Christmas 2023 Wrap-Up | 2023 Christmas Movies

I know you have been looking forward to my 2023 Wrap-Up post. Well, wait no longer. Here are the details!

In 2023, I watched 92 Christmas movies. While this is still more than the 78 movies I watched in 2021, it is a LOT less than the 127 movies I watched last year.

I did banish the terrible UPtv movies from the lineup but I ended up keeping Great American Family. I still don’t feel great watching the channel. It just feels wrong to not include the Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar movies. And if I have the channel for those two, I might as well watch the other 18 movies they aired, right? Thankfully, the MyPillow and Gilmore Girls commercials were absent this year. I’d like to drop the channel next year but that probably won’t happen. Maybe I can find a way to watch it without actually contributing financially to the channel.

Besides GAF, I also covered movies aired on Hallmark, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Lifetime, Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Amazon Prime/Video/Freevee, Disney+, Paramount+, and Peacock. Sadly, I didn’t even check Discovery to see what they offered. I forgot all about it. Maybe their Christmas offerings will still be around in July and I can revisit them.

Plans for 2024? I like the number of movies I covered this year. I will try my best to keep the number of movies around 92. However, I would like to figure out how to get a better list of all of the Christmas movies airing each year. GAF really likes to change their schedule mid-season so that is unavoidable but I didn’t find out about some of the Amazon movies until the middle of December. Having a full schedule would make it easier to get a good handle on my review schedule.

Is there anything you would like me to add or subtract for next year? Is there a channel that you think I should watch? Do you think I should continue watching Great American Family? Leave me a comment and let me know. I need as much help as I can get!

Christmas Time | 2023 Christmas Movies

Christmas Time is another 2023 movie that I only caught because I was scrolling through FreeVee looking for movies. This means I don’t have a lot of information about the movie, of course.

Kevin Snowdon (Neil James) is a physics teacher that does not enjoy Christmas. Every year, he takes his family on a skiing vacation to escape the holiday. This year, however, there was a mix-up with the reservations and the family ended up in Lapland, a Christmas tourist destination.

The first part of the movie is quite dull. And it’s not because Kevin doesn’t like Christmas. It’s because he’s just bland about it all. Except for a few scenes where he seems angry that people are dressed in Christmas attire, he’s mostly walking around without any real personality. It isn’t until the family gets to Lapland that he starts to show who he is a bit more. And it really isn’t until The Santa Trip that he starts to come to life. To be honest, Santa’s workshop/house/village is the best part of the whole movie. I wish the writers devoted a little more time to the scenes there.

Sadly, that means that this isn’t a movie that I can recommend to everyone. This is for someone who is looking for a Christmas movie that has zero romance in it (except for a teenage crush) and wants to see a grumpy man find the Christmas spirit. Though there are better movies that this that accomplish that. It upsets me because Christmas Time could have been much better if they put a little more effort into it.

Rating: Can I be an elf?

A Perfect Christmas Pairing | 2023 Christmas Movies

Most of the movies going forward are going to be from various streaming platforms. A Perfect Christmas Pairing aired on FreeVee, an Amazon video app.

Grace Cooke (Ansley Gordon) is a chef who desperately wants to get a Michelin star. After a bad review, she goes home to her family’s winery for the holidays. There she meets Asher (Chris Connell), a travel journalist who doesn’t stay in the same place for very long.

This was a dumb movie. From the characters laughing (over a laughtrack) to the stupidest jokes to Grace feeling the need to explain “Behind” to Asher when she walked behind him (“it’s restaurant speak for ‘I’m walking behind you’”) to the fact that no one has life behind their eyes. It is all just so terrible. And even the main conflict - a woman coming into town to try to buy up all of the companies? - makes no sense and is no actual threat to anything since no one wants to sell. They act like she can just give them money and that means they sold their property, even if they don’t want to. Maybe FreeVee isn’t the place to go for movies.

Rating: Take two ideas that have nothing to do with each other and try to smash them together

EXmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

I recently found out that Amazon has a free streaming service called Freevee. The first 2023 Christmas movie I found on it is EXmas. Do we think this will be better than the stuff on cable?

Ali (Leighton Meester) broke up with Graham (Robbie Amell). However, she did not break up with his family. Thinking that he is not coming home for Christmas, Graham’s parents invite Ali to celebrate with them. But they were wrong. Can Ali and Graham live under the same roof without killing each other?

There were parts of the movie that I enjoyed. Unfortunately, a lot of the fun scenes were ruined by the ruthlessness between Ali and Graham. They aren’t just mean to each other. They are downright evil. I don’t understand how they were able to forgive each other so easily in order to give us the Happy Ever After. In short, this is a movie you could enjoy if you like watching people tear each other apart. Otherwise, you can skip it.

Rating: Tiny food truck or loving relationship - you can only choose one