I’ve always been all about that Christmas spirit. It’s my absolute favorite holiday, and fortunately for me, there are a ton of films on the subject! They’re mostly cheesy, low-budget productions with bad acting, unbelievable scripts, and unintentionally cringeworthy human behavior, but hey, they serve a purpose. My brain isn’t really sure what that purpose is, but my heart knows.
In these past two years, the syrupy Christmas spirit these films represent has become necessary to my life, and peaceful. I’ve found these great to fall asleep to, or to turn on in the background while I work on something else, since the plots are easily gleaned without paying a whole lot of attention.
Most of the below are decent for what they are. And I can’t help it, but I hate to love ’em. (There were only a few I formed a full-on hate-hate relationship with.) ‘Tis the season for sappy romance!
The Spirit of Christmas
The first one of these I ever saw. Like a Christmas-y The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. The paranormal romance of Christmas.
A Christmas Prince
Almost a good movie (at least compared to its brethren). Bonus: It’s got Liv from iZombie and the Prince is really cute! I also really liked the little sister. This one isn’t technically Hallmark, but close enough.
Second Chance Christmas
In which the love child of Ben Affleck and Adam Sandler finally realizes that nobody wants to be married to a loser and steps up. Overall, though, one of the better of the crappy Christmas movies.
A Princess for Christmas
#NOPE. I made it about two minutes into this one. I almost turned it off in the first minute when some zany grandma called out her crossword answer in a ridiculously unrealistic manner with a stupid look on her face. But I turned it off in the next minute after an overly dramatic pratfall. Definitely not my style, no matter how many castles you show me.
The Holiday Calendar
Sickeningly sweet in all the right ways.
The Knight Before Christmas
While I constantly had to suppress the inner voice that demanded an explanation as to how they could even understand each other and how the transition to 21st-century America could possibly be as easy as it seemed for a 14th-century knight…it was just so…relaxing.
Christmas Perfection
At around 10 minutes in, I was already sick of the main character’s crap. But despite the odd character choices, I stuck with it for the promise of an Irish Christmas village. And thank goodness I did, because this ended up being one of my favorites.
The Princess Switch
The Parent Trap in holiday form? Yes, please. I secretly enjoyed this one.
A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish
One of the best ones I’ve seen so far. I actually LOL’d a few times! I even forgave the ridiculous overacting from the wicked stepmother and stepsisters because I figure that’s how they were supposed to be, and it worked. Also, there was singing. And dancing. Always a plus.
A Cinderella Christmas
This one gets a thumbs-up from me, too! While A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish was more or less a replica of Disney’s Cinderella, this one was more of a retelling, bearing similarities to the Disney version, but not identical.
Christmas Belle
This one really sucked. I thought I’d like it better given how much I enjoyed the other Disneyish one I watched, but not so much. It was fun catching all the Disney references and similarities, the house was beautiful, and the dog was adorable…but the acting was so bad and just so, so boring. Also, why was the background music just playing nonstop through every single scene!? And Hunter’s transition from jerk to sudden nice guy was too abrupt of a U-turn to be believable. I’d skip this one, honestly.
Also, no decent guy would flip out, accuse you of lying, and storm off simply because some stalker ex showed up and insisted you were together, when you were clearly disgusted by said ex and insisted you were not still together. And this guy did it twice.
Back to Christmas
Also apparently known as Correcting Christmas (which is not what it said on Hulu). A good choice, though, given that I found the obvious Back to the Future reference in the title a bit lackluster. And the whole film was about equally ‘meh’.
Holly’s Holiday
I selected this one because I’m terrified of mannequins and thought the whole “mannequin come to life” story would be some combination of hilarity and existential dread, and believe me, it was. I found myself kind of rooting for the mannequin for a while until that went horribly, horribly wrong, because the guy she was obviously going to end up with was such a whiny, friend-zoney, fun-spoily bottom-feeder that I couldn’t stand it. He was all, “Wah wah, why do we have to go to the cool nightclub? I can’t have fun here” and “Women have no idea what they really want; why won’t she look at ME?” And I just wanted to wipe him from the script completely. Aside from that, though, this one ended up being pretty decent and even funny. And the ending completely took me by surprise! And the mannequin stuff really was terrifying. It was like…Christmas romance/horror.
A Christmas Kiss
Working Girl with boughs of holly. I’m a fan.
The March Sisters at Christmas
Definitely the inferior version of Little Women (though to be fair, I’ve only seen the Winona Ryder one)…buuut it’s still Little Women, which makes it still watchable! And it actually had an actor I recognized in it.
Hopefully one of the above strikes your fancy and gives you a starting point to navigate the saccharine waters of Hallmark Christmas movies! Which ones are your favorites (and least favorites)?
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