Special Event: Cheesy Holiday Made-For-TV-Movies Thread

December 8, 2024 4:22 PM

I'm going to start a catchall thread if anyone wants to discuss Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, or other holiday movies they've seen this year, since I'm being slow to watch them all.

Hot Frosty post. (Irritatingly, the friend I'm supposedly seeing this with keeps putting this off.)

NYT: Just How Formulaic Are Hallmark and Lifetime Holiday Movies? We (Over)analyzed 424 of Them.

NYT: How I Aged Into the Bad Christmas Movie

posted by jenfullmoon (16 comments total)

My friend Joe has been doing a podcast for the past few years called "Joe Watches 60 Christmas Movies in 60 Days" (get it wherever you get your podcasts). He's a friend so I think he's funny but it's also fun to hear him slowly lose his sanity. I mean that with love.

(Not all movies are from this year, of course.)
posted by edencosmic at 6:04 PM on December 8, 2024

This is relevant to my interests. Haven't had much chance to start with the holiday rom coms, but they are possibly my favorite genre.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:48 AM on December 9, 2024 [1 favorite]

I've always been a fan of rom coms but hadn't really delved into the Holiday genre until last year. Even then I only watched 2 or 3. This year, however, I'm all in. So far, I've found that I tend to prefer non-Hallmark movies, as they don't seem to take themselves as seriously. I did enjoy A Heidelberg Holiday and Haul Out the Holly, though.
posted by jenny76 at 6:01 AM on December 9, 2024

Thank you! I am going to be checking this thread regularly for developments.
posted by rednikki at 11:02 AM on December 9, 2024 [1 favorite]

I'm updating this tonight, as I'm trying to marathon some movies to be a little less behind.

I do kinda think most of the Hallmark ones have been meh this year, but there's a few that I've really enjoyed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:31 PM on December 9, 2024

Reddit AMA with the writer of several Hallmark movies and Hot Frosty.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:51 PM on December 9, 2024

We're looking forward to Hot Frosty based on the preview. I enjoyed the Princess Switch movies and Single All the Way because Netflix knows they are cheesy and ridiculous and leans into it while not going full parody. Christmas is good for the vibe of "you know this is dumb and bad for you but it provides comfort and there are things that are a lot worse"
posted by rikschell at 8:28 PM on December 9, 2024 [1 favorite]

I work for a movie company, and a couple of years ago we bought distribution rights for four Christmas movies all at once. My work over that summer was frozen hell for the most part - having to review documentation against the final edit of the film etc.

The one that I enjoyed, however, was A Christmas Mystery. It's not a rom-com; it's a children's movie very sympathetic to the child protagonist. Not huge stakes (stolen sleigh bells!) but in my humble opinion it was sweet and refreshing.
posted by queensissy at 11:24 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

We were watching Hot Frosty (great use of Ted from Schitt's Creek, Doug Judy and Charles Boyle from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls, brilliant throwaway lines for both Joe Le Triglio and Lacey Chabert, the whole town gets behind the "snowman comes to life" premise) and there's a bit of Hot Frosty with a TV showing another Christmas movie with Jennifer Coolidge dressed as a Christmas Fairy.

So we look it up and that's from Single All The Way (Netflix, 2021) where the family are rooting for their gay brother to find happiness. It's accessible for me as a cis-het man, there's no tragic death of gay people, there's a love triangle where the parties involved don't act like competition but instead just grown up men who want good relationships, there's teen nieces who get behind their uncle's happiness and Jennifer Coolidge as the theatrical aunt delivering wonderful Coolidge. My allergies truly flared up at the end there.
posted by k3ninho at 4:04 PM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

This is a very good cheesy holiday bingo card. I'm not a fan of the boringly generic Hallmark equivalents, but this is more specific and I like that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:06 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

Xmas movies with lesbian/bi/queer/trans women, via Autostraddle. Planning on watching a few of these with a friend next week.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:49 PM on December 11, 2024

Here's a bingo-ish sounding card game to play with the movies. I'd get this if I had anyone to play with.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:19 PM on December 14, 2024

We have watched a few this season.

Hot Frosty was a delight. It has oodles of camp and heaps of heart. Warning: widowed character.

A Biltmore Christmas (on Netflix) has charm, laughs, time travel, movie magic, and TWO Star Trek alums (Robert Picardo and Jonathan Frakes). Unfortunately, they got around the "partially set in the segregated South" issue by...only having white people in it.

Holiday Date is on Paramount Plus and was similarly delightful. Fake dating trope. Lots of laughs. The main characters have great chemistry, there is a lot of both Christmas and Hanukkah tradition, and it has two other science fiction faves, Teryl Rothery (Stargate) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon Five).
posted by rednikki at 7:11 AM on December 24

Well, I only have 8 Hallmark movies left to see/write up...sadly not gonna get them done before Christmas because I keep having a social life. *pouts* But I tried, dammit.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:27 AM on December 24

I'm on the last Hallmark movie! I thought I was done with Happy Howlidays (awful), but forgot Believe in Christmas exists, so one more to go to watch and three more to write reviews of.

I also watched Hot Frosty (see that thread) and Merry Gentlemen, in which Chad Michael Murray sucks balls both in writing and in acting. Oh well, at least there was one hot guy who could dance in it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:53 PM on January 1

I have finished watching everything and writing reviews of it!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:39 AM on January 3