We Ranked All of Hallmark Channel’s 2020 Christmas Movies So Far–and You’re Going to Have Some Feelings

As we noted when the line-up was announced, Hallmark’s slate was more diverse and inclusive than ever and we definitely noticed subtle shifts in the movies. But that welcome (and belated) change doesn’t mean every flick was worthy of canceling recordings of some of our beloved Bravo shows to make room for more than two dozen (!) of these candy cane-filled and cheerily cheesy movies.

OK, we are just going to pull the band-aid off quick here: This really was not good. Like, at all. Its two biggest offenses? It was illogical (saying something for a Countdown to Christmas offering) and it was boring. And, worst of all, it never paid off one of the biggest storylines with the lead not locating her mom’s lost wedding ring after looking for it the ENTIRE movie. Like that piece of jewelry, we’d sadly like The Christmas Ring to be nowhere to be found when it comes time to schedule repeat airings.

It may be time to retire the Godwink franchise ‘cause it’s a no for us on this snoozy one. Also, note to writers: Your lead cannot ponder (multiple times, mind you) what would’ve happened if had had made a different choice in life IF HE HAS CHILDREN. At least Brooke D’Orsay and Sam Page looked, like, super pretty together?

Sorry, but we can’t get over the fact that the family’s last name in the movie is Darlington but they just decided to make it Darlings in the title. We notice these things! Anyway, our time with the fam was more meh than darling, if we’re being honest.

We know we watched this movie and distinctly remember liking the leads—Merritt Patterson and Luke MacFarlane—and yet we cannot tell you for one million candy canes what it was about. And we love candy canes!

It’s never easy going first and JBB (cool if we call you that?), while charming, was a victim of an early debut. Like a snowflake during a light flurry, the memory of it melted from our minds before it had the time to stick.

Is there anything more aggravating than a character attempting to explain a prior incident for an entire movie, only for another character to not want to hear it? Yeah, that happens until like, the last five minutes of this one, making for a somewhat aggravating viewing experience. Spoiler alert: Mark Deklin just wanted to tell you he stood you up because HE AND HIS LITTLE BRO WERE LITERALLY HIT BY A CAR, CATHERINE BELL. Bonus points, though, for staging one of the most beautiful outdoor winter weddings we’ve ever seen. We want to go to there.

Not even the power of Andrew Walker, one of our favorite leading men, and the musical talents of Alicia Witt could save this one from being tossed in a pile of many subpar movies that have come before it. Still, we’re not sure we’ll ever get over Walker’s character realizing he’s technically the bad guy set to demolish Christmas Tree Lane MIDWAY through!

Despite having two of our favorite leads—the always-quirky-yet-inviting Ashley Williams and the underrated Niall Matter—this one never lived up to its full potential. And by that we obviously mean that iconic title.

One scene in this movie completely saves it: Traveling doctor (Holly Robinson-Peete) learning the man who brought her into a charming small town is the father of a soldier she treated and lost while working as a military physician. Reader, we wept. Oh, and Luke Holmes as the leading man…please Hallmark Channel, may we have some more?

In her most recent Christmas movies, the queen of the C-to-C programming Candace Cameron Bure has gotten more ambitious and pushed the boundaries of Hallmark. This one, a modern homage to The Wizard of Oz, was her biggest swing yet. So props for that, but unfortunately, it doesn’t totally work and we wish they would’ve actually gone more over-the-top with the references and storyline. Instead, there was a standard plot with just a few, at best, vague and, at worst, forced nods to the classic film. Still, there’s no lead like CCB.

Can we just say how sick we are of the “single hardworking woman needs to learn there are more important things in life than work” trope? We feel attacked! Anyway, this country music spin on A Christmas Carol is as charming as it can be. (But, like, no Christmas Future?! Damn those time constraints!) Solid performers Wes Brown and Jessy Schram do their things, but IRL country stars Wynonna Judd, Sara Evans, RaeLynn and Kix Brooks steal the show purely by feeling sort of out of place. Oh, and network mainstay Kimberly Williams-Paisley made a choice when it came to her take on the Spirit of Christmas Present.

The premise had us intrigued: Reporter returns to the small town she grew up in determined to unmask the identity of a mysterious wish-granter after the desire she placed on the titular tree went unfulfilled. And the leading lady had us excited. We love a Jill Wagner movie in this house. So it is with much (OK, just a little) sadness that we express our total meh-ness when it came to The Angel Tree.

“Sarah Drew is just so charming” was a sentence we said aloud to absolutely no one no less than six times while watching the Grey’s Anatomy alum play a violinist who somehow never practices during her trip to Vienna despite heading there to perform one of the most important pieces of her life. Who cares when there are endless desserts to be consumed and a romance with a widowed diplomat (Brennan Elliot doing his Brennan Elliot thing) to be sparked?

The chemistry between network darling Lacey Chabert and the charismatic Will Kemp (costars in Love, Romance & Chocolate) as a heartbroken woman and her dance instructor fully explains why celebs fall for their partners on DWTS. (Also, her ex-fiancé’s pure suckage legitimately made us LOL.)

We’ve said it before and we’ll repeat it now: If Hallmark were to assemble a leading man in a lab, it would come out looking exactly like Trevor Donovan. And the 90210 vet deliver his best performance for the network yet as a Navy lieutenant whose Grinch-like views melt after basking in the warmth that is Jen Lilley‘s charm. Military stories is a pool Hallmark loves to dip its toe in and USS Christmas is one of its better offerings.

Did you hear a collective gasp ring out across the country at approximately 8:57 p.m. ET on Nov. 24? It’s because the two leads kissed for the first time at that mark. Yes, clutch those pearls because a couple actually kissed before the midway point of the movie. Shooketh, we were.

Aside from that PG-13 moment, this one was pretty much what you’d expect: Erin (Rochelle Aytes) is trying to get single adoptive dad/firefighter Kevin (Mark Taylor) to give her his spruce tree. Sadly, not a euphuism. 

This is straight-up a Kate & Leopold rip-off. Luckily, we are low-key stans for that Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman joint, so we didn’t mind! Alas, we do wish they would’ve milked the whole hot-old-timey-dude-can’t-deal-with-modern-times bit more.

So no one told Vanessa Lengies she wasn’t acting in a Netflix Christmas rom-com and it shows. It’s also a good thing. (And it also makes sense when you discover it’s the only movie Hallmark acquired for their programming slate that wasn’t their own.) The Glee star is feisty and fun in a role as old as time: Hardworking girl returns to her small town from the big city and reconnects with the ex-boyfriend she left behind. Arguably Hallmark’s most millennial-feeling movie and it’s noticeable but not in a way that is distracting. Dare we say this, mostly because of Lengies, was the most pleasant surprise of the season thus far? 

First: It’s about damn time a Hallmark movie featured an LGBTQ+ lead couple. Second: No, that’s it. It was about damn time.
This film—actually inspired by star Robert Buckley‘s real-life festive home growing up, for real!—took on a lot, not just the expectations of featuring the network’s first gay romance. There were virtually six leads (with Buckley and Mean Girl‘s Jonathan Bennett really shining as brothers), three major storylines and one underserved adoption storyline. Funny and, at times, meta, The Christmas House was a little messy but in a way that worked. Still, Bennett’s character’s marriage felt on the periphery of the action and a little token when their desire to start a family was more than A-plot worthy.

Paul Campbell is a curious Hallmark leading man. Why? Because he acts with an awareness that he is in a Hallmark movie. And that works totally in his favor in Christmas By Starlight, which he wrote with co-star Kimberely Sustad. Filled with more with more wit than probably half of the rest of the slate combined, the duo pushed the material as far as the network would allow. But, really, at the end of it all, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill story with just a few extra winks ands quips. 

Props, however, for fully winking at Sustad’s resemblance to Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy by naming her character Annie. We love that journey for her.

Nikki DeLoach could literally knock over our Christmas Tree and we’d apologize to her, that’s how much we love her. And man, does she bring it in Cranberry Christmas as an aspiring Joanna Gaines-like lifestyle personality torn between advancing her career and nurturing her struggling marriage. Yes, Hallmark actually featured a couple on the brink of separation, which is so rare it’d be like Snooki popping up in a Martin Scorsese movie. Alas, we were hoping they would’ve explored that dynamic even more. Baby steps!

Listen, make Aaron Tveit a prince who sings and we are going to like your movie. This is a scientific fact. One Royal Holiday enlisted Tveit and fellow Broadway stars Laura Osnes and Victoria Clark to win us over and give us a much-needed dose of the Great White Way after its shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Even though we love leading man Tyler Hines, we did not have high expectations going into this one, released early on in the Countdown. But we were pleasantly surprised by the premise (two game-makers must work together to create a romantic 12 Days of Christmas-themed scavenger hunt) and the effortless and palpable chemistry between Hines and Mallory Jansen. Also, it was refreshing to see a movie where co-workers act like adults with goals and ambitions and don’t feel shamed for that? And yes, we can’t believe we have to commend that but here we are!

We’re probably revealing a Grinch-like quality here, but we don’t exactly love when music plays a major factor in our Hallmark movies. Like eggnog-flavored anything, it just feels like too much. But The Christmas Bow proves to be an exception to that rule, thanks to the insane talent of acclaimed violinist Lucia Micarelli. Add in Michael Rady, one of our favorite leads who just exudes kindness, and you’ve got one of the most underrated movies in the 2020 slate.

We may be biased because we love a good behind-the-scenes look at a morning show. And, hello, having the two hosts, who secretly can’t stand each other, fall for each other while enjoying Christmas in a picturesque small town is holiday movie gold. Sure, the TV world as its portrayed in Good Morning Christmas! was absolutely ludicrous and unrealistic (we guarantee Gelman would have notes!), but darn it if Alison Sweeney (taking on a Kelly Ripa-esque worker bee with relatable charm) and Marc Blucas (tackling the old NFL star-turned-Bachelor-turned-successful host role) didn’t sell the crap outta this thing! And darn it if they didn’t totally nail the grand gesture at the end of the movie!

This movie is saccharin sweet. There’s a young woman who grew up in the foster care system desperately trying to make her dream of becoming a librarian and building her own home come true. There’s a sick single mother concerned about her two young daughters’ future living next door. (You can see where that is going from a mile away.) And then there’s an aspiring furniture maker trying to please his parents by settling for an unfulfilling career. Like we said: saccharin sweet. And yet, somehow, someway, it all works, due in large part to stars Janel Parrish, Marisol Nichols and Jeremy Jordan. Sure, it’s sappy, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

This one was just so. Much Fun. One Tree Hill fans know the power of Bethany Joy Lenz and Hallmark is quickly learning how to harness it. Lenz delivers another utterly winsome performance for the network as Lucy, a woman trying to help her father win over an anonymous travel critic after her childhood home is turned into bed and breakfast. To do so, her entire family takes on alter-egos as fellow guests, the chef and more and they all revel in their assigned roles. Hijinks, naturally ensue, as does as romance between Lucy and guest Jack (Victor Webster), who happens to have a mysterious job. We’ll give you one chance to guess the twist in Five Star Christmas. Plus, the side characters’ plots felt as fully fleshed out as they can be in a two-hour affair.

OK, imagine if Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail came together in the most unexpectedly delightful way for a movie. That’s Deliver By Christmas, which stars Eion Bailey (in his best outing for the network yet) as a widow looking to give his son the ultimate holiday. (He’s basically Sleepless in a small town.) He ends up forming a deep virtual connection with a local baker (Alvina August), who was once left at the altar. (Don’t cry, Shopgirl!) Still, while their relationship blossoms over the phone blossoms, the pair unknowingly keeps running into each other IRL, one meet-cute after another. You know where this one is going, but when it gets there…we wanted it to be them, so badly.