A Dash of Christmas | 2023 Christmas Movies

Sometimes I wonder what writers are thinking of when they write these scripts. A Dash of Christmas is one of those times.

Megan (Laura Osnes) is a marketing executive who has recently lost her job. Luckily, another job prospect pops up but she needs to film a video of her baking in order to land it. Aaron (Christopher Russell), a local bakery owner, helps her learn how to bake so she can land her dream job.

So. Megan is in marketing. Why do these movies think that marketing people need to be able to do the thing they are trying to market? They don’t. They need to know how to get people to click on the link or get into the shop or read the article or whatever. They don’t have to actually DO the thing. This movie should have gone with Megan being sad because she lost her job so she takes a baking class to try to make herself feel better. In the class, she meets Aaron and they find out that, with her marketing skills, they can take his bakery to the next level and find love along the way. That is so much more interesting.

Rating: Leave the fruitcake alone

Christmas In Tahoe | 2021 Christmas Movies

I get that Christmas in Tahoe is, for some reason, based on the 2015 album by Train. But did we really need to cast the lead singer of the band as a secondary character? Executive producer powers in play!

Claire (Laura Osnes) is an event planner at her family’s hotel. However, live acts prefer to go to Reno or Las Vegas over Tahoe. As a result, Claire is trying to get a job at a hotel in Las Vegas booking acts. The big Christmas show at her family’s hotel is her big chance to impress the Las Vegas bigwigs. When her main act is forced to cancel and the rest of the acts cancel with her, Claire and her rock star ex-boyfriend, Ryan (Kyle Selig), have to figure out a new roster of acts to save the show.

Honestly, the movie would have been perfectly fine without Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train. He overemotes everything. When I heard he was going to be in it, I thought that it couldn’t be that bad. After all, there are plenty of singers that also have an acting career. Boy, was I wrong. He ruins every scene that he is in. I wish he could have put his ego aside long enough to cast someone else in the role. If he wanted to be in it that badly, he could have just been one of the “saving” acts. I mean, they did put him in the show (because, duh) but as the character, not as himself.

But speaking of the “saving” acts, one of the acts that Claire wants to book but runs into some trouble is an acapella group similar to Pentatonix. Except that the movie group (I don’t even remember their name) only had three people instead of four and they sounded terrible. Their harmonies were not together and the poor guy in the group was relegated to beat boxer, which he was not good at.

The sad thing is that I actually liked the parts of Christmas in Tahoe that didn’t have cringey acting or awful singing. While Osnes and Selig didn’t have a ton of romantic chemistry, I kinda liked them as the long-time friends that poked fun at each other. I think they would have been better as best friends instead of a romantic couple.

So. Should you watch this? I want to say no but also maybe? If you are a big fan of Train, you might be able to look past Monahan’s terrible acting. But, to be honest, there is too much of him to really save the movie. Go watch One December Night instead.

One Royal Holiday | 2020 Christmas Movies

Do you like royal families? Does anyone like royal families? The people that write Christmas movies must think that people adore royalty. Why else would we have so many of royalty-related movies?

Anna (Laura Osnes) is a nurse in Boston. As she is getting ready to drive home for the holidays, she comes across a mother and son stranded due to an impending blizzard. She offers to let them stay at her family’s bed and breakfast in Connecticut. Only after they get to the B&B does she find out that they are the royal family of Galwick. Anna shows Queen Gabriella (Victoria Clark) and Prince James (Aaron Tveit) how they celebrate Christmas in her hometown.

Is there a way they could make these movies a little different? It’s always a foreign prince and a common American girl. The prince is cold and unwilling to change while the girl has to figure out how to warm his heart with Christmas spirit. The big difference here is that the royals fall in love with the little town and don’t want to return to their country. They have to return, of course, because the prince has to give an annual speech.

Of the prince-related Christmas movies I have watched, this one is pretty darn boring. You could watch the Netflix series A Christmas Prince…that wasn’t too bad. The Princess Switch is still royalty-related, even though it doesn’t have a prince. There’s just better Christmas movies featuring royalty, if you really need that royal fix. It’s OK to skip this one. You aren’t missing much.