Christmas On 5th Avenue (2021)

Rated: G

Genres: Romance

Starring: Kathryn Davis and Olivier Renaud

Synopsis: Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan decorates a spectacular Manhattan Penthouse for Christmas and brings moody writer Lucas Blade some joy for the holidays.

Review: This is a very sweet movie with the basic elements of Beauty and the Beast. Eva is a true ray of happiness and sunshine. Just watching her is enough to uplift you and erase a tiny bit of cynicism.  There’s also lots of beautiful Christmas scenery and the spirit of Christmas is throughout.

Scoring: 3.5

Christmas on Candy Cane Lane (2022)

Rated: G

Genres: Family

Starring: Andrea Barber and Dan Payne

Synopsis: Ivy Donaldson struggles with her mom's shadow, Muriel, the Christmas darling of Icicle Falls. She is now separated from her husband Rob and tries her best with her daughter, but after a series of strange but comical events everybody gets together in unexpected but festive ways.

Review:  I feel the movie would have been more impactful if there was more backstory. The viewer is expected to immediately understand all the emotions involved in the mother’s death and the separation as well as the whole Candy Cane Lane traditions. It was a cute movie but lacked depth. 

Scoring: 2 

Christmas on Cherry Lane (2023)

Rated: G

Genre: Drama, Family

Starring: Catherine Bell, Jonathan Bennett, John Brotherton, Erin Cahill, and James Denton

Synopsis: Over the holidays, three couples at different stages of their lives traverse significant life turning moments at 7 Cherry Lane.

Review: I liked the stories but there was something slow about it.  I feel if you’re rotating through 3 stories you need to work harder to keep our attention.  I did like the very subtle way the stories were intertwined.  It’s not super lighthearted but it’s worth a watch.

Scoring: 3

Christmas On Division Street (1991)

Rated: PG

Genre: Drama

Starring: Fred Savage and Hume Cronyn

Synopsis: A boy moves to Philadelphia where he’s taught by a homeless drifter. 

Review:  It’s hard to put what makes this movie so special into words. It’s a feeling you get. While I don’t advise young children becoming friends with strangers, the friendship between these two is heartwarming. The movie reminds us that people who are homeless are exactly that. People. People in need of a home and kindness. Keep your tissues handy for this tear-jerker. 

Scoring: 4

Christmas On Holly Lane (2018)

Rated: PG

Genres: Drama, Family

Starring: Sarah Lancaster, Karen Holness, and Gina Holden

Synopsis: Three childhood friends, Sarah, Riley and Cat, with fond memories of Christmas at Sarah's house, come together as adults to save Sarah's home in the hopes of having many more beautiful Christmases together.

Review: The synopsis doesn’t begin to cover every situation and circumstance in the movie. I did know how it would end but there were some twists along the way. It’s a charming story of recovering from past and present pain in order to have a better future. I hope there’s a sequel. 

Scoring: 3.5

Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane (2018)

Rated: G

Genres: Drama, Family, Romance

Starring: Colin Ferguson, Laura Leighton, and Alicia Witt

Synopsis: Emma returns home to celebrate Christmas for the last time with her siblings in the house they grew up in. After their parents' recent passing, the siblings reluctantly agree to sell the family home on Honeysuckle Lane.

Review:  This movie was quite surprising. Rather than a typical love story it was siblings sharing Christmas and Emma solving a mystery. It's hard to explain without spoilers just know I thought it was really charming. 

Scoring: 3

Christmas On Ice (2020)

Rated: G

Genre: Romance

Starring: Abigail Klein and Ryan Cooper

Synopsis: A former figure skater and a former hockey player work together to void the mayor from closing the local skating rink.

Review: Did I know how it was going to end from the beginning?  Pretty much.  That didn’t stop them from throwing in a few surprises and keeping it interesting.  It had some really touching moments.  The conversation about the angel on the tree will stay with me.  Lovely movie.

Scoring: 3

Christmas on Mistletoe Farm (2022)

Rated: G

Genres: Comedy, Family

Starring: Scott Garnham and Scott Paige

Synopsis: After inheriting a farm at Christmas time, a widowed father makes a bumpy adjustment to village life - while his kids hatch a plan to stay there forever.

Review: This reminded me of the movies Nanny McPhee and Nativity. It’s silly and funny and oh so sweet. The children and the animals taking over dad’s life and helping his priorities is so special.  If you don’t like movies starring children and silly adults, this isn’t for you.

Scoring: 3

Christmas on Mistletoe Lake (2022)

Rated: PG

Genres: Family, Romance

Starring: Genelle Williams and Corey Sevier

Synopsis: Interior designer Reilly finds herself this Christmas in the town of Mistletoe Lake with no place to stay. She accepts an offer from Ray to stay in his boat, helping him renovate the boat for the town's Christmas Harbor Festival.

Review: I loved this movie.  I knew it would work out and have a happy ending but I wasn’t sure how they would get there.  There were some twists and turns.  Ray and Reilly, played by Williams and Sevier, are brilliant characters and the actors have great chemistry.  There’s almost a growing sense of unspoken magic as the story goes on.  Naturally, the little girl playing Emma adds a wonderful layer.  This is one I’ll watch many times.  

Scoring: 4

Christmas On My Mind (2019)

Rated: G

Genres: Drama, Family, Romance

Starring: Ashley Greene, Andrew Walker, and Jackée Harry

Synopsis: When Lucy wakes up with a wedding dress in hand, she believes that she is late to her wedding with her ex-boyfriend Zac. However, she has no recollection of the past 2 years, including the fact that she is engaged to another man.

Review: From the synopsis, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The story wasn’t cheesy or slow.  It was interesting.  I enjoyed how the story unfolded.  I started to get worried that they were building up how the couple broke up so much that it would be anticlimactic and ruin the story.  It didn’t but it wasn’t exactly clear either.  I still loved the romance and the Christmas traditions here.  Greene and Walker have great chemistry. 

Scoring: 4

Christmas on Repeat (2022)

Rated: NR

Genres: Comedy, Family, Fantasy

Starring: Matthew Lawrence and Jennifer Taylor

Synopsis: An ad executive gets more than she bargained for when Santa grants her wish for a Christmas do-over, and she realizes she's been missing precious time with her family.

Review: While it’s another “Groundhog Day” plot, I enjoyed this version. It’s not just about the lead character. It’s about the people around her and learning about them and how her actions affect them. It’s a little corny at the end and silly at times but fun. 

Scoring: 3

Christmas On Salvation Street (2015)

Rated: PG

Genres: Family, Religion

Starring: Joe Pacheco

Synopsis: Noah Davis is a Pastor in an affluent community. Depressed after losing his wife to illness, he is contacted by an old friend who has opened a mission in a rough inner-city neighborhood. With Christmas approaching, he packs up and together with his two daughters, moves into Salvation Street Mission. Now the family must struggle with the challenges they face in the crime ridden community.

Review: The movie had an overall nice message of faith and family.  Besides that, it was filled with racial stereotypes, a father who put himself before his children, and unrealistic personal transformations.  If you just want the Christian message, you may like it.  Other than that, skip it.

Scoring: 2

Christmas On The Coast (2018)

Rated: G

Genres: Drama, Romance

Starring: Julie Ann Emery, Burgess Jenkins, and Bonnie Bedelia 

Synopsis: Hard-hearted New York novelist Dru Cassadine...known for her holiday romance stories (even though she is antilove and anti-Christmas)...is desperate to get her mojo back after a string of flops (and a not-so-subtle threat by her publisher that he'll drop her if she has another failure). She decides that a change of scenery might get her creative juices flowing and heads south for the winter, landing in a place known as Harbor Pointe. She doesn't quite get what she came for. She gets much more.

Review:  The first time I watched this movie I was quite bored.  The second time I enjoyed it a lot more.  I wish there was a little more focus on the relationship between Dru and her mother but I enjoyed watching her rediscover herself.  This isn't one I'd watch over and over again but it's worth  a view.

Scoring: 2

Christmas on the Farm (2021)

Rated: NR

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Family, Romance 

Starring: Poppy Montgomery 

Synopsis: A romantic comedy about a New York socialite who fakes her identity to get her book published and has to rush back to her deceased mother's farm when the publisher and her son come to visit their 'Australian' author.

Review: This seems to be a failed attempt at an updated adaptation of Christmas in Connecticut. It’s trying too hard to be too many things and it doesn’t give us a reason to care about the characters.  It’s fairly dull. 

Scoring: 2 

Christmas On The Menu (2020)

Rated: PG

Genres: Family, Romance

Starring: Kim Shaw, Clayton James, Cynthia Gibb

Synopsis: Celebrated chef Josie heads home for the holidays and creates a special festive menu for her mom’s new bed and breakfast bistro, where she runs into Tanner, the famous food critic who panned her old bakery in a review. 

Review: The story is cute and sweet but falls a little flat. There aren’t many layers to it. Even moments like the mother and daughter talking as they remember their late husband/father fails to evoke strong emotions. It’s a sweet enjoyable love story but that’s about it. 

Scoring: 3

Christmas On The Range (2019)

Rated: NR

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Family, Romance

Starring: Erin Cahill, Nicholas Gonzalez, Lindsay Wagner, and A Martinez

Synopsis: Kendall's one holiday wish is to keep the family ranch solvent. Her rival's charming son offers help-and maybe more-but can he be trusted?

Review: This movie has it all. I felt sad, happy, sentimental, and pretty much all the feels. I even laughed out loud numerous times. The beauty salon scenes are hysterical. The dramatic scenes are riveting.  The romance is beautiful. I won’t ruin the ending but this is one to watch. 

Scoring: 4

Christmas on the Rocks (2022)

Rated: G

Genres: Family, Romance

Starring: Lila Porter-Follows and Jon McLaren

Synopsis: When an event planner is hurt, her twin sister pretends to be her to save an important corporate client, but things go awry when an old flame reappears and the twin is still stuck pretending to be her sister.

Review: This is a sweet but there’s a whole lot of awkward going on.  There’s also lots of negativity while everything is going wrong.  The last half hour makes up for it by fixing everything.  There’s Christmas in the background but it’s not the center of the story.  The romance is.

Scoring: 2.5 

Christmas on the Slopes (2022)

Rated: G

Genre: Romance

Starring: Soma Chhaya and Olivier Renaud 

Synopsis: A chef goes on vacation trying to get away from a series of disappointments both on personal and his professional life, but there he gets into a clash with the resort's grumpy chef.

Review:  This movie was just so very blah. From start to finish there was no real emotion. The sad part is the story had some real potential. It’s not bad but I’d skip it. 

Scoring: 2

Christmas On The Vine (2020)

Rated: PG

Genres: Family, Romance

Starring: Julianna Guill, Jon Cor, and Meredith Baxter

Synopsis: A young marketing executive is assigned to help a struggling family-owned winery.

Review: I was disappointed in how lackluster this movie was. I don’t know if it was how abstract the concept of the villain was (it didn’t have the tug of war for the vineyard the movie needed), the lack of chemistry between the romantic leads, or the story getting bogged down in wine facts. It’s worth watching once but I may not watch again. **Update**Turns out this is one of those movies that gets better the more you watch it.  Either that or I was having a bad day the first time I watched.  I enjoyed it so much the second time.

Scoring: 3.5

Christmas on Wheels (2020)

Rated: PG

Genre: Romance

Starring: Tiya Sircar and Michael Xavier

Synopsis: Ashley enlists the help of her uncle’s attorney to find her mom’s convertible after it was sold.

Review: Insert dumb car pun here. I’ll spare you. Lol. The movie is fairly ho hum despite a wonderful performance by Sircar. The meaning behind the car and the good her mother did was sweet but it wasn’t enough to drive the movie (oops I did it again). It felt like there were lots of puzzle pieces missing and we couldn’t see the whole picture. It was okay to watch once but I probably won’t watch it again.

Scoring: 2

Christmas On Windmill Way (2023)

Rated: G

Genres: Family, Romance

Starring: Chad Michael Murray and Christa Taylor Brown

Synopsis: Mia Miejer learns that her grandmother has sold the property that has been in the family for generations and has their business on it. 

Review:  Murray is the only reason to watch. The premise that the grandmother sold the property and Mia has to save the day is so unbelievable it makes the whole story blah.  Taylor is very wooden and it’s almost like she’s posing for a photo and not acting. 

Scoring: 2

A Christmas Open House (2022)

Rated: PG

Genres: Drama, Romance

Starring: Monica Garcia Bradley, Diesel Brown, and Tina Camp

Synopsis: Follows Melissa, an Atlanta property stager who teams with her old high school crush, David, to renovate and sell her mom's house, and as Christmas approaches and the tensions grow, so does a romantic relationship between them.

Review: It was as charming as the small town it took place in. Not many surprises but a sweet story. I wasn’t sure exactly how it would end, which I always like in a story. 

Scoring: 3

The Christmas Ornament (2013)

Rated:  G

Genres: Drama, Romance

Starring: Kellie Martin and Cameron Mathison 

Synopsis: A widow plans to give Christmas festivities a miss, as they bring back too many memories of her late husband.

Review:  A very moving and sweet film. Kathy’s dealing with letting her husband go and moving forward with her life with the love and support of others is touching. I appreciated that they handled such a heavy subject with many positive and inspirational moments. 

Scoring: 4