A Reason For The Season | 2024 Christmas Movies

Now we’re heading back over to Hallmark Mystery with A Reason For The Season. Is it a mystery? Not really. But I’ve now resigned myself to the knowledge that this is the channel Hallmark uses for all of the non-traditional romance movies. Which is fine.

Thirty-five years ago, Elizabeth Lane (Taylor Reid in the flashback, Sarah-Jane Redmond in the present time) suddenly gave birth to her daughter, Evie (Taylor Cole), in a small town diner with the help of six strangers. Now, realizing that her adult daughter doesn’t appreciate the wealth she has built, Elizabeth sends Evie back to that small town to find the six strangers and grant their Christmas wishes. With the help of Kyle (Kevin McGarry), the only lawyer in town, Evie sets her sights on completing her mother’s challenge.

This is one of those movies that could have gone very wrong. We get a lot of “spoiled rich girl goes good” type of Christmas movies. And a lot of them are bad. Thankfully, I didn’t think A Reason For The Season was that bad. It’s a Hallmark movie so of course there is some terrible dialog and a handful of cheesy acting. But I thought that the actors got the message across well enough.

I suppose, if I had to find something bad with the movie, I would say that it was a little unbelievable that someone with access to THAT much money wouldn’t have gotten a credit card or driver’s license in their fake name instead of pretending they keep forgetting their stuff all over the place. It wouldn’t have been that difficult for Evie to get everything she needed to make herself successful. Especially if she was just giving away $1,000 diamond tennis bracelets. But, to be honest, this is a small nitpick. It was a little annoying that she had to keep hiding her real name but it didn’t ruin the movie. In the end, it was still decent.

Rating: Can I get my Christmas wish granted too?

A Christmas Spark | 2022 Christmas Movies

Man, I remember my mother watching Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman back in the 90s. Well, Lifetime brought Jane Seymour and Joe Lando back in A Christmas Spark. Let’s see if they still have their spark almost 30 years later.

Molly (Jane Seymour) is stuck in her traditional ways. This year, her daughter’s family can’t come to her house for Christmas due to work commitments, ruining their traditional Christmas celebration. So she goes to Connecticut to spend the holiday at her daughter’s house. During her stay, she gets talked into directing the local Christmas play. She ends up working closely with Hank (Joe Lando), the town playboy. The two end up closer than either intended.

Seymour and Lando have a history of playing romantic partners. In A Christmas Spark, it’s almost like no time has passed between them. They have just as much chemistry in 2022 as they did in 1993. Having that relationship off-camera makes it so much more believable on-camera. The two seem like they are goofing around as actual friends instead of playing two characters falling in love. It makes the falling in love part seem real. You can see the relationship between the characters go from friendship to love, which we don’t see very often in these types of movies.

There isn’t a ton to talk about in A Christmas Spark but I do think it is worth watching. Whether you want to watch it to see your old Dr Quinn ship get back together or you just want a nice Christmas movie to watch, this one fulfills both of those needs. Seymour is a super talented actress and I’m not sure what she’s doing in a Lifetime Christmas movie but I am very glad she is doing it.

A Maple Valley Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

You know, usually, Christmas movie titles give you a little insight into what the movie is about. A Maple Valley Christmas doesn’t really tell us anything. It’s about a family on a farm that harvests maple from trees so they make a lot of maple things. I guess they had to name it something, right?

Erica (Peyton List) has spent her whole life on her family’s farm. When the neighboring farm comes up for sale, Erica thinks they should buy the land to expand the business. Two things lie in her way - her sister, Heidi (Ella Cannon), who doesn’t want to spend the money and Aaron Davenport (Andrew Walker) whose father wants to buy the plot of land for their real estate business.

This is one of the most frustrating movies I have watched in awhile. It has all the marks of a good Christmas romance movie. Erica and Aaron make a good enough couple. Their romance seems to blossom fairly naturally. The land conflict is big enough that it could cause issues between people but not big enough that it’s catastrophic to everyone. However, what holds it back is the sheer self-centeredness of the women. Mainly Erica and Heidi.

Ina (Frances Flanagan), the family matriarch, wants to retire and go to Italy with her new boyfriend, who happens to tutor her in Italian. Erica basically throws a hissy fit at this news. How dare her mother want to spend her golden years doing something she wants to instead of wasting away on a farm simply to make her daughters happy? Since Ina is leaving the family business to Erica and Heidi, it’s Heidi’s turn to throw an unnecessary fit. Heidi absolutely refuses to even consider Erica’s plan to expand the family farm. When Erica talks to other people about it to get their ideas, Heidi complains that Erica is leaving her out. What should have been a simple conversation with everyone bringing up the pros and cons of the plan is turned into a stupid sibling rivalry. Why can’t these two think of other people for a minute?

I don’t know if I can recommend A Maple Valley Christmas. I really wanted to like it but it felt so misogynistic that it made my skin crawl. Maybe we can just forget this one exists this year.