scores, which consists of mostly single notes slowly being played on a piano. So many of Hallmark's movies have similar music that they all seem the same. Towards the end this movie also suffers from some obviously staged scenes, but all in all we enjoyed it.

 
A Very Merry Toy Store

Feuding toy store owners are forced to combine forces to fight a new big box toy store. We felt that the male store owner was underhanded in his competing with his neighboring store owner. He gave the impression of being a weasel, which turned us off to him. Also, we couldn't believe the female lead, Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the teen age witch) would ever be interested in the male lead because she looked and acted much more mature than him. This isn't bad enough to be relegated to the avoid list, but it was a close call in our eyes.

 
A Veteran's Christmas

Lady Captain musters out of the marines and falls in love with a man who helps her after a car accident strands her in a small town. A pleasant movie with a few more dramtic moments than we wanted. The acting felt a bit contrived in some parts.

 
Welcome To Christmas

This movie had an interesting twist on the familiar plot of the developer coming to a small town and the townspeople resisting his or her advances. This time, the developer really wants to use a larger town and is only looking at the their smaller town as a token gesture to prove to her boss she examined all options. While there, the local townspeople work to convince her to use their town to help bolster its tourist trade. She meets and falls in love with the town's single-father sheriff and everything works out in the end. This isn't a bad movie, but it just didn't work for us. One character we didn't like was the sheriff's teenage daughter who projected a lot of cynical attitude at the beginning of the movie.

 
White Christmas

This movie is proof that not everything made during the golden age of movie making, the 1940s, was great. There isn't much of a plot to this sequel to Holiday Inn. It's just an excuse to string together scenes of the actors singing and dancing. The movie was made largely to capitalize on the enormous popularity of Bing Crosby's mega-hit White Christmas. This movie is okay to watch once to see the virtuosity of some of the performers, but ignoring that it almost deserves to be in the "movies to avoid" group.

 
A Wish For Christmas

Santa grants a young lady executive who people take advantage of her wish to have the courage to stand up for herself... but only for 48 hours. She uses the time to prove her worth and save the company she works for. Along the way her gains to self esteem to carry on after the wish times out. This movie is much better than it sounds and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Best of all, this Hallmark release has an excellent sound track that's not overly loud. +

 
Wish Upon A Christmas

A corporate efficiency expert is sent to downsize a small ornament company in her hometown. She discovers the owner is her high school boyfriend and the predicable ensues. Very good production values and acting place this movie above many similarly plotted films. In particular, the efficiency expert is presented as being as much a victim of her job as the people she usually ends up firing, which makes it much easier to empathize with her. There's a subplot about Santa apparently crashing in the area and wandering around the town looking for a small bauble that's supposed to power his sleigh. While this sounds corny, it's handled so well that it doesn't detract from the movie. The twist of having him appear as a very dapper gentleman was both appealing and effective. +

NEW!!! Write Before Christmas

A girl gets dumped shortly before Christmas and in a moment of melancholy, sends very personal Christmas cards to people who've meant something to her in her past. These cards help bring people together and even brings her a new love. The connection to Christmas is excellent and the acting good. Our only problem is that the first half hour, one-third of the entire movie, has so many story lines presented we had a hard time understanding where the movie was going to go. Once she mailed the cards and we started to see the interconnections, it made sense. But that was 40 minutes into the film, a bit long to keep audiences confused.

The Worst Christmas Movies of All Time:

 

Accidental Christmas

Brother and sister conspire to bring their separated parents back together. This idea has been done so many times it came across a being lame. We could have accepted it if the writers had come up with some interesting twists but they didn't. What really killed this movie for us was the male lead. The actor portrayed him as such an absent minded nitwit that it was impossible to believe he was a successful lawyer. Even worse were the many artificial mannerisms that gave the character a slightly maniacal look. Finally, this movie was a complete rip-off as far as the title was concerned. It had nothing to do with Christmas, in fact it took place in a beach house in sunny California. If the movie hadn't opened with a few shots of Christmas decorations on the side of a mall I'd never have suspected it was supposed to be a Christmas movie. I'm guessing the production company realized the movie was a bomb and added a few token references to Christmas in the hopes that holiday viewers would be more willing to accept it. The trick didn't work on us.

All About Christmas Eve

Lady event planner struggles to plan a party for a big client, who just happens to have romantic intentions toward her, at the same time she's supposed to be on a romantic holiday with her selfish jerk of a boyfriend. She arrives home to surprise him and finds him in bed with another girl. She flies back to the job only to discover her assistant botched a key presentation in an effort to scuttle her chances at a promotion. This is supposed to be a romantic comedy but it felt more like a confused, soap-opera drama.

 
All I Want For Christmas

This movie was color coded on our DVR as live action and the description suggested it was live action. Yet it appears to be a children's animated film. We gave it ten minutes to see if it was going to convert to live action, but when it didn't we gave up on it.

 
All She Wants For Christmas

Terrible. The female lead plays an accountant for a struggling Christmas ornament company with a giggly, over-the-top valley-girl personality that's ridiculous.

 
An Angel in the Family

Dead wife returns as an angel to help bring together her daughters who hate each other and sooth her aging husband who's starting to suffer from dementia. An extremely negative opening left us cold to whatever followed. cliche'd characters and uninteresting plot make this a poor movie. Also, the plot isn't really about Christmas. Everything that happened could just have well taken place anytime. Playing Christmas music in the background doesn't make this a Christmas story.

 
The Angel Of Pennsylvania Avenue

During the great depressions, three children trek to Washington to obtain a pardon for their unjustly jailed father. Overly melodramatic to the point of being painful to watch.

 
Annie Claus Is Coming To Town

Santa's daughter goes to LA to see if she wants to live in thre real world. While there, she's romanced by an actor hired by an evil elf to keep her there. The female lead was so overly sweet that we could never get into this movie. Many scenes of the north pole struck us as being childish and weak acting made things worse.

 
Anything But Christmas

A man is so traumatized by unhappy Christmases provided by his abusive, unloving parents that he not only hates the holiday, he has a knee jerk reaction against anything to do with it. He takes his widowed, secretly pregnant girl friend, who has a young son, to meet his parents. While there, she catches him about to have sex with a girl from his past. Yet she still cares for him after storming off. His acting is unbelievable, the plot unbelievable, and several over the top characterizations unbelievable. so you won't be surprised to read that we found it unbelievable we managed to watch this mess.

Baby's First Christmas (Also titled The Christmas Baby)

Feuding lawyers are thrown together on Christmas Eve, fight, grudgingly work together to help people and fall in love. This is a typical Hallmark Channel formula movie that almost made it into the "okay to watch once" list. The music was better than many Hallmark offerings, the female lead was mostly believable, the child actress was better than average and the writers resisted the temptation to yield to the obvious cliche'd ending toward which the movie seemed to be ending. What ruined this movie for us was the male lead, a self-centered, cynical corporate lawyer. The character never felt believable because his acting was weak. He seemed to be a collection of affectations rather than a real person. Also, he embraced his negativism so much that we couldn't identify with him. It's interesting to contrast his performance with Kevin Sorbo's in The Santa Suit. In that movie the cynical character could be empathized with because he came across as being a victim of his own cynicism. One last problem with The Christmas Baby is that most of the supporting cast was weak.

 
Back to Christmas

A woman gets her wish to go back in time one year so she can avoid doing everything that lead up to a failed engagement. What she learns is that the failure was more her fiance's fault than hers and that the man she should be with is her childhood neighbor friend. As silly as the plot sounds actually it worked better than expected. What ruined the movie for us was the marginal acting of the intended fiance' and his unattractive and childish jealous behaviors. The rather flaky lady wish granter seemed out of style with the rest of the movie.

 
Bad Santa

Billy Bob Thorton is a drunken, lecherous, abusive crook hiding behind a Santa costume. The constant flow of profanity, even after being edited for television, and crudeness goes so strongly against the Christmas spirit that we were revulsed by this movie.

 
NEW!!! Bad Santa 2

Another endless stream of crude humor and profanity.

 
Battle of the Bulbs

Two neighbors stage a relentless battle over who can put up the gaudiest Christmas display. This is a heavily conflict-based story which was counter to the Christmas spirit for so much of the movie that we ended up not caring how it ended.

 
Beethoven's Christmas Adventure also titled as Beethoven's Christmas

Silly and childish film about a talking dog helping a lost elf and teenager. We found it punishingly ridiculous.

 
Becoming Santa

A young woman's fiance' discovers that not only is she Santa Claus's daughter, but if he marries her he's in line to become the next Santa. The attempt to derive humor from adults acting flaky and quirky failed completely. Much of the behavior in this movie is unattractively childish. Santa has a very odd, harsh, angular look that wasn't appealing and the head elf looked and acted like a scruffy Boston taxi driver. Finally, Santa's daughter performing several lame magic tricks ended up making us feel this movie was a waste of time. It's too mature for children under twelve and too ridiculous for anyone over twelve.

 
Becoming Santa

A 40 year old man who's lost the Christmas spirit following the death of his parents enrolls in Santa school to be able to enjoy the holiday again. This is an interesting documentary but low production values and a script broken in many places by long narrative interview segments made this a movie we didn't enjoy.

 
A Belle For Christmas

Dean Cain stars in this mess about his being a single father of two and involved with a conniving, thieving, manipulative, mercenary girlfriend. This character was played so over the top that watching her was an insult to our senses. He eventually moves on to a nice girl, but by then the movie was ruined.

 
Best Man Holiday

This big budget Universal film boosts outstanding production values and some great acting. But, it's really just a soap opera taking place over Christmas with Christmas or the Christmas spirit not playing a big part. Much of the tone was so somber and at times edgy that even had it been a true Christmas movie we doubt we could have enjoyed it.

 
Beverly Hills Christmas

Terrible. A heartless business woman is killed and has to earn her way into heaven by being a guardian angel to her spoiled teenage daughter. The acting was universally bad, the characters unattractive and production values some of the worst we've ever seen.

 
Black Christmas

A disgusting slasher movie.

 
Blizzard

Poor special effects to make reindeer fly and talk make this fantasy ridiculous.

 
Borrowed Hearts

Businessman "rents" a single mother and her daughter to make a potential client think he has a happy family. cliche'd and annoying characters and plot lines.

 
A Bride For Christmas

This is a low-budget, weak remake of Julia Robert's hit movie Runaway Bride. Other than a scattering of decorations it has nothing to do with Christmas.

 
A Bunny For Christmas (Also titled The Christmas Bunny)

This is a typical, heavy-handed and ponderous Christian Network production about a troubled young girl in foster care who has a fixation on a bunny her older foster brother shoots with a BB gun. Drearily sad for most of the movie the few bright moments weren't enough to overcome the melancholy this film evokes. Particularly annoying was a scene in the second half where the brother who shot the rabbit earlier, decides to use it as a crash dummy in a snowboarding experiment after it's mostly healed. The young girl justifiably attacks him yet the parents don't acknowledge he did anything wrong. This isn't boyish pranking, but two incidents of deliberate animal cruelty. Finally, the plot didn't have anything to do with Christmas. The movie could just as well have taken place any time of the year.

 
Bush Christmas

This is a dated, slow moving Australian western filmed in soft black and white in 1947 about children thwarting horse thieves. We fell asleep halfway through it so we can't recommend it.

 
A Cadaver Christmas

Silly science fiction story about a rag-tag group of people fighting zombies over Christmas.

 
Call Me Claus

Santa has 4 weeks to instill the Christmas spirit in Whoopi Goldberg, a hard-as-nails business woman designated to replace him. She's funny as a cynic but doesn't sell it when she turns nice. Lame with poor special effects and cliche'd elves.

Call Me Mrs. Miracle

Weak sequel to the mostly good Mrs. Miracle. An angel (Mrs. Miracle) helps save a struggling department store during the Christmas season. The main characters weren't as interesting or appealing as the original. The acting and writing also weren't very good. Particularly annoying was the female lead's egotistical, artificially unattractive boss. We wanted very much to like this movie but 20 minutes into it we both thought it was a waste of time. We suffered through to the end but nothing happened to redeem it.

Cancel Christmas

People are losing the Christmas spirit and a board of overseers decides it's Santa's fault. He's directed to prove he still has a place in Christmas by instilling the Christmas spirit in three selfish boys. This movie had so many things wrong with it I wanted to turn it off after five minutes. In spite of this I ended up watching the whole thing, asking myself all the time why I was subjecting myself to such torture. The reason hit me as I started typing this review. For all its weaknesses it had something all the other movies I'd watched so far during the 2011 season lacked: it was about Christmas. All the others were stories that occurred over Christmas but didn't have much do do with either the holiday or the Christmas spirit. This movie, on the other hand, was 100-percent devoted to the value of Christmas, something sadly lacking in most movies of this genre. Having said that, I still have to warn interested viewers to avoid this movie at all costs. What's wrong with it? Let me count the ways:

 
1. It's filmed in Atlanta to excuse the fact that it doesn't look like winter. This was done to reduce filming costs.

2. Lame, childish special effects that were embarrassing to watch.

3. Santa was played as a weirdly spaced-out character who was uncomfortable to watch.

4. Santa's elf, a full-sized man, looked and acted goofy, silly, creepy, strange and obnoxious. This was the worst elf I've have seen in over 300 Christmas movies.

5. Production values were extremely poor. The number of sets was kept to a minimum and those were as plain as could be. For example, it was supposed to be a board of Santa supervisors that put him to task. Yet to save money the producer only hired one person to deal with Santa offering the lame excuse that the other board members were busy with other things. Worse still, the meeting wasn't even held in a board room. Santa and the one supervisor simply met in an empty hallway of some building.

6. The title is misleading. The movie isn't about cancelling Christmas, only firing the actual Santa. The board member states they they will retain all the image and merchandising rights to Santa.

7. The dialog is lame and accept for the female lead, the acting was mostly poor.

8. The board member is presented as someone who has personal issues with Santa, yet the audience is left hanging as to what they are and how they will be resolved.

9. When we see Santa in full garb, beard, suit, etc., he looks scruffy and unappealing.

10. What the board is and how it works are never explained.

 
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Unless you enjoy visual self-abuse we strongly recommend avoiding this movie.

 
NEW!!! Carole's Christmas

This is one of the few movies we turned off before it was over. It was filmed in summer to reduce production costs, almost all of it was shot inside in small rooms giving the movie a claustrophobic feel and the camera person repeatedly zoomed in so close to the actors faces that it looked as if they were being pushed out of the screen at us. Five minutes after it started we were squirming uncomfortably for it to be over.

Catch A Christmas Song (Also titled Catch a Christmas Star)

The movie had a contrived, artificial look and feel that turned us off after five minutes. Regrettably, waiting for it to get better didn't help. A widower's precocious children bring him together with his high school sweet heart who is now a famous singer. Painfully predictable.

 
A Carol Christmas

Tori Spelling plays a selfish, self-absorbed talk show host who gets the "Christmas Carol" routine. cliche'd situations, cheap special effects, predictable writing and "B" grade acting combine to make this flick a waste of time.

 

A Chance of Snow

While snowbound at an airport, a separated wife and husband meet and circumstances force them to resolve their issues. Though not badly acted, there's an offensive thread running through the plot that made it a real turn-off. The couple separated because the husband had an affair. All through the movie the husband's affair is portrayed as a minor, almost innocent, transgression while the wife's anger and frustration at it is portrayed so as to make her seem selfish, unreasonable and that the affair was really her fault. Both of us found this anti-wife prejudice disgusting. Also, the fact that all the action took place in an airport made the scenery boring.

 
Chasing Christmas

Tom Arnold is unattractive as a Christmas cynic who is subjected to a gimmicky, hip version of that overworked theme: A Christmas Carol.

 
A Christmas Arrangement

A young lady enters a flower decorating contest to promote her failing flower store. Contrived situations, unrealistic behaviors, weak acting and cheap production values turned us off to this movie before we'd gotten ten minutes into it. It didn't improve with time. The two biggest problems for us were that the female lead acted a little too ditsy and the male lead looked and acted like he was auditioning for a Tom Cruise look alike contest.

 
Christmas at Maxwell's

Overly somber movie about a family dealing with their terminally ill wife and mother. They take in an old man as a Christmas guest and he ends up providing miraculous cures for both the mother and the daughter when she falls and hits her head. Although this takes place over the holiday it's more of a Christian faith movie than a holiday movie.

 
Christmas At Pemberly Manor

A loose take-off of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In this incarnation, Elizabeth Bennett is an event planner and Mr. Darcy is a property developer about to tear down a house she wants to use for a Christmas festival. Goofy business assistants acting childish, a cliche'd selfish boss and an overly loud musical soundtrack consisting of simplified versions of Christmas classics made this movie painful to watch.

 
Christmas at Water's Edge

The opening scene has a senior angel showing a new angel his first assignment on a heavenly television screen: a young woman devoid of the Christmas spirit. Predictable with poor special effects.

 
The Christmas Baby (Also titled Baby's First Christmas)

Feuding lawyers are thrown together on Christmas Eve, fight, grudgingly work together to help people and fall in love. This is a typical Hallmark Channel formula movie that almost made it into the "okay to watch once" list. The music was better than many Hallmark offerings, the female lead was mostly believable, the child actress was better than average and the writers resisted the temptation to yield to the obvious cliche'd ending toward which the movie seemed to be ending. What ruined this movie for us was the male lead, a self-centered, cynical corporate lawyer. The character never felt believable because his acting was weak. He seemed to be a collection of affectations rather than a real person. Also, he embraced his negativism so much that we couldn't identify with him. It's interesting to contrast his performance with Kevin Sorbo's in The Santa Suit. In that movie the cynical character could be empathized with because he came across as being a victim of his own cynicism. One last problem with The Christmas Baby is that most of the supporting cast was weak.

 
Christmas Belle

This movie had a mass-produced, cookie-cutter feeling from the very beginning. Obtrusive, monotonous piano background sound track did nothing but hurt the formula plot of a nice, hardworking girl and a morose young man she's works for falling in love. She's too sweet and he spends most of the movie with his shirt off. The characters were so cliche'd that after 20 minutes we didn't care how the movie ended, only that it couldn't end soon enough. One particularly annoying feature was repeated scenes of the man's vineyards with the vines not only clothed in bright green leaves but with bunches of grapes hanging from them. The movie starts one week before Christmas in California. Everyone knows that grapes ripen in Spring and summer. In December the vines look completely dead. In their effort so reduce costs by filming in summer the producers made it clear they thought viewers were idiots because no effort was made to hide this error. In fact, several scenes emphasized it in an effort to capitalize on the romance of wine making.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Belles

This is an overly busy soap opera with too many characters exhibiting affected, cliche'd behaviors. Production values were also very weak.

 
A Christmas Blessing

This movie opens with a firefight in Afghanistan where a soldier gets killed, leaving behind a wife and four children. What follows is a chronicle of his wife and children dealing with his loss and trying to make new lives for themselves. Most of the acting was good and the story line interesting, but there were so many unattractive scenes and situations (teen gang issues, young people with attitude problems, a young girl getting drugged, cliche'd male stereotypes and one very unattractive character) that left us feeling very negative about it. The connection to Christmas was weak for most of the movie.

 
The Christmas Blessing

Starring Neil Patrick Haris, this story is about a doctor returning home after losing a patient. It's a sequel to The Christmas Shoes that depends too much on having seen the original. It has too many story lines and a young boy dying at the end of the movie soured it for us.

 
Christmas Bounty

Silly romantic comedy about a lady school teacher who's secretly a bounty hunter. While it takes place over Christmas it has nothing to do with the holiday and could just as easily have happened any time of the year.

The Christmas Bunny (Also titled A Bunny for Christmas)

This is a typical, heavy-handed and ponderous Christian Network production about a troubled young girl in foster care who has a fixation on a bunny her older foster brother shoots with a BB gun. Drearily sad for most of the movie the few bright moments weren't enough to overcome the melancholy this film evokes. Particularly annoying was a scene in the second half where the brother who shot the rabbit earlier, decides to use it as a crash dummy in a snowboarding experiment after it's mostly healed. The young girl justifiably attacks him yet the parents don't acknowledge he did anything wrong. This isn't boyish pranking, but two incidents of deliberate animal cruelty. Finally, the plot didn't have anything to do with Christmas. The movie could just as well have taken place any time of the year.

 
The Christmas Candle

This turn of the century costume drama about a minister coming to a small town with a history of angels blessing candles that provide miracles was a little too heavy in religious themes and drab looking for our tastes.

 
Christmas Caper

Lady jewel thief hides out in her home town and discovers love and the value of home. Painfully predictable and the girl playing the lead has an extremely tired look around her eyes. It gave us the impression she hated being in this movie but had to do it for the pay check.

 
The Christmas Child

Better written and acted than many made-for-TV Christmas movies, but so sad that we can't recommend it. Also, the preacher and sheriff are extremely cliche'd characters.

 
The Christmas Choir

Inspired by actual events, an accountant forms a choir of homeless men to help them and the mission they rely upon. Although it was cliche'd, hokey, and unrealistic, we nonetheless enjoyed this movie until a little over halfway through when the writer decided the plot needed some conflict so out of nowhere he had the main character throw a tantrum and gives up on the choir. It was so artificially staged that it ruined the rest of the movie. Almost as bad was another hard-to-believe tragedy near the end.

 
The Christmas Clause

Lea Thompson, whom I normally like, tries too hard in this movie about a harried mother of three who makes a wish to a mall Santa to have a glamorous life. Within minutes her children pummel her with so much attitude and mean-spirited behavior that she passes out to awaken in the life she thought she wanted. The predictable happens as she learns how much she misses her real life. She wakes from a three-day unconsciousness caused by a fever to discover it was all a dream, but one from which she learned valuable lessons. Similar to Holiday Switch and just as bad.

 
Christmas Comes Home To Canaan

In this sequal to Christmas In Canaan, Billy Ray Cyrus once again fights racial prejudice in his home town. This time out he also finds love in a doctor helping his son regain the use of his legs. Christmas has nothing to do with the story and 90-percent of it takes place during summer and Spring.

 
Christmas Consultant

David Hasselhof is downright weird as an over-the-top professional Christmas organizer hired by workaholic parents to run their Christmas. He looks so out of character that he made the entire movie unbelievable.

 
Christmas Cookies

A lady executive goes to a small town to purchase a local cookie company. She meets the handsome owner and the expected happens. The lack of chemistry between the two leads, the marginal acting ability of the male lead, too many overly perky secondary characters and a plot that been used almost as often as The Christmas Carol made watching this movie a challenge.

 
Christmas Crash

Melodrama about a couple in a troubled marriage trying to survive a small plane crash in the wilderness over Christmas. The plot and all the faults are virtually identical to Lost Holiday reviewed farther down this page.

 
Christmas Cruise

A lady writer takes a Christmas cruise and discovers romance. The connection to the Christmas spirit was almost non-existent and a few ridiculous characters made this a movie we didn't enjoy.

NEW!!! Christmas Cupcakes

Two sisters compete in a cupcake baking contest to win enough money to save the family bakery. This was a very nice movie that should have been up in the 'good' list, except the connection to Christmas was almost nonexistent. There were a few lame decorations in the background and a couple of comments about Christmas, but with very little effort this movie could have taken place any time of the year. It's entertaining to watch, but we didn't see enough Christmas in it to class it as a Christmas movie.

 
Christmas Cupid

Another knock-off of the Christmas Carol theme. This time a girl publicist is visited by a dead client to show her how she's mistreated her ex-boyfriends to convince her to make amends. Poor acting and grating characters made this painful to watch.

 
Christmas Dance

Businessman managing a real estate venture discovers the dance studio of the lady instructor he's hired to teach him how to dance is scheduled to be torn down. The situations are contrived and the male lead's acting struck us as a little weak. Still, this movie isn't totally bad so we're ranking it as one of the best on the avoid list.

 
A Christmas Detour

Candace Camaron-Bure plays a ditzy, hyperactively perky character traveling to meet her fiance's parents. She gets stranded with a anti-romance man and the predictable happens. Ms. Bure's character felt artificial and affected. We could never believe in her. Also, much of the dialog struck us as contrived. As serious as those issues are, the biggest problem with this movie is that it suffers from yet another of Hallmark's annoyingly persistent, repetitive background sound tracks. It's not overly loud, but it never stops. It keeps droning on and on until that was all we could focus on. We like Ms. Bure and have enjoyed many of her movies, but this was one we couldn't wait until it ended. It's not the worst in the "avoid" list, but it's one we never want to suffer through again. The connection is extremely weak.

 
Christmas Do-Over

Unfunny remake of Groundhog Day. A Christmas-hating divorced father goes home for the holiday. He's so frenetically sarcastic that before ten minutes had passed neither of us cared what happened to him. He was such a jerk that he hated the idea of spending a single day with his son. It was unbelievable that anyone would have married him in the first place.

 
Christmas Dreams

A young girl discovers a magical store while looking for a gift for her sister. This musical features too many characters trying to be quirky. That and several childish special effects made this movie all but unwatchable.

 
Christmas Eve

George Raft stars in this 1940-era movie about three adoptive sons who return home to prevent their mother from having control of her estate taken away. This isn't a Christmas movie because the only purpose of Christmas (eve, actually) is to serve as a time for them to meet the judge who will review the case. Ninety-percent of the story is really about the lives her three sons have led, and isn't very interesting. One son saves the day in the last two minutes of the movie by blackmailing the lawyer trying to get control of her estate in an artificial and contrived ending.

 
Christmas Every Day

Yet another failed attempt to use the Groundhog Day plot to show how someone mean learns the virtue of embracing the Christmas Spirit. The problem is that during most of the movie the 13-year old boy, who is the subject of the movie, is so unattractively self centered that by the end we didn't care what happened to him. His conversion didn't ring true and I regret to say that in our opinion he wasn't a good enough actor to carry the movie, though perhaps that's more the script's fault. Two silly special effects added to this movie's problems.

 
Christmas Everlasting

Lady executive returns home for her sister's funeral and discovers what's important in life. This movie features excellent acting and outstanding production values. But, the tone is so melancholy that while it works as a drama, it isn't much fun to watch. Also, the connection to Christmas is very weak. It could have taken place any time of the year.

 
Christmas Evil

A psycho stalks "bad" little boys and girls. Disgusting.

The Christmas Gift (Sometimes billed as The Christmas Wish)

John Denver plays the widowed father of a young girl. He's sent over Christmas to evaluate a quaint town for development. Along the way he falls in love with the town and a lady post office manager. This movie has an overly contrasty look that causes enough eye strain to be uncomfortable after a few minutes. Additionally, it suffers from being noisy, several continuity errors, weak acting and forced dramatic situations.

 
The Christmas Heart

Financially strapped family discover their teenage son needs a heart transplant. In a parallel plot line, the semi-criminal adult son of a single mother gets fatally injured leaving is pregnant girlfriend alone. The predicable happens as the first boy's town folk work together to get the second man's heart into town for the transplant. There was far too much tragedy and sadness to make this movie pleasant to watch and the ending was predictable.

 
A Christmas Hope

Please see A Christmas Wish below.

Christmas Icetastrophy

Low budget Sci Fi channel thriller about a meteor causing a deadly freeze around a small town. Ridiculous concept weighed down with cliche'd characters that has nothing to do with Christmas other than it happens during the holiday.

A Christmas In A Royal Fashion

An irresponsible playboy prince is sent to Los Angeles over Christmas to represent his country at a charity event being managed by the lady assistant to the pushy boss of a public relations firm. Romance ensues. Filming in LA to save production costs, flicking pages in the opening scenes and magical pixie dust sprinklings to mark scene changes didn't impress us. The PR lady acted a little too flaky and the prince didn't seem real.

 
Christmas in Canaan

This story about racial prejudice is being relegated to the 'avoid' list not because it's a bad movie, but because it has practically nothing to do with Christmas and the vast majority of it takes place during other seasons of the year.

 
Christmas in Compton

Some of the acting was quite good, several characters interesting and the situations unexpected... but, the negatives of low production values, an overly assertive and harsh soundtrack, several chiched African-American stereotypes, flat acting by much of the supporting cast and urination humor overpowered the positives.

 
Christmas in Connecticut (1992)

Dyan Cannon stars in a lame remake of Barbara Stanwyck's 1945 classic.

 
Christmas in Conway

The movie is an uncomfortable mixture of comedy and tragedy as a man struggles to build a Ferris wheel in his back yard while his wife is dying. Other than being filmed in summer to reduce costs, production values were high, the writing good and the acting believable. But, the overriding sense of sadness mixed with moments of comedy created a jarring effect that we couldn't enjoy.

 
Christmas in July

Dated 1940s humor haunts this Preston Sturgess film about a man who thinks he's won a contest and goes on a spending spree. It has nothing to do with Christmas, other than he buys gifts for all his friends.

Christmas in Palm Springs

Mostly filmed in Palm Springs to reduce production costs, this Pure/Flix offering is a weak remake of the Disney classic The Parent Trap where two children contrive to bring their separated parents back together. The male lead was unattractively irresponsible and flaky and everything felt affected.

 
Christmas in Paradise

Single parents on a cruise with their children meet and fall in love. Each has a cliche'd good kid and one with attitude, the soundtrack is annoying, the director uses too many split screen effects and the editing is choppy. This movie gave us both eyestrain. Adding to this long list of negatives is some weirdness about the three kings from a Caribbean nativity scene coming to life and appearing sporadically throughout the movie.

 
Christmas in the City

Struggling single mother take a job in a department store to earn money to save her father's toy store. We felt she was overly positive and one dimensional while her daughter came across as unbelievably sweet. The antagonist in the story was a lady efficiency expert who was played far too over the top to be believable. The cliche'd ending of the mother falling in love with the store manager and the store's Santa turning out to be the real Santa didn't ring true. This isn't a TV Christmas movie we can recommend to watch.

 
Christmas in Wonderland

Terrible. The children of a financially strapped family find $200,000 in counterfeit money dropped by two inept thieves. The silly, infantile behavior of many supporting actors made this movie painful to sit through.

 
A Christmas Kiss

This is a predictable romantic comedy about an interior designer working for a mean boss and falls in love with the boss's boyfriend. The lady boss is so viciously self-centered that she didn't come across as believable and soured the entire movie for us. An early scene where the female lead and her love-to-be meet in an elevator that seems on the verge of falling was totally unbelievable because instead of reaching for the emergency phone they fall into each others arms for a passionate kiss. Worse still, immediately afterward she runs away from the man she instantly fell in love with. Several dialog scenes between three girlfriends felt forced.

 
Christmas Lodge

A young woman helps a family friend restore a mountain lodge while falling in love with him. In the strictest sense this isn't a Christmas movie because all but the last scene takes place between July and December and Christmas itself isn't a theme of the movie. Some people may feel the omnipresent Christian ethics voiced many times during the movie to be a little forced and contrived. Because it's not about Christmas, but rather a place called The Christmas Lodge, I can't recommend it as a Christmas movie. I also felt it was a little slow moving. The acting was generally good and some of the scenery was beautiful.

 
Christmas Mail

Paranoid anti-Christmas postal manager orders a mail carrier to spy on a girl sent by the home office to answer all of the letters to Santa. The boss's character was clownish and the female lead character was so sweet as to be silly. The predictable happens. This one had us groaning in agony within the first half hour.

 
A Christmas Memory

Overly-colorful and quaint characters make this depression-era story of the emotional trauma about a hard-as-nails aunt sending her nephew off to boarding school difficult to watch. While it doesn't end as expected, the ending is so sad it robbed us of Christmas spirit rather than boosted it. The connection to Christmas is so weak as to be almost nonexistent.

 
Christmas Miracle At Sage Creek

This is a slow moving, low budget 1880s American western about people overcoming hardship and prejudice. It's not a bad movie but we didn't enjoy it. Western lovers might find it watchable. +

 
A Christmas Mystery

A woman hires a detective to help her locate the man who has been sending her recently deceased mother Christmas cards. While the mystery is mildly diverting, the fact is this is the worst misrepresentation of a Christmas movie we've ever watched. Filmed in sunny southern California in summer to reduce production costs, there are hardly any even token Christmas decorations to be seen, only twice did we notice anything vaguely familiar as Christmas music, and in one case it was a jailed convict humming it as if he was deranged, and the plot had absolutely nothing to do with either Christmas or the Christmas spirit.

 
Christmas Next Door

A Christmas hating confirmed bachelor has to baby sit two young children over the holiday. His attractive neighbor comes to his rescue and romance ensues. Too much of the acting struck us as artificial. We never believed in the characters. Also, there was one scene where the neighbor is supposed to be playing the violin, but her movements were so out of synch with the music and her motions so wrong that it was painfully obvious it was all fake. This sounds like a small point, but it was so obvious that it made for a bad scene, one whose memory stuck with us the rest of the movie and soured us on it.

 
A Christmas Note

A young woman finds a note in the belongings of her estranged mother who has recently died stating she has a brother she never knew existed. With the help of a new friend she searches for her lost sibling. We found the ending an unbelievable coincidence but the bigger problem was that this isn't a Christmas movie. It takes place over Christmas but the holiday plays practically no role in the picture. It's not a bad movie, but as a mystery it moves a little slow. +

 
Christmas on Chestnut Street

A disgusting movie about a Christmas decorating contest that turns everyone into win-at-any-cost monsters. Vile humor derived from an man's affliction with Alzheimer's, cliche'd character humor from a Frenchman and a dwarf, crude language and a brawl over Christmas ornaments make this one of the worst Christmas movies we've ever seen.

 
Christmas On Division Street

A homeless man tutors a new kid at an exclusive school. Released in 1991, this movie was interesting, but moved too slowly and a conflict between the original frame rate and modern television refresh rates made many scenes look so jittery it gave us headaches.

 
Christmas On Holly Lane

Three women who were friends when they were young get together later in life while each is suffering with personal problems. This drama starts with such a sad, desperate note that the resolutions that eventually take place weren't sufficient to leave us feeling happy. If you're in the mood for a heavy drama, try this one but we didn't feel it fit our criteria for a light and happy Christmas movie.

 
Christmas On The Coast

Lady writer spends the holiday on the coast to recover her writing instiration, and reduce production costs. Almost every charater was unappealing and unbelievable.

 
Christmas Oranges

A sweet girl endures hardships in an orphanage. cliche'd situations and characters coupled with amateurish acting made this difficult to watch.

 
The Christmas Parade

A newscaster finds out while on the air that her fiance' is cheating with someone else. Humiliated, she runs away, crashes into the fence of a small town judge and is sentenced to community service. This is a remake of The Christmas Pageant. Although production values are good and the entire supporting cast is excellent, this movie is ruined by the valley-girl affectations of the female lead. Her over active behaviors and sarcastic expressions soured us on her in the first few minutes, and I regret to say that even late in the movie when she turns into a better person many of these annoying mannerisms are still present. She seldom smiles and when she does it doesn't look real. During most of the first half of the film, she walks with such an exaggerated hip swing that I thought she was going to split in half at the waist. It wasn't comical, just silly. She looks like she should be a pretty girl, but her expressions and body language render her so unattractive we couldn't wait for this movie to end.

 
Christmas Pen Pals

An Internet obsessed lady gets involved with a hand-written pen pal program while visiting her home town. In this You've Got Mail themed plot, she ends up with her high school boyfriend as her love interest. The movie itself isn't too bad, but it's ruined by the lead actress, who plays her part with such over-the-top hyperactivity that most of the time she seemed wired, as if she was on speed. Watching her was like listening to nails being dragged across a blackboard. We also hated the Merci chocolates imbedded commercial with its super close-up that made it insultingly obvious.

 
Christmas Princess

This drama is about a young girl overcoming an abusive childhood to become a Rose Bowl princess. It isn't a bad movie but it has almost nothing to do with Christmas so we can't recommend it as a Christmas movie.

 
A Christmas Proposal

Ruthless land developer Tom Arnold plans to wipe out a quaint town to build a new ski resort. He sends his top headhunter to close the deal in spite of opposition lead by the young man's former girl friend. The predictable happens. Lame acting and screenplay weaken this movie. It's also not really a Christmas movie in that Christmas doesn't have anything to do with the plot.

This movie demonstrates a growing pattern in many of Christmas movies we viewed in 2008. To reduce production costs the movie is shot during the summer and to cover this glaring problem some lame comment is made early in the movie to the effect that it's odd that snow hasn't fallen yet. This is so obviously false, because scenes are filled with summer plants in full flower and trees in full leaf, that it's an insult to the viewer's intelligence.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Reservations

Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina The Teenage Witch) stars as the manager of a ski resort. A man from her past books rooms and romance ensues. We felt this movie was overpopulated with far too many characters, several of which weren't particularly attractive. Also, it had a frantic feel to it that set us on edge. Having said that, it's much better than most of the movies in this section. It's not terrible or offensive, we just didn't enjoy it. Others may love it.

 
A Christmas Reunion

A lady executive inherits her aunt's bakery and reopens it with her ex-boyfriend who shares the inheritance with her. It didn't take long for us to dislike this movie. Denise Richards has a very strained look to her features that was uncomfortable to watch. The two leads try to portray entertaining banter, but it came across as overly harsh. Most of the acting was weak enough that we never believed in this movie so we're recommending people avoid it.

 
A Christmas Romance

This movie starring Olivia Newton-John as a widowed mother struggling to keep her house from bank foreclosure could have been alright except one of her daughters displayed an annoyingly negative attitude and the bank officer sent to inform her of her status, who later becomes the love interest, is so self-centered that we hated him from the start.

 
The Christmas Secret

Richard Thomas is a great actor but even his skill couldn't make this movie about a flying squirrel expert becoming obsessed with the science of flying reindeer believable.

The Christmas Secret

The plot involves a single mother of two struggling to make ends meet over Christmas. Making things impossible for her is an violently abusive ex-husband, a landlord threatening to evict her and her children on Christmas, a heartless boss who seemed to enjoy firing her, not enough money to buy her children any presents and the loss of a cherished family heirloom added up to just too many misfortunes for the eventual positive ending to make up for. Having said that, production values were high, the acting universally good, with the exception of the maniacal ex-husband, and Hallmark finally managed to figure out how to release a movie with a good soundtrack. So, while we're listing it as a movie to avoid, we're gave it a + to indicate it's one of the better entries in this list.

 
The Christmas Shoes

This movie was so sickeningly tender and the boy playing the lead such a poor actor that it was painful to watch. (Stories about someone's slow death are extremely difficult to write, direct and act and have only been successful a very few times. Dark Victory starring Bette Davis is one of the best.)

 
A Christmas Snow

Workaholic restaurant owner gets trapped by snow with her boyfriend's young daughter and an old man over Christmas. The daughter is cliche'd as being resentful that the woman may take her dead mother's place. She's so offensively obnoxious during the first half of the movie that it really turned us off. While the acting is mostly good, the overall tone is so somber that it didn't make us feel like Christmas. Additionally, like many movies produced for the Christian Network, this one gets a little heavy handed at times as it pushes its religious agenda.

 
The Christmas Snowman

A young woman builds a snowman, falls asleep and dreams that the snowman comes to life as her perfect man. When she wakes up she discovers her new neighbor is the man she dreamed about. This is the second 12-minute vignette aired in 2017. While it's attractively done, we can't recommend it because it ends just when you start to get interested in the characters. It feels like the station cancelled a movie after the first commercial break. It felt us feeling cheated.

 
Christmas Solo

A single mother in a new town bonds with a local handyman while her daughter tries to fit into high school's music program. While the two main leads are both appealing and good actors, most of the acting in this movie is very weak. Add in mediocre production values and some cliche'd mean teenage girls and you end up with a movie that felt like a waste of time for us.

 
The Christmas Stallion

Drab production values and cliche'd characters with Scottish accents didn't help this movie about a man returning home to save the family horse ranch. The biggest problem was that this isn't really a Christmas movie. It could have taken place any time of the year.

 
The Christmas Star

Ed Asner stars in this 1986 Disney movie about a cynical escaped convict mistaken by children as Santa. In the process of using them to recover stolen loot, he's converted to a good guy and saves their parents from being evicted from their home on Christmas Eve. A greedy landlord is artificially mean and a couple of miracle-type scenes felt out of place. The movie feels very dated and with its other problems relegates it to the "avoid" list. One good thing is that unlike so many movies shown during the 2011 season, Christmas themes are echoed throughout the story.

 
A Christmas Story

Although this movie received several positive reviews, neither my wife nor I could get into it. The adult voice-over reflecting a boy's feelings as he tries to convince his parents to get him a BB gun for Christmas sounded forced, over exuberant and distracting. Production values were poor with many sets seeming jumbled and confusing.

 
A Christmas Story 2

A harsh looking, overly frantic sequel to A Christmas Story. The teenage background narrative was distracting, the score annoying and the overall feel that was supposed to come across as quirky was really bizarre. In this incarnation the boy who wanted a BB gun in the original is now a teenager and suffers the predictable types of teen angst.

 
Christmas Swap

Poor older brother magically swaps bodies with his younger, cold, successful brother. The both grow from the experience. As silly as the plot sounds, we found it quite entertaining. The reason we relegated it to the "avoid" list is that although the ending takes place around Christmas, the movie really has nothing to do with the holiday. It could have taken place anytime of the year.

 
Christmas Switch

An arrogant, workaholic business lady and a struggling waitress switch personalities when Mrs. Nick (Mrs. Claus) causes them to do so via a ridiculous special effect. Confusion ensues as they live each other's lives and learn what they have is what they want. This is a cliche'd plot that suffers from overuse. This particular version also suffers from low resolution airing on the UP network.

A Christmas Tale

In French with English subtitles. Catherine Deneuve stars in a movie about a family holiday where the matriarch is discovered to be ill. Graphic violence and obscene language turned us off on this movie as did the fact that Christmas was only used as the excuse for bringing the characters together.

 
Christmas Town

Single mother who doesn't believe in Christmas takes her son to visit his grandfather in a remote northern town. He discovers a sleigh he thinks is Santa's and hides away in it to sneak into Santa's Factory. His mother searches for him while doing so catches a glimpse of an arm in a Santa suit and somehow this convinces her Santa is real. Lame acting, obvious blunders, cliche''d situations and a couple of unattractive characters made this a poor Christmas movie for us.

 
The Christmas Trap

Another of the 2017 10-minute long mini-movies that we found annoying. They are well made. But just when you get interested in the characters or plot, it ends, leaving us feel cheated.

 
The Christmas Tree Miracle

Dysfunctional family falls on hard times, are taken in by a Christmas tree farmer and rediscover their faith. cliche'd characters, marginal acting, predictable plot and a family that was so unattractively self-centered combined to make us hate this movie after just ten minutes. Sadly, it never got better.

 
Christmas Truce

A soldier and woman meet and fall in love during a brief lull during World War II and vow to reconnect after the war. Everything about this movie felt fake, starting with the opening credits which were painfully corny to watch. After that things got worse. The opening scene shows two women trudging through a muddy forest in the middle of a was zone... wearing spotless designer clothes complete with perfectly coifed hair and hats. The acting was affected and the dialogs artificial. The biggest problem was that the producers tried to make what was supposed to look like a big budget production with a far too small budget.

 
Christmas Twister

Low budget thriller about a meteorologist searching for his lost children during the holiday after a tornado attack.

 
NEW!!! Christmas Under The Stars

This is a well made, well acted movie about a single mother mourning the loss of her father and falling in love with an man working in a Christmas tree lot. The opening scenes were so heavy with her loss, her grieving son missing his grandfather, relentless financial burdens forced on her by heartless bill collectors and a young man being fired when he thought he was going to be promoted, that they cast a such melancholy pall over the movie that even though everything worked out in the end, we simply couldn't enjoy it. We understand the idea was to show people rising up out of adversary, but the aftertaste of the sad opening never left us.

This movie is making us consider adding a new grouping: movies we can't recommend but that aren't necessarily bad.

 
A Christmas Visitor

William Devane stars in this movie about the ghost of his son, killed in the Gulf War, coming back to fix things at home. The story was sad and I found the patriotic gestures too forced, and I say this as a 20-year veteran of the Air Force.

The Christmas Visitor

This is a harmless, "G" rated family movie about a 1890s sheep ranching family struggling against a drought and mean land baron. While there are a few passing references to Christmas, it felt more like a western drama. Filmed in Australia, where Christmas takes place in summer and filming expenses are corresponding lower, it spends most of its time dealing with the hardships of sheep farming rather than Christmas. I found the cliche'd ending where a young boy melts the hearts of both a thief and an embittered land baron to be too predictable to be entertaining. This movie features a common weakness that pops up from time to time with televised features. Someone who didn't watch the movie wrote the description of it to go with the title and this description is simply copied and forwarded along with the movie where ever it's shown. The problem is that no one checks to make sure it's correct. In this case it isn't. The description states that the movie is about a young boy mistaking a gold miner as Father Christmas. In reality, the man is a vagrant and thief who's blackmailing the land baron.

 
Christmas Wedding

Business woman called away on a job leaves organizing her wedding to her fiance'. Confusion results. This isn't really a Christmas movie since the holiday has no effect on the the plot.

 
Christmas Wedding Baby

A dysfunctional family of three daughters and their mother endure personal issues while planning the wedding of the youngest daughter. While the acting is mostly good, the fact that the movie had nothing to do with Christmas or the Christmas spirit other than having the final scenes take place on Christmas and the mother being so viciously self centered, bordering on psychological abuse, resulted in its being relegated to the "avoid" list.

 
Christmas Wedding Date

Unattractively cynical and self-centered woman returns home over Christmas and by reliving the same day over and over (a la Groundhog Day) learns the Christmas spirit. Hardly ten minutes passed and we began looking forward to commercials so we could have a break from this movie. The young woman is so mean at one point she aims an cynical trade at a young girl scout try to sell Christmas cookies. Most of the supporting characters were unattractive and the humor was unfunny. Add to this a magical taxi driver and you have a mess worthy of missing.

 
The Christmas Wedding Tail

Talking dogs scheme to get their masters to fall in love and marry. This is a lamely written and acted summer-time romantic comedy with a couple of Christmas songs added as background music to make it qualify as a Christmas movie. It didn't work for us as either a romantic movie or a Christmas film.

 
Christmas... Who Needs It

Painfully low production values and weak acting made this movie an agony to watch.

 
A Christmas Wish (Sometimes billed as A Christmas Hope)

The tragic tone of this movie about a marriage on the verge of divorce, a sick orphaned baby and a young girl who's single mother just died in a car crash make it uncomfortable to watch. Besides that, although it takes place over Christmas the plots don't have anything to do with the holiday.

 
The Christmas Wish (Sometimes billed as The Christmas Gift)

John Denver plays the widowed father of a young girl. He's sent on Christmas to evaluate a quaint town for development. Along the way he falls in love with the town and a lady post office manager. This movie has an overly contrasty look that causes enough eye strain to be uncomfortable after a few minutes. Additionally, it suffers from being noisy, several continuity errors, weak acting and forced dramatic situations.

 
A Christmas Wish

Painfully out of date stop motion animation, extremely poor film quality and contrived situations make this 1950 movie starring Jimmy Durante impossible to watch without going blind in one eye.

 
Christmas With A Capital "C"

Cynical businessman returns to his small town Alaskan home and attempts to quash Christmas to support a business venture. We found the battle between the Christian Mayor and atheistic businessman to be so unattractive it was uncomfortable to watch. Produced by the PureFlix company, it follows a religious hard line that might make some people uncomfortable. Also, it was unclear whether the businessman's motives were financial or person because of an old conflict with the mayor. There are few interesting twists, but in the end it was too predictable to recommend.

 
Christmas With Holly

A young man with a mute orphaned niece meets a jilted bride over Christmas. Like the vast majority of recent Christmas movies this one has nothing to do with the holiday spirit. The first quarter of the movie feels jumbled. In the end we classed it as an awkward, slow moving romantic comedy with an uncomfortable element in the mute girl.

 

Christmas with the Kranks

This isn't really a movie with a plot but rather an excuse to string together a series of sight gags. I found one scene where a neighbor's cat is abused to be particularly offensive. How can something like this claim to represent the Christmas spirit?

 
Christmas with Tucker

Young boy fights to get a dog away from an abusive owner. This is a slow, oddly familiar drama. Much of the acting felt forced and some slow motion scenes of the boy playing with the dog looked very dated.

 

Christmas With The Andersons

Self absorbed, superficial, financially irresponsible parents of two arrogant kids who dump attitude on everyone find themselves in financial trouble and are forced to downsize their annual lavish Christmas party. In they process discover what's really important in life. The acting was so weak, the characters so unappealing and the situations so corny that we hated this movie before the first commercial break could relieve us of watching it. By the time everyone started acting human we were completely alienated couldn't have cared less.

 
Christmas - Who Needs It

Poor production values, unconvincing acting and an odd, live-documentary style of filming made this a painful movie to watch.

 
A Cinderella Christmas

This time around, Cinderella is a pastry chef working in her father's small entertainment business while her mean sister bedevils her and steals all the credit for her work. We understand that we're supposed to hate the evil sister, but in this incarnation we hated her so much that she ruined the movie for us. It wasn't just that she was bad, but that anyone in their mid-twenties could act so childishly was unbelievable. We don't like being mean, but another problem was that the actress playing Cinderella was so odd looking that we winced every time she appeared.

 
Coins For Christmas

This movie about a struggling mother of two and an injured athlete had too much personal and professional angst for us to enjoy. The emphasis was on drama instead of romantic comedy. For Christmas we prefer movies on the lighter side.

 
A Cookie Cutter Christmas

Two unattractively competitive women use a holiday baking contest to fight for the affections of a widower. All the actors' acting felt affected and the tone was so negative that we started fast forwarding after only fifteen minutes.

 
A Country Christmas

Santa gets dithery and crashes into a country barn. Two young children find him and his elf and help him to get back to normal. Weak acting, silly concept, low production values and a set of opening credits that are so childishly simplistic they made us want to delete the movie before it had started. Our mistake was not doing so. Learn from it and avoid this movie at all costs.

 
A Country Christmas Album

A struggling country singer and single mother is forced to record an album with an equally struggling pop singer. The credibility of this movie was brought into question because casting hired a male actor who couldn't sing. The lead actress was really pretty good, but he was painful to listen to. We also couldn't see him as a credible love interest for the lead actress. But the real killer for this movie is that over half of it takes place around Halloween as they record the album. It's only toward the end that Christmas starts appearing.

 
A Country Christmas Story

Dolly Parton has a few brief spots in this musical melodrama about a young girl competing in a televised music contest at Dollyland. Even though the writers resisted the cliche'd ending that was expected, the connection to Christmas was so weak and the situations were so contrived that we feel we can't recommend it.

 
Crazy for Christmas

Howard Hessman is over-the-top as a rich man tossing away hundred dollar bills during Christmas as he stupidly and clumsily tries to bond with a daughter from an affair with her mother. Particularly offensive is the cliche'd portrayal of two elderly women.

 
Dead End

This is a grating, unattractive thriller about a family Christmas trip gone terribly wrong.

 
Dear Secret Santa

Young woman starts receiving letters from a secret admirer and begins to suspect they are from a dead friend. This is that same movie as the one titled My Secret Santa listed farther down this page.

 
Debbie Macomber's Mr. Miracle

Rob Morrow is childishly clueless as an angel on Earth for the first time to help a young woman to get her life back on track. His performance was so ridiculous that it ruined what might have been a nice movie.

 
Deck the Halls

Single mother business woman recaptures the Christmas spirit from her new neighbor who is employed as an advertising specialist at the toy company where she works. The problem is that this guy is supposed to be quirkily enigmatic but the actor goes so over the top that he comes off as an irresponsible flake. And guess what... he ends up being the real Santa.

 
Deck The Halls

This is a lame suspense movie about a lady private detective's father who's kidnapped a few days for Christmas. Filmed in L.A. in summer to reduce production costs, it has nothing to do with Christmas other than that's when it takes place. Christmas spirit and themes play no part in this movie so we can't really call it a Christmas movie.

 
Deck the Halls

Danny Devito plays the inconsiderate neighbor from hell as he attempts to put enough Christmas lights on his house to be seen from space, igniting a mean spirited feud with his straight laced neighbor. Similar to Christmas with the Kranks, this movie is little more than a string of antagonistic sight gags. The overall atmosphere is distinctly non-Christmas.

 
Defending Santa

Sheriff and widowed father Dean Cain finds Santa unconscious in a snow storm. The local DA prosecutes him as deranged and therefore dangerous. The new, attractive legal aid defense attorney, who has a romantic history with Cain, defends Santa with Cain's help. As ridiculous as it sounds, this movie nonetheless was interesting enough to hold our attention. However, we found Cain's love interest overly confident to the point of unattractive arrogance, several continuity errors, some unfunny bathroom humor and a silly football game brought the movie down to the point where we simply couldn't enjoy it.

 
Delivering Christmas

This is another of Lifetime's 10-minute mini-movies.

 
A Dennis the Menace Christmas

Horrible. Unattractive people behaving unattractively. Making a joke out of almost burning someone's house down does not fit in with our concept of Christmas. The universally bad acting almost makes this mess laughable, but not quite. Robert Wagner, who was once a respected actor, must have been in dire straits to star in this disaster.

 
The Dog Who Saved Christmas

Marginal acting doesn't help this remake of Home Alone with a dog protecting a home from to inept thieves over Christmas. The dog's voice-over actor struck a good tone, but was presented so strangely when relating to other animals that viewers come away thinking that animals use telepathy to communicate.

The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation

The same problems that plagued the first entry into this series haunt this movie. This time out, Zeus saves the poodle of his dreams from two dog nappers while his family is on a ski vacation.

 
The Dog Who Saved The Holidays

This time out super-smart Zeus and a younger dog protect a Christmas vacation home from more inept thieves. The was identical to The Dog Who Saved Christmas and just as bad.

 
Dolly Parton's Christmas: A Circle Of Love

Dolly Parton as a young girl struggles with her impoverished family to find the money to buy her mother a wedding ring while also canvassing to play the part of Mary in the school Christmas pageant. Dolly Parton fans will probably love this movie even though she's not in it. We thought it was too dated to enjoy, like a saccharinely sweet episode of the old Walton's TV series. We also didn't appreciate Dolly Parton introducing the movie with a song while she stands in front of a sign for her Dollywood amusement park. It struck us like one of those Kay Jeweler movies that make us think we're watching an infomercial.

 
A Dream for Christmas

In 1950, a country pastor moves his family to Los Angeles during the Christmas season. This movie felt hokey, like an over-long episode of Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons, but with weak writing and lame acting. Production values were very low.

 
Ebbie

Susan Lucci as Ms. Scrooge, a cold hearted department store manager. Offensively cheap special effects and the use of the overworked Christmas Carol idea make this a good movie to avoid.

 
Elf

While the idea of a human being raised by Santa as an Elf then sent to New York to be with his real father is creative, we found the humor edgy and so frenetic that the movie didn't pull us into it. And yes, this is the moderately successful movie starring Will Farrell.

 
Eloise at Christmas Time

Unattractively spoiled and inconsiderate young girl terrorizes the hotel where she lives. Terrible.

An En Vogue Christmas

A Christmas concert to save a failing theater serves as an excuse to give the music group En Vogue screen time. It felt artificial from the start with several contrived scenes used to provide an excuse for their singing.

 

Ernest Saves Christmas

Retiring Santa enlists super Christmas fan Jim Varney to help convince a children's actor to become the next Santa. Mr. Varney has a few funny sight gags and humorous muggings into the camera, but that's about all the movie has going for it. A sexily dressed teenage girl seems out of place as Varney's comic foil, a Jewish movie director is a painfully cliche'd stereotype and production values are weak. A big disappointment is that with so much of the movie focusing on Varney, the viewer starts feeling that he should be the next Santa. When that doesn't happen you're left with a sense of disappointment.

 
Everyday Is Christmas

Singer Toni Braxton stars as a self absorbed, cruel executive who gets the Christmas Carol treatment. We found her portrayal so mean spirited that after ten minutes we didn't care if she came around or not. In the original Christmas Carol, Scrooge was as much a victim of his nature as everyone around him. In Everyday Is Christmas, the lady scrooge seems to revel in being mean so much that we quickly came to hate this movie.

 
Every Other Holiday

To satisfy her children's Christmas wish, a mother tries to reconcile with her ex-husband at a family gathering over the holiday. This isn't a bad movie, but the crayon-drawn animated credits turned us off a little right from the start and the tone was often too melancholy for our tastes. +

 
A Fairly Odd Christmas

Horrible. Painfully childish dialog and acting worsened by embarrassing silly animated sequences combine to create a movie that redefines how bad a Christmas movie can be. It's so gratingly busy and noisy that we couldn't force ourselves to finish it. Appears to target overactive children under the age of six. Avoid at all costs.

 
A Fairy Tale Christmas

A lady book appraiser falls for a client. We hated the client because for the first forty minutes he was so viciously angry his treatment of her bordered on abusive. The characterization was so ugly we almost turned off the movie. Eventually he turns into Mr. nice and they fall in love, but by then his credibility was shot. An oppressive music sound track for much of the movie and her conflict with her father gave this film a dark somber note. The male lead spent half the movie without a shirt on to show off his muscles, which was done in a manner that was totally unbelievable. Even more unbelievable was the vineyard in full leaf and bearing tons of ripening grapes... one week from Christmas. I can't believe no one on the staff noticed how impossible this was, even in California, where it seemed to be filmed in summer to reduce production costs. All in all, with found this movie unpleasant to watch and an insult to our intelligence.

 
A Family For The Holiday

While this isn't a bad story, we can't recommend it because it's not a movie. It's a twelve minute long vignette about a family inviting a lonely neighbor to spend Christmas with them. We barely got to know these people when the story ended. It left us feeling cheated.

 
Family Holiday

Unattractive con man, at one point he steals money from an elderly man by making him pay COD for a box he thinks his wife ordered before she died, grabs two runaway orphans off the street and hires a too-sweet lady to act as his wife and their mother so he can inherit $20M from an uncle. The predictable happens.