A Kismet Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The first weekend of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies ends with A Kismet Christmas. Yes, I also had to look up the meaning of ‘kismet’ since they use it a million times in the movie. It means destiny or fate. I guess they can only use ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’ so many times before they run out of titles. It’s just kismet, right?

Mia (Marilu Henner) bakes kismet cookies - cookies that will tell you who your true love is when you sleep with one under your pillow on Christmas Eve. One year, Mia’s granddaughter, Sarah (Sarah Ramos), sneaks a kismet cookie under her pillow. It told her that her true love was the boy next door, Travis (Carlo Marks). Unfortunately, Travis was getting married that day. Embarrassed, Sarah rips up the recipe for the cookies and leaves the town of New Britain. Years later, Sarah is a children’s book author. Her publisher runs a contest and the winner lives in New Britain. Sarah is forced to return to town and face both her grandmother and her childhood crush.

On one hand, I found A Kismet Christmas interesting. On the other hand, the slow parts were very slow. I liked the idea of magical cookies that told you who your true love is. If the movie dove deep into that, I think I would have liked it more. However, since Sarah tore up the recipe within the first 15 minutes of the movie, the cookies aren’t around a lot. Instead, we get a lot of people hemming and hawing about how there aren’t any kismet cookies and they wish there were kismet cookies so they could know FOR SURE that a certain person liked them. And since there are no cookies to be baked, Grandma Mia is fairly useless. She makes very vague statements about things and doesn’t tell Sarah any of the important news that is fairly necessary to her life. I think the movie would have been more interesting if the cookies were still around and the conflict is whether the magic in the house is leaving since Mia is planning on selling it.

Instead of the cool things, A Kismet Christmas focuses on Travis and his daughter, Jasmine (Rubi Tupper). In the beginning, Sarah was mortified about having to face Travis again after interrupting his wedding. She got over that so quickly and she spends a majority of the movie helping Jasmine with her contest-winning project or helping Travis make Jasmine happy. I understand that the writers wanted them to spend more time together to push the romance but it’s insinuated that they have always loved each other. Again, the focus should have been on the magic cookies and house. They could have easily had Travis and Jasmine try to help figure out why the house is losing its magic and how to get it back. It’s a much more interesting story.

Should you watch it? Probably not. Unfortunately, I think the boring parts outweigh the interesting parts. Which makes me sad because there was so much potential there. At least it’s only the beginning of the movie season. Maybe there will be something better soon.

A Kiss Before Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

A Kiss Before Christmas has a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life feel to it. But is it good enough to become a new Christmas classic?

Like most people, Ethan (James Denton) wishes he had more money. Life would be perfect if he didn’t have to worry about paying for a new radiator for the car or college for kids, right? When Santa (John B. Lowe) grants him a Christmas wish, Ethan gets to see what his life would have been if he had made a different decision in the past. Realizing his mistake, can Ethan figure out how to get his wife Joyce (Teri Hatcher) and kids back?

Finally! An actual good movie on the Hallmark Channel! And I’m going to chalk it up to the talented cast they managed to get together. James Denton is heart-breaking as Ethan - a man who wants to give his family everything they deserve but he has trouble balancing his attempts to climb the corporate ladder with a satisfying, loving home life. Teri Hatcher tugs at your heart strings at Joyce - who tries to convince her husband that the family needs him to be present more than they need to be wealthy. And Rod Wilson, as the evil corporate businessman Sean, makes you hate every fiber of his being. If these were lesser actors, the script could have easily come off as cheesy or overly mushy.

I honestly don’t want to give too much away here. Though, to be honest, this isn’t a movie with a lot of twists and turns in the plots. You should be able to predict what will happen. But it’s not the uniqueness of the plot that makes it good. It’s the way it was brought to life.

So, yes, go watch A Kiss Before Christmas. I’m not convinced it will be a new annual classic but it definitely is worth watching a couple of times.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! | 2020 Christmas Movies

When is a Christmas movie not a Christmas movie, when it’s a Hanukkah movie! Every year, we get one Hanukkah movie. Last year was Mistletoe & Menorahs. This year it’s Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

Christina (Mia Kirshner) was adopted as a baby. After her adoptive mother passes away, she takes a DNA test to find out her heritage. Not only does she find out that she is half Jewish, she also finds a close familial connection. When she is contacted by the connection, she finds her entire biological family.

A lot of times, the annual Hanukkah movie focuses solely on the religious aspects of the holiday. While Love, Lights does show us some of the traditions, it mostly focuses on the family as a whole. The movie isn’t about Hanukkah; it’s about a family welcoming in a new member. I love it.

Even the romance in the movie isn’t a typical Christmas movie romance. David (Ben Savage) doesn’t need Christina’s help and he doesn’t need to help her. They just spend some time together enjoying each other’s company.

Normally, I complain about how stupid the Big Conflict is in a movie. Love, Lights doesn’t really have a conflict. (There is a small one about David moving away for an undetermined amount of time to write a book but it is quickly resolved and unnecessary.) All of the dramatic tension comes from the fact that Christina doesn’t want to disrespect her adoptive mother’s memory by finding her biological mother and going from a family of two to a family of seven. Anyone from a large family would know that is more than enough tension for a movie.

I absolutely loved this movie. Mia Kirshner and Ben Savage are great actors. It’s almost like these roles were created for them specifically. All of the supporting cast are great as well. Everyone compliments each other perfectly. Please go watch Love, Lights, Hanukkah! so that Hallmark knows we need more of these types of movies.