"Meet the parents" misadventures and Christmas Contests galore...week FIVE Hallmark Christmas Movie Reviews!
After a month, we finally have a PERFECT TEN on our hands! This week overall was quite mediocre, but one movie was SO GOOD I am not even mad about the rest of them. We’ll start off strong, then get to some more forgettable films.
Christmas with the Singhs: 10/10 ⭐
I have so much to say about this movie but I’ll start by saying it’s going to be on my year after year rewatch list. There are less than 10 Hallmark movies I rewatch over and over but this will be one of them.
Brody from Virgin River is the current undisputed best leading man on this network. Between this and “The Santa Summit” last year (which was the best movie of 2023,) he is putting a lot of veteran actors ON NOTICE. This movie is a Hallmark cross between “Meet the Parents” and “Four Christmases” and it hits all the right notes - a big family Christmas, lots of funny supporting characters, and a couple working through real issues but realizing they are perfectly imperfect for one another.
I really like that we are seeing more movies where the couple is a couple throughout most of the movie. In this case, Asha and Jake reconnect first thing in the movie, and a year later find themselves engaged, BUT they still haven’t met each others families. They come from very different backgrounds with very different families, and spend the season making introductions and handling various intrusive family members.
A lot of this movie focuses on family traditions and the sacrifices that come with bringing two families together. It’s so heartwarming and I just wanted to spend more time with everyone - 85 minutes was simply not enough!
For the longtime Hallmark fans, there is a scene featuring Chinese food from “The Golden Dragon” which is such a lovely callback to the 2022 classic “Christmas at the Golden Dragon” - a former winner of my esteemed “Hallmarker of the Year” award.
Jingle Bell Run: 6/10 ⭐
Hallmark is cashing in on the “hockey romance” trend that is sweeping the romance book community! This is your classic competition story that we have seen 100 times, with lots of festive activities and games to keep the fun going.
A schoolteacher and a former hockey player get paired up in an “Amazing Race” style holiday competition, where they must complete challenges as they travail the country on their quest to win a million dollars. She is the beauty, he is the brawn…and opposites attract as they spend more time together and open their hearts.
There’s nothing awful about this movie, but it seems very similar to ones we have seen before. I’m a huge Andrew Walker fan but his character being the “tortured hockey player” gym bro felt really out of place. It’s a fine background movie, but not one you have to watch.
A Reason for the Season: 6/10 ⭐
Another mediocre Mystery Channel movie. On the night Evie was born, five strangers at a diner helped save her life after her mother’s unexpected early labor. 30+ years later, Evie must find these five people and thank them with acts of kindness…or she risks not getting her inheritance!
This is another movie that has been done a bunch of times. The “rich heiress” thing is really hard to pull off and I didn’t think this one worked particularly well. Some of the supporting characters are really kind, and there are a lot of Diner scenes (one of my favorite and MOST UNDERRATED locations,) but otherwise there just isn’t too much to say about this one.
Confessions of a Christmas Letter: 5/10 ⭐
I actually really LIKED the couple that forms in this movie, but the premise is just SO STUPID I could not get beyond it.
Imagine you live in a small town and every Christmas there is a “letter writing contest” where the grand prize is….getting your letter featured on the “wall of fame” AT THE POST OFFICE.
Then imagine spending the entire Christmas season, for years of your life, fixated on that. There are a lot of people in this movie who simply need more to do in their lives.
Angela from the office leads this movie as a Family matriarch obsessed with beating her nosy neighbor in this dumb contest. She wants to win so badly that she hires a novelist to help her. Juan agrees to the job because he is struggling with a bad case of writer’s block, but gets more than he bargained for when he joins Angela’s family for the holidays and it’s mistakenly mentioned that he is ENGAGED to her daughter.
They all keep up the ruse for the sake of the contest, until it inevitably unravels but not before Juan and Lily fall in love FOR REAL!
I’m itching to watch some of my favorites after we finally got a perfect ten this week! If you’re interested in dipping into the archives, here are a few of my favorites from past years, in no particular order.
One Royal Holiday (2020)
My Christmas Family Tree (2021)
Christmas as the Plaza (2019)
Christmas in Rome (2019)
Christmas at the Golden Dragon (2022)
The Santa Summit (2023)
Jolly Good Christmas (2022)
An Unexpected Christmas (2021)
Snowed-Inn Christmas (I’m cheating here because this is actually a 2017 LIFETIME movie, but it’s legitimately in my top 5 of all time. It is perfect start to finish)