I was watching an episode of Hallmark's daily show and they had three guys on that have a podcast called "Deck the Hallmark". The premise is that one guy loves Hallmark movies, one guy is fine with them and another dislikes them, but they watch them and review them. Never listened but here's the link: https://audioboom.com/channel/deckthehallmark

Will go back and listen to the rest of it. Thanks for sharing. Interesting!

Do any of these feature Alicia Witt or Danica McKellar? They are two of my favorites.

I did a general amazon search for both, and only Hallmark came up. I guess they don’t cross over like some of the other stars.

I am enjoying many of the films but some are just not very memorable and you almost forget what you watched a few days earlier, what is interesting is that I am finding many of the Lifetime Christmas films to be as good as if not a bit better than some of the Hallmark films.

I think that some of the Hallmark films feel a bit low energy to me, if that makes sense. I forget the title, but I watched a Hallmark film this weekend and said to myself...wow, that was not a great film and I will not be rewatching it when it is re-run next year.

I can’t believe I am saying this but I think that they should trim back the number of films next year by at least 10-20 films, instead of having an original on Sat and Sun plus the original films on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries they can just have one film air on Hallmark on Saturdays, and one original air on Movies and Mysteries on Sundays. Right now at least 3 originals air each weekend and if they knock that down to 2 you immediately cull the list by at least 6 films. There is no pent up anticipation for when the next Hallmark will air because they just pile up on your DVR because so many are released.

I say all this as a mega watcher of Hallmark films (I believe I have seen every single Hallmark Channel and Movies & Mysteries released this year, that is a lot of films) who is starting to agree that the quality of the films suffers due to so many being cranked out.

I agree, quality over quantity as many other players are in the Christmas feel good movie business now, d+, Netflix and lifetime, I am less motivated now to watch any hallmark as I do feel the production values have taken a real hit..... that being said I am still recording them and will sample the first few minutes but it has to grab me...

JMO, of course, but so far, the new films have been hit or miss. They are either great or meh.

I’m OK with a lot of new releases because I don’t try to watch them all. I pick and choose largely based on actor, and if they cut down the slate, my favorites might get left out in the cold.

As a long-time Hallmark watcher, the general quality has dipped in the last 2-3 years when they wildly expanded the Christmas line-up. Generally the Christmas movies made before 2017 have better writing, though there are exceptions. Amy Acker did a couple of brilliant Christmas television movies early in this decade.

Does anyone know why they went with an all new cast with Christmas at Graceland? I was hoping they would continue the story of Christmas (last year's film) and Wedding at Graceland.

I finally watched an entire new one, Christmas at Graceland with Adrian Grenier (Vince from Entourage) and Kaitlin Doubleday who I liked a lot. Priscilla makes two cameos, a few songs mixed in and the female lead was very nice, overall this one was pretty good 6.5/10.

Caught two very good ones this weekend. Coming Home For Christmas is a fine romantic story with Danica McKellar. A spirited woman finds love working for an incredibly wealthy family planning to sell their estate home. I think this one is a couple years old.

A new one which is good is Write Before Christmas. Torrey DeVito is the lead, but it's more of an ensemble than the usual Hallmark formula. It actually has four separate threads coming together in a nice twist. One of the tighter scripts Hallmark has produced in the past two years.

I will say that Hallmark must spend a fortune on Christmas decorations each year.

I am a bit of a hypocrite because just after I laid down my mini rant Hallmark comes along and puts out a few originals that I actually enjoyed (I should clarify, I am in the process of enjoying the third film which I have not finished up yet). Our Christmas Love Song with Alicia Witt was a pleasant enough film to watch (and maybe I am wrong, but Alicia Witt was missing from the line-up last year...or I could be misremembering, anyway, good to see her back on Hallmark), Cherished Memories: A Gift to Remember 2 with Ali Lieberman and Peter Porte was straight up good and I would not mind seeing a third film in the series, and finally, I am in the process of watching A Christmas Duet (one of their all week long originals) and enjoying it as well. To be fair, I am enamored with the lead Chaley Rose and could stare at her for 2 hours straight, she is just gorgeous.

I would like to see her in more Hallmark films, and it looks like other than a handful of other films and tv roles her only other big claim to fame was being on nearly 30 episodes of Nashville.

As it has already been noted, the Christmas at Graceland and Write Before Christmas films were also enjoyable to watch.

I still feel that there are too many films that bump up against each other due to the fairly tight window of time in which they are released. That being said, I understand that it would be hard to trim certain films from the line-up without taking down a film or two that stars some fan favorite leads.

I haven’t seen those. They changed the focus of Christmas at Evergreen, but the secondary characters were there, and Ashley Williams still had a cameo. Not sure if she was too busy or what.

I also watched the sequel Cherished Memories: A Gift for Christmas 2 even though I hadn’t seen the original. They made plenty of references to it so I got the idea, but I’ll probably try to watch it at some point just for completeness.

Interestingly I’m seeing a lot of this year’s movies on digital services already (Vudu, Amazon, iTunes), rolling out gradually. Mistletoe Kisses and Merry and Bright are available now, while Write Before Christmas has a date of 12/2. Hard to imagine paying $12.99 each, but it’s nice to know they’re there.

I really liked this one. It's basically a 2 hour commercial for Hallmark cards. Sending out Christmas cards makes everyone's life better. But it was a good story and a decent cast with Chad Michael Murray and Lolita Davidovich.

It seems like Hallmark is getting more well-known actors every year.

Christmas at the plaza was not too bad, some familiar faces, decent set pieces, 6.5/10.

Pivoted over to Netflix, The Knight before Christmas, enjoying this one, fun fish out of water with Vanessa Hudgens, some solid laughs and a good change of pace...

Finished up Noelle in Disney+, not too bad, some laughs and good fun, 6.5/10

The dvd comes out at Walmart on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to watching it since its also a mini One Tree Hill reunion.

Watched another good one this weekend. Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen stars Erin Krakow, who has quietly become one of Hallmark's most reliable leading ladies. Loved the cast and the romantic leads had fine chemistry. Aside from a few name drops, Jane Austen's original work doesn't really factor into this movie.

I'm waiting for Vudu to do a Hallmark Sale to add a few more movies to my collection.

On the MEWE forums there is a link to a sale that is to start tomorrow on Hallmark titles on Vudu but it's all the older titles and none of the newer ones that were just released. Sale will be live tomorrow. Don't know anything about the prices. MEWE admins don't want the sale link posted anywhere..so won't offer a link.

There will also be a Holiday Mix and Match sale from the 3rd to the 17th it looks like.

Vudu .99 Sale is on..
https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...time-Sale/3496
Hopefully folks can share there faves, I picked up A Dad for Christmas and a Snowed in Christmas so far....

There was some Lifetime talk earlier in the thread. A lot of those I already got at Amazon but I’ll check the list against my collection. I like Megan Hilty’s Broadway stuff so I just got Santa’s Boots, though I’m sure she doesn’t sing in it,

I wouldn’t have expected the Hallmark said to include 2019 titles, and it doesn’t, but there are a handful of 2018s. Their sales are usually 2/9.99, so 5.99 each is pretty close, and you don’t have to find an even number. I’ll probably get Christmas in Homestead and Christmas in Evergreen. I already have Nutcracker Christmas, Christmas Note, and Ice Sculpture.

There are also a couple unbranded Hallmark movies in the main mix-and-match sale: Princess for Christmas and Angels Sing.