Cheesy “Guilty pleasure” Christmas films 2024

[VillageFete]

What Hallmark style Christmas films have you watched so far?

Channel 5 is showing them consistently now, and i’ve had the channels “Great Christmas” and “Christmas 24” on, non stop.

I watched “Christmas in Wolf Creek” the other day, it was on Christmas 24. Painfully cheesy story about a hot rancher and his girlfriend trying to make it work when they want different things. Throw in a runaway reindeer and the threat of the Town Christmas pageant not going ahead and you had a gripping storyline.

“Hot Frosty” which is new to Netflix is on my list, starring the Hallmark Queen of Christmas herself, Lacey Chabert.

PS - Why is she Christmassing on Netflix when she’s Hallmark royalty?

I am watching Merry Gentlemen at the moment. It’s quite good. Utterly cheesy but good.

@GettingStuffed the original Mrs Miracle introduced me to the genre, however many years ago! It was on ch5 last week I think.

TIL: Maxwell Caulfield played the old one!!! He's 64 now. I realised I'm also getting on a bit! He started out exotic dancing to get his Equity card apparently.
I remember him from Dynasty and The Colbys when I was small. He was good in The Real Blonde. He's married to Juliet Mills still, who's now 83.
They got married when he was 21 and she was 39.

Remembered another one - Chalet Girl with Felicity Jones, Bill Nighy and Bill Bailey. Traumatised working class former skateboarder goes to work in a vairy posh family chalet and gets into both snowboarding and the family's son :) It's very fun and there's loads of snow. Perfect!

Ah! I've found my people. Absolutely LOVE a Crappy Christmas Film (as distinct from a good Christmas film, totally different genres).

Does anyone else play Hallmark Bingo while they watch them? My favourite one to spot is "emotional snow".

I'd recommend Kristin's Christmas Past as a good one to watch, even if it doesn't actually hit many of the bingo items on the list.

As an aside, lots of them are filmed in Canada, particularly in a place called Burnaby Village just outside Vancouver. We went there a few years ago and now any film featuring the bandstand from the village gets extra points on our bingo list. (Yes, I've corrupted my family and made them devotees of the CCF too.)

I am non-stop christmassing-

Princess Switch Trilogy a must see. the third is the best!
This is Christmas is lovely-the intertwined stories make me sob every time.
The Holiday
Holidate
Single all the way
Crown for Christmas but not sure where we can watch in Uk
Notting Hill Christmas is so spectacularly awful that it is good.
They literally nick so much of Notting Hill-american in beret in notting hill gets coffee spilled on her by englishman who lives "just over there"

A very old one I want to give a shout out to-I am literally the only person I know who has ever watched/heard of it. It's called Bell Book and Candle. Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon etc. Great cast. Made in 1958 and worth the watch just for the clothes. Currently on apple tv.

Fun fact-they were filming the third Christmas Switch near where they were filming Castle for Christmas and they had Mrs Donatelli and Frank from Christmas switch check into hotel in Castle for Christmas and get the romance package...Netflix loves a cross over!

@MrsMitford3 I watched Bell Book and Candle many years ago so can't remember what happens in it. May need to do a rewatch soon if it's Christmassy in feel. Have you ever seen Christmas in Conneticut with Barbara Stanwyck? Highly recommend it

ooooh am looking for it now. I actually have a little dvd player-it was about £30 and I have lots of old films that I watch on that 😍

OOh edited to say yes I have seen Christmas in Ct-just googled it and it's brilliant!!! Love a madcap caper...

I watched this today. - 'A Very British Christmas" on Channel 5.

It was dreadful.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

www.imdb.com/title/tt9815084/

It took me a while longer than it should have to figure out where I recognised the main character from!
Oh, and the subtitles are unintentionally hilarious; must have used some dodgy AI 😂

I tried to find on catch up today but no luck-
now it seems even more wonderful...

LC is in one I really like - think it's called the Sweetest Christmas or something similar, she's trying to win the American Gingerbread competition.
My absolute favourite is One Royal Holiday - it's got Aaron Tveit as the Prince and the whole film is just lovely and quite impressively funny :)
Also like the Christmas Listing with Tyler from Neighbours in - that's nice too.

Of the more grown up ones, The Muppets Christmas Carol is without compare...

Nearly forgot - I also really like Last Christmas and the Amazon ones, Your Christmas or Mine ( 1 and 2 !)

I've just watched 'Switched for Christmas' on Great! Christmas.

One of the Candace Cameron Bure classics- twin sister switch ones. Also has her daughter Natasha in it (who has gone on to star in a few Hallmark films of her own, and is the image of CCB). I've lost count of how many times I've seen this one - and the sister switch plot has been re-used in about 3 other films .

I'm currently watching A Very English Christmas and it's total tosh but I'll see it through to the end, of course😀

I am very happy, as 'Journey back to Christmas' is on 5Star (I think) on the 10th.

I am watching 'Christmas Angel' - this was on nearly every day last year (I remember the beginning, because the woman in it has to wash her hair with the dog bowl water)- it's the first time I've noticed it this year. Secret millionaire/ Santa type plot.

Watched A ‘90s Christmas and it was amazing/terrible. It involves time travel. The main actresses/actors have to play people in their 40s and teenagers. They aged the lead actress up by… having her wear glasses (which in certain scenes don’t even have lenses in 😂).

I don’t know why they bothered with the 90s theme, they really didn’t make it authentic in any way. They’d clearly only paid for the rights to “Kiss Me” and no other genuine 90s music was used. At one point they show a mix CD which features made-up song titles including a song by “Green Daze” and there’s a poster on her wall of a film called “She’s All There” 😬

I may have used some slightly dodgy methods to watch it, so I’m not sure where/if it’s available to watch in the UK.

Probably because I have seen most of them so often, I am really noticing the music in them more this year. And the fact I really hate 'Up on the Rooftops' and the version of 'Away in a Manger' that only features in US cheesy Christmas films .

And any US film that is set in England is always fun - 'Christmas in Notting Hill' was a highlight earlier in the week- just in case we didn't realise they were in the UK,the pub helpfully draped everything in Union flags (some of which are upside down [grin) And the main male lead (supposedly a premiership footballer heart throb, with his picture on the side of buses) appeared to be playing for a London club at a stadium that wouldn't have even fit Wembley's toilets .

@Raahh Christmas in Notting Hill is wonderfully awful-
the entire plot of american walking in notting hill wearing a beret and getting something spilled on her by man who "lives just over there" is literally the plot of Notting Hill
Are they taking the piss by calling him Graham Savoy?

The English/American ones are always good value. Just watched A Royal Date for Christmas-where-spoiler alert-mysterious handsome stranger who lost his luggage and needs all new clothes from lady who runs menswear store is the DUKE OF TANGFORD.

The inability of them to come up with any actual British sounding names etc is brilliant

I know, the names crack me up . And, stereotype, I know, but I couldn't help thinking that 'Graham Savoy' would probably have been more of a rugby type anyway

Christmas in Notting Hill is one of, if not THE most cheesy of all.

It was so bad which of course made it fantastic.

I’m slacking this year. I really need to watch a few this coming week.

There’s one on Netflix that looks “good” Called the Christmas Text Message - or something similar

Today, I am re-watching 'Jolly Good Christmas' (too rainy to go out) as the title suggests, it's an American in London one, and has a woman driving around the Mall in a mini at Christmas, with no traffic whatsoever. Totally plausible. .

(The film was made in 2022, the mini has an old style paper tax disc on the window).

I'm watching Christmas Love Letter on Great Christmas while I put up the tree. The main character is running through the snow in slingbacks 😂

The text before Christmas? It was terrible, I loved it 😂

I’ve been trying to watch exmas today but can’t get into it!