A Season Of Promises | Christmas 2026

A Season Of Promises is another Hallmark movie where death is heavily featured. Did I miss some sort of announcement saying that death was the theme of Christmas this year?

Heidi (Brooke D’Orsay) and Sophie (Ali Liebert) are sisters that haven’t spoken to each other since the death of their mother four years ago. They come back together when their father, Ed (James Denton), has a fainting spell that lands him in the hospital. While decorating Ed’s house for Christmas, Sophie comes across a recording her mother left the sisters asking them to make sure Ed finds love again. Now it is up to Heidi and Sophie to get Ed in tip-top dating shape.

While the movie is fine for the most part, it does also feel like too much is going on. Besides Ed dating, Heidi is trying to win a promotion at work (even though it glaringly obvious that she isn’t going to get it), and Sophie has a talent scout coming to the open mic night where she does stand-up comedy. Oh, and Sophie waitresses. Oh, and Sophie is romantically interested in Ed’s nurse from the hospital, Brad (Edward Ruttle). And on top of all that, we have to deal with the emotional trauma they all have from the death of the family matriarch. It’s a LOT.

Despite all of that, A Season of Promises isn’t terrible. The acting is fine. The script is fine. If you can deal with the whirlwind of problems everyone has, it’s perfectly fine to watch. I just hope Hallmark gets out of the death theme soon.

Rating: At least the sisters could harmonize well while singing sad carols

Holiday Unplugged | Christmas 2026

A lot of times, the big conflict in Christmas movies can be solved if the main characters just talked to each other. In the case of Holiday Unplugged, the conflict could have been solved if the mother talked to her children and treated them like people.

Sally (Nikki DeLoach) lost her husband ten years ago. Every year at Christmas, she honors his memory by showing their children, Boo (Remy Marthaller) and Keegan (Brandon Ironside), videos he made when they were little. Unfortunately, due to a slew of technical problems this year, all of the videos have been lost. In order to save her children the heartbreak of losing the videos of their father, Sally suggests the family spend the holiday without their phones or tablets.

I am so mixed on this movie. On one hand, yes, the family did a ton of fun things together, resulting in them becoming closer. On the other hand, Sally should have just told them what was going on. Keegan is a college student and Boo (who is actually named Barbara) is either in middle or high school (I don’t think they ever specify). So both of them are old enough to handle the disappointment and heartbreak. They aren’t toddlers. I spent way too much time going “JUST TELL THEM!”

In addition, the romance with Damon (Juan Pablo Di Pace) felt shoehorned in. He started out as a former co-worker that she matched with on a dating site. Beyond that, there was no real reason to have him around. Well, I guess there was the one scene where he tried to fix an old camcorder that had some videos on it but they ended up corrupted. Once that scene was done, he was just kinda hanging around for no reason. It was a little weird for Hallmark.

Rating: Maybe back your important stuff up to multiple places

Merry Memories | Christmas 2026

Just when I thought we had reached the end of our Christmas story tropes, we are given a new one - scrapbooking. Yes, Merry Memories is about scrapbooking.

Michaela (Lindura) is very set in her ways. She makes lists for everything and they must be followed exactly. But when she steps in to help her brother, Josh (Eze Leno), care for his son, Danny (Omi Fitzpatrick-Gonzales), the rules get thrown out the window. Especially when Danny gets a scrapbooking assignment from his substitute teacher, Bryan (Brendan Morgan). Together, Michaela and Bryan help Danny make a special scrapbook to share with his military mother, who is currently deployed.

Yeah. This movie is boring. The plot is supposed to be breaking Michaela out of her hard-set ways but, instead, it’s just throwing chaos into her organized world. Sure, she needs to be less strict with her structure. Throwing glitter around is not the way to do it. Whoever thought a child scrapbooking would be a good plot needs to get out more. Or hang out with more children doing crafts.

Rating: The hot chocolate seemed good?

A Dog's Perfect Christmas | Christmas 2026

There are a lot of dog-related Christmas movies. And a lot of them are bad. Either they dogs are barely in the movie or the script is completely awful. So let’s see if Netflix’s A Dog’s Perfect Christmas belongs under the tree or in the fireplace.

Winstead (voiced by Thomas Haden Church) is a basset hound that lives with the Goss family. His human mom, Barbara (Rebecca Staab), passed away two years ago, leaving his human dad, Sander (Dennis Quaid), in a deep depression. Now Sander and Winstead live with Sander’s son, Hunter (Milo Ventimiglia), and his family: wife Juliana (Kathleen Rose Perkins), teenage daughter Ello (Brooke Lena Johnson), and twin toddlers Garrett and Ewan. When Juliana goes to the ER with a kidney infection that turns into sepsis, Sander and Ello are left to run the household. With some help from Winstead and new puppy Ruby, of course.

First thing to keep in mind: this is a sad, sad movie. There is a lot of death and almost death and trauma. If you aren’t in a mindset to handle any sort of death-related plotlines (and, yes, this includes suicide attempts), please don’t watch this movie. The dogs are great but I’m not sure they are enough to really make up for the amount of sadness we’re given.

If you are able to handle topics of death and depression, this was a really good movie. Most of that is because Winstead is a great dog. He tries to do everything he can to make the family, his pack, feel better and direct them back to each other. There are a few other great characters here. Ello takes on the burden of caring for her twin brothers and the household while her mother is in a coma and her father is both at work and at the hospital with his wife. Sean (Ethan Loomis) is a friend/love interest for Ello that actually asks her how she is doing and actually listens to her and actually does what he can to help. And once Sander is able to recognize that his family is hurting as much as he is and brings himself out of his deep depression, he does try his best to step into the adult role needed in the house.

Thanks to the very emotional plot of the movie, I’m not sure that this is something I will watch again. But I am glad that I watched it once.

Rating: They are all good dogs

A Danish Christmas | Christmas 2026

Ever year, Hallmark does at least one “destination” Christmas movie. We’ve gone to Austria, Finland, Ireland, Scotland, England, and probably many more that I’ve forgotten. This time we’re doing to Denmark with A Danish Christmas.

Marie (Emilie Ullerup), currently living in Chicago, heads home to Copenhagen to spend Christmas with her family. Unbeknownst to the family, Marie’s contract as a hotel tech executive may not be renewed. So Marie throws herself into the family business - the Andersen Inn. Ryan Miller (Corey Sevier), who happens to have the same name as a travel journalist, goes to Copenhagen to take a Christmas tour. Unfortunately, the Christmas tour doesn’t exist anymore and Marie thinks he really is the travel journalist. So Marie takes it upon herself to show Ryan the best Christmas Copenhagen has to offer.

To begin with, I love when these destination movies use actors from the location. All of the Danish characters are played by Danish actors, which means they speak actual Danish in the movie. It may seem like a little detail but it makes the movie so much more authentic. No matter how awful a movie is, it will always get bonus points from me for using native actors.

With that said, A Danish Christmas was cuter than I expected. Sorry, Corey, but a lot of times your movies kinda suck. I don’t know if it was because Ryan took a bit of a backseat to Denmark itself or if it was better direction or what…but Sevier was not nearly as insufferable as he usually is. And Ullerup was lovely as Marie. If I was to pick a destination Christmas movie to recommend to someone, it just might be this one.

Rating: Maybe I should go to Denmark for Christmas

Adopting St. Nick | Christmas 2026

Adopting St. Nick is another movie that Hallmark tried to spoil me with commercials. But my fast forward finger beat them!

Maren (Amy Groening) is the owner of her late father’s hardware store and a single mother to her adopted daughter, Leah (Taylor Blake). Leah misses having a grandfather of her own so Maren signs them up for the Christmas Companions program at Jolly Acres, the new retirement community in town. There she meets Reid (Michael Rady), whose job it is to travel around the country opening new branches of Jolly Acres. And Leah meets Kris (Randy Apostle), a new resident of the retirement community who looks a bit like Santa Claus.

With the name of the movie, I was hoping that it would spend more time with Leah and Kris. But, no, we follow Maren and Reid as she helps him fix up the grand room in Jolly Acres and showing him around town, of course. The movie is called Adopting St. Nick but they do very little with him. They go to the same events at Jolly Acres but they aren’t actually doing the things. For example, there’s a cookie exchange - Kris has baked cookies but he did that by himself, not with Leah. The writers wanted to make him into this grandfatherly character without the actual grandfatherly stuff. Just because he’s older doesn’t mean he’s grandfatherly. As proven by resident curmudgeon Stanley (Robert Nahum). This really would have been better if it centered around Leah and Kris. Disappointing.

Rating: Do you think Kris is Santa Claus?

Who's Coming For Christmas? | Christmas 2026

Hallmark doesn’t generally do a lot of religious Christmas movies. Who’s Coming For Christmas? isn’t really religious but it is heavy on faith. Thankfully, it is more like the “pretend you have what you want” than the “God will provide” type of faith. I can be on board with that.

Julie (Rhiannon Fish) has just moved into the house she inherited from her grandmother. Her biggest wish for Christmas is to have Christmas Eve dinner with a table full of people. However, everyone she invites can’t commit to coming to dinner. Still, she listens to the advice from her grandmother - Prepare for what you want and have faith that it will come.

I was expecting this movie to be a mushy mess. Instead, it was rather sweet. Julie, as the head librarian for the town, is able to make friends easily so it wasn’t difficult for her to invite random people to Christmas Eve dinner. And, as a result, people showed up for her. It’s a beautiful message about how community works if you actually put yourself out there. Maybe I should take Julie’s grandmother’s advice.

Rating: Julie is lucky there are no murderers in Hallmark movies

What If Christmas | Christmas 2026

I’m not sure if this has always been a thing but, over the past few years, Hallmark has had at least one movie featuring “older” actors. People in their 60s either remembering their past or regretting their life choices. This year we have What If Christmas with Lori Loughlin and Tom Cavanagh.

Erin (Loughlin) has always supported her husband, Adam’s (Cavanagh), career as a heart surgeon. Her biggest contribution is organizing the hospital’s annual charity gala. However, now that they have moved to a new city for his job, Erin is feeling left behind. The new hospital doesn’t need her help and Adam is too busy to spend time with her. At a Christmas market, she finds a heart-shaped ornament, which grants her wish of making her a famous fashion designer. Only the rest of her life didn’t come with it.

What If Christmas was an interesting movie. Not only did Erin not have all of her loved ones with her in the wish world, she also became something of a Grinch. She wouldn’t let the design studio workers decorate for Christmas, she wasn’t friends with her best friend, she was even a little mean to her personal assistant. Sure, Erin probably wouldn’t have married Adam if she was so focused on her career but I don’t think she would have changed her entire personality for it. Some pieces of her original self should have shown through.

Despite those issues, I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was funny that their dog still recognized her even if no one else did. Dogs always know the right people.

Rating: The red dress was still kinda ugly though

Forgotten Holiday | Christmas 2026

Generally, I try to keep away from commercials for Hallmark movies so I’m not spoiled when I actually watch it. Forgotten Holiday has run so many commercials that it was impossible to not see a few. I hope the movie is better than the ads.

Kathryn (Janel Parrish) and Rob (Daniel Lissing) met a few weeks before Christmas and started a whirlwind romance. A year later, Rob goes to propose to Kathryn but she runs away before he could even ask. Heartbroken, Rob heads to his sister’s house. He gets into a car accident that causes him to forget everything that happened in the past year. Including his relationship with Kathryn. She agrees to recreate their relationship in order to help bring back his memories.

On one hand, this was a very cute movie. Parrish is one of the few Hallmark leads that is really good at her job. She has been in a few movies that I enjoyed. Unsurprisingly, she is the bright spot here as well. On the other hand, Rob becomes a completely different person after the accident. Things that he loved before, he finds somewhat annoying now. I’m not sure that forgetting a year of your life would make you forget that you LOVE Christmas. I get that it was supposed to be what makes him a better person. It just seemed like a bit much. Despite that, it was decent enough to watch. And I give all the credit to Parrish. It’s always a good idea to watch her movies.

Rating: Very rich people that need more hobbies

Winter Wonderlanes | Christmas 2026

This is a new one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Christmas movie about bowling. I’m always happy when there’s a new theme. So let’s check out Winter Wonderlanes.

Audrey (Ashley Newbrough) has come home for Thanksgiving, only to find other that her late grandfather’s beloved bowling alley, Wonderlanes, is about to be sold. Instead of heading off to her next pop-up restaurant, she decides to stay home for awhile to help the family with the sale…and to bring back the alley’s big holiday event, the Winter Wonderlanes youth tournament. Her high school boyfriend, Jason (Franco Lo Presti), is a reporter at the local newstation so he is tasked with helping advertise the event. Will Ashley rekindle her love for bowling and Jason?

This was a cute movie. It was nothing particularly special. There were some slow parts with stupid montages but I think the parts with the actual bowling made up for it a bit. I would have liked to see more bowling…but it’s Hallmark, what can you do? The romance almost always takes the front seat. At least it wasn’t a complete gutter ball.

Rating: A pin short of a turkey