Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

Oy to the World (2025): I heard good buzz about this one, the Hannukah movies are usually good, and It was musically themed, so I watched it with the wife, who is ok with these, but I only make her watch what I expect to be the better ones. I dunno, it was fine, but nothing special. Brooke D'Orsay plays a church choir director who has a past relationship with Jake Epstein, who is directing a synagogue choir. The stars are likable, and the big song is good, but I expected more.

A Make or Break Holiday (2025): In a spin on the ever-popular fake-dating trope, Hunter King and Evan Roderick (Finding Mr Christmas winner) are a couple who decide to take a break just when their extended families are staying with them for Christmas. This was also fine, and Roderick was fine. I know I saw a Mr Christmas winner last year, Ezra Moreland, and this year he had a supporting role in Christmas on Duty. I have no idea who he was because that was like a dozen movies ago.

An Alpine Holiday (2025): This is this year's Ashley Williams vehicle (I wonder if Kimberly Williams-Paisley is still acting), and she has a new sister in Laci Mailey, who has been the lead a couple times before and is pretty good. Interplay with the sisters was good, as was the scenery.

A Suite Holiday Romance (2025): Another spin on a popular trope: Jesse Schram thinks she's dating a royal, but it's just a royal's secretary, which I guess is why they didn't put "Royal" in the title. That refers to the grand hotel which is the setting and subplot of the movie, as Schram interviews someone and learns the history of the site. It was pretty good.

Thanks to the smaller slate this year, I'm within a few of finishing lol. I don't have The Snow Must Go On on my DVR, maybe by accidental deletion or something, but it'll probably be on again. But because they didn't have to fill the Movies & Mysteries slate, there haven't been any of the heavy dramas, like Time for ___ to Come Home or The Christmas Note etc. That's ok with me, but also most of them have been around the 3.5/5 star range. Solid and watchable, but not something I'd watch again.

Special mention of Buffalo Bill Demar Hamlin, who cameo'd not only in the Bills movie but also in The More the Merrier. And while there are always product placements (IKEA), there was one service that actually got into the plot, and a couple characters discussed it. I don't remember what it was, so take that, product placement!

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

Yeah, Oy to the World was considered a surprise disappointment by at least a couple of prominent Hallmark Bloggers. I think I enjoyed the film more than they did but it is not a film I am clamoring to watch again.

This years slates of films was ultimately a bit meh, just okay films and I am not sure any of them will get a yearly rewatch. They played it a bit too safe this year. I hope they are getting some feedback that the right folks are paying attention to and we get a better mix of films this year.

To be fair, it might just be that over the past 5-10 years so many of these films have been thrown at us from all directions (Hallmark, GAC, UP, Lifetime, Netflix, BET+, etc.) that there is a general feeling of burnout regarding these films.

I think some folks would be shocked if Hallmark did this, but I wonder if they should slowly retire their Countdown To Christmas Event and let it morph into something else (and maybe this years slate of films being cut in half was the start of this retiring of the event).

It might come off as crazy, but why just adhere to the seasons, throw up Valentine's type Romcom in the beginning of December, have a national park destination film pop-up in Oct, have a Halloween themed film on Thanksgiving week, and a Turkey Day film on Halloween. If we can have Christmas In July, we can have Valentines Day in December, lol. Also, Hallmark could still limit themselves to no more than 2 new films a weekend starting the beginning of the Fall Season.

I am saying maybe folks like Hallmark, Lifetime, GAC, Netflix can just throw up films throughout the year whenever the film is in the can and ready to air and not sit on the film until a certain Holiday rolls around, not caring that certain films might have a Holiday backdrop such as Halloween, but are ready to air in June. I suspect they will not do this, but it does feel like this was the beginning of the end of how Hallmark has aired films over the past 10-20 years.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

Lifetime had a much stronger slate of holiday movies this year than Hallmark, though admittedly they have far fewer originals. Hallmark used to have this space of Christmas movies more or less to themselves but the competition has absolutely exploded in the past 4 years. Hallmark is experimenting now so much with the "formula" I grow less and less pleased with them. I am not their audience anymore.

I'll tell you who had the worst 2025 Christmas slate by far - UPTV. They have never really competed with the big boys but usually would produce 4-6 'B' or 'C' type Christmas movies. Their 2025 lineup was thoroughly mediocre and frankly unwatchable.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

I watched the last three on my DVR :dance:

Three Wisest Men (2025): I liked the original movie better than either of the sequels, but it's still entertaining to see the three leads ham it up, and it was more slapstick-screwball than most Hallmark movies. Co-writer Kimberly Sustad makes an appearance, of course, and Ali Liebert (The Christmas Baby) has a small role..

We Met in December (2025): Autumn Reeser and Niall Matter meet in an airport then get separated without having shared their contact info, so they use new and old methods to try to find each other. I had high-enough hopes for this to watch it with the wife, and it was fine. Autumn is gorgeous of course, but it was a little tiresome to have the constant near-misses over and over, as skatefan mentioned.

Single on the 25th (2025): I think this was one of the better ones this year, with likable leads to make it work.

So my favorites turned out to be Keller Family Christmas, The Christmas Baby, Christmas Above the Clouds, and Single on the 25th. I didn't really branch out to UP and Lifetime and barely touched GAC. For one thing, I had a coworker who was a fan enough to go to the experiences and knew some of the podcasters, so she used to tell me about the good non-Hallmarks, but we both left our jobs and don't keep up as much. I did watch a few on Netflix and one on Prime, and all were fine but not especially notable.

I still have 12 Dates of Christmas and about half the 2025 movies still on my DVR lol.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

I really really do recommend the "Hallmark Movies" youtube channel. I have now counted up to 50 movies on the channel. I've only seen a handful of the movies on it but there are some deep cut movies on it.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

I finally wrapped up the holiday 2025 DVR stuff. I took a chance on another GAC, Pencil Me In for Christmas, because someone here had mentioned it. It still has some of the terrible dialogue and stilted acting that characterizes GAF titles, but it wasn't terrible, and Greer Grammer (daughter of Kelsey) was somewhat appealing. I mentioned earlier that the "new" Brittany Bristow film was from 2023 and had been renamed and repackaged as a 2025 film, and that was also the case here.

I also watched 12 Dates Till Christmas, a six-episode series starring Mae Whitman as a perpetual single who signs up for a service to help her find a match. It's not something I'll ever rewatch, but it held my interest.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

I watched a four-movie series from 2025 called Hearts Around the Table. The concept is that a bunch of foster kids are now adult friends and still have dinner with their foster mom every Sunday. It's kind of like The Wedding Veil in which each character has their own movie, but the other characters appear in them, and in this series they're even more interwoven. Ashley Newborough is the most prominent so she's the lead in the first movie, while Josh Epstein from Oy to the World gets the third. The second movie was the least interesting to me, but even that one has a funny moment when one of the leads arrives at the airport and the other three have a phone argument about who was supposed to pick her up, but then they're all there to surprise her. The interactions among the cast are the best part of the series.

Re: Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas
 

I watched a few other 2025 movie series, all with a travel vibe.

To Barcelona with Love and Barcelona Forever were a nice pairing of Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams. Ashley writes a novel about Barcelona despite having never been there, but it turns out to be a big hit after a liberal translation by resident Alison. The plot is resolved after the first movie and they probably could've left it there, but they're fun enough to make the second movie work.

Love on the Danube was three standalone movies that take place aboard a cruise line, with the cruise director and one passenger as recurring characters. The pairings are Nazneen Contractor and Wes Brown, Dan Jeannotte and Jessica Sipos, and Brendan Penny and Sarah Power. These were all fine.

The Groomsmen was a variation on the Wedding Veil series, with Tyler Hines, BJ Britt, and Jonathan Bennett as best friends who each get their own movie but are always present in all of them. Heather Hemmens was the only partner who I knew. These all seemed kind of inevitable plot-wise, but the bromance was enjoyable. There's a framing sequence with a runaway bride (Lily Dodsworth-Evans), and she's so distractingly gorgeous that I found myself looking forward to her segments. These had scenes in Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy.