2022 Holiday Movies Thread

DH & I watched a Maple Valley Christmas last night. It was pretty good. Typical story we've seen a bunch of times but the scenery is pretty and the two leads cute together. The lead guy is also in Three Wise Men & A Baby.
There is also a kiss very close to the start of the movie which seems atypical of Hallmark movies - they usually wait until the end LOL!
It's on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

I really like My Big Fat Family Christmas. The lead's Christmas song at the end stuck in my head for days, I can still hear it. It was so pretty. My son is living in Japan right now attending a foreign studies program and all of his friends are Chinese and Japanese and Korean, so I love seeing all different types of Asian cultures so I can chat with him about it all. I loved when the mother in My Big Fat Family Christmas said that there are a lot of overlaps between Chinese culture and Christmas, like red and green being good luck colours.

It's really fun to talk to him about my son's experiences at school - like Christmas in Japan is a romantic holiday like Valentine's is for us, so his girlfriend is upset that he's coming home (to Canada) for Christmas because its not cool to spend Christmas with one's family instead of one's girlfriend/boyfriend. Also, everyone eats Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Day and you have to place your orders in June in order to get any. It would be cool for him to experience that but he really wants to come home for a few weeks. Meanwhile, his friends were really interested to find out that Christmas is a family and a religious holiday in North America and want to watch traditional Christmas movies with my son, so he's going to show them It's a Wonderful Life and play Christmas carols for them. They are familiar with Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You", though lol.

I was surprised to see that they decorate for Christmas in Japan - his school has put lights on all of the trees on campus, and have pretty star lawn decorations in the gardens, and a giant lit-up pegasus - very festive!!

Off topic but I just have this on my mind when watching Christmas movies these days.

The other Christmas show I've been really enjoying this week is Schitt's Creek Christmas episode, I watch it over and over, its my comfort show.

I just watched the new “Reindeer Games Homecoming” on lifetime. It stars 2 Greys Anatomy actors (including Sarah Drew who played April, she is also listed as a writer). I was underwhelmed.

Thank you for the recommendation.  I watched this last night and loved it!

I just added a few shows to my list on HBOMax:).

I just watched Spirited on Apple and may be one of the few who enjoyed it. Not a huge fan of musicals and at first wasn’t so sure then the signing stopped and the story got started. A bit more singing but it slowed quite a bit. One if the end singing and dancing numbers I really enjoyed. Don’t know what came over me but … overall I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I know it’s not for everyone though.

Snow Bride is one of my favorites I also love the 12 gifts one with her .

OMG Snow Bride was so good.

I LOVED IT!!!

I was a little mad at first when she was being so stupid but quickly got over that when I saw Ben. Holy hot.

If you remember any other Hallmark goodies from years past, I will scroll through Frndly all day to find them.


I'm going to look for the 12 gifts one mentioned above.

Yaaas, join the Your Christmas or Mine? love circle! Asa's a delightful lead, isn't he? I hope he gets to blossom and prove himself in main roles beyond Sex Education. He just carries his characters so effortlessly.

Good to know! We usually drop our HBO sub when John Oliver goes on winter break. We just evaluated the channel's holiday offerings to see if we will keep it through December, and we are. I will make a point to watch this one!

Oooooh, did you mean The Mistletoe Promise? Because that one is one of my faves ever! I do love a good contract romance
(You'll have to drop in and give us your thoughts after watching A Hollywood Christmas, Ryann ! "Rawr!" "Rawr! Yeah, be a cat.") 

Yesterday was a busy Hallmark day! Also got in Undercover Holiday (fake dating, great singing, Mexican representation) and it was really good! Loved the lead girl, the dude isn't my favorite (he's so robotic??) and I don't know if I'd rewatch on my own but I'd definitely leave the TV on to decorate cookies or something. Also the next installment of the Time for *pronoun* to come home for Christmas.. which I normally don't care for and probably don't care for this one either but my dude Tyler Hynes coming in clutch makes it watchable. I also really love Holland Roden except in my head she's still in her Teen Wolf years even though that's.. a decade ago so when I first saw these two were opposite one another I was thinking "ugh there is no way they're even close to the same age whyyyyyy?". Jokes on me, they're literally the same age lmao.


blemon here's my "favs" list made up of a mix of older (mid 2010's) and ones from the past few years you might have missed!

I don’t know what I’d do without this thread.

It is bringing me the most joy.

I finally got to watch Happiest Season with Kristen Stewart + at least a dozen other favorite actors last night. It was on the Canadian channel’s prime time schedule and just a lucky thing I saw it listed (yay for being close to Canada!) What a delight. I liked the balance of funny, sad, lovey, and holiday and the only bummer was that they squished the credits into one third of the screen with overlays so we missed seeing some of the epilogue of IG posts in the credits. It was good enough that I’ll stream it again sometime, I’m sure.

Ingunn (smultringunn on IG) posted a promo from the new Norwegian Christmas show coming out on the 16th. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to enjoy it (unless I can download it to watch offline on holiday) so maybe I should save it until we get back. I’m not much of a binge watcher, especially not when I’m nervous or busy. But I’ve been learning Norwegian on Duolingo this year and I’m excited to listen and understand a tiny bit.

So good! Watched it this evening while the kid was at dance and I was working on Day 4 (which is done, btw).

Favorite movies this year and recommended from here that I liked:

Ghosts of Christmas Always.
Snow Bride.
Hollywood Christmas
Both cats/kittens movies with the vet and fire fighter (anything with cats).
Jolly Good Christmas
The Royal Nanny

all good.

Happiest Season (from Hulu last year) was probably the best of all time for me.


And maybe because Luke MacFarland is just eye candy.

I watched him in A Magical Christmas Village this year and just didn't feel it with him and the lead at all.

Zero chemistry.


Also, can we have a Christmas movie without a romantic plot? I want a friend movie or a single woman with cats movie.

I’m not the OP, but I also think it’s skippable. It has an “influencer” / social media slant. I find all that to be phony & stupid in real life, so watching a movie with these types of characters is not at all appealing.

ETA: Happiest Season is easily one of my favorite modern holiday movies. It’s just so good!