Wow this was a shockingly bad film. The story makes no sense, the acting was terrible and the scenery was so fake. That’s all there is to say!

Loved this. Went into it with very low expectations after the recent run of Christmas movies but it was so good. Very funny, great characters, and that amazing family dynamic that you only get at the holidays. It was pretty obvious how it was going to end before it started, and there weren’t major twists and turns along the way, but even with that it felt quite original and fresh. The only complaint from the whole thing is that they spent ages looking for that tin, it was so important, and then it was just there in the cupboard. Weird. But a small niggle in a fab film.

I really liked this, it was very faithful to the text and had a great spooky vibe all the way through, without going too far with it. The acting was great and some of the more emotional moments were really very moving. The actors playing the ghosts were great and as noted above Nicholas Farrell really captured the essence of Scrooge and portrayed him perfectly. The only detraction for me was that, whilst I’m used to actors playing multiple parts no problem, the ghosts were so iconic that seeing them in other roles was unsettling and distracting. But otherwise, a great performance.

Yes for Sarah Morgan and her Christmas releases, now an absolute staple of December reading. This was from a couple of year’s ago and follows the exploits of a family split between the adventure of a lifetime in Lapland and figuring things out at home. I loved it, great characters with lots of history to try and work through and lots of family drama… the only complaint is it felt like the big reunion was underplayed slightly, was it worth all the fuss? But everything else, all the threads unravelling and wrapping up nicely was great.

Honestly, this was such a terrible film but I quite enjoyed it. The premise is astounding and unbelievable, I’m not the most social of sorts but it seems completely bonkers how willing she was to open up to a wrong number. Any other movie that started like this would have ended up in the horror category. I did like the way the story was told over three Christmases though, and it was watchable if complete nonsense.

This film came recommended to me as absolute nonsense but a bit of fun, and that’s exactly what it was. The whole concept is obviously ridiculous, but even within that, the way it happens makes no sense and there’s no internal logic to the story. The main love story is, you know, it is what it is. But, I have to say, Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio are brilliant and are probably the only reason to keep watching. Hilarious.

This was a bit of a weird book to my mind. I don’t mind reading a not-so-festive thriller set at Christmas, but this one didn’t quite work - it was a Christmas secret santa party for a company but it didn’t feel very seasonal at all. The characters weren’t particularly nice and although the plot had twists and turns it was quite anti-climactic and unrealistic. A quick read and worth logging, but not really one I’ll rave about.

There’s been a lot of furore around recently over the new version of Do They Know It’s Christmas, featuring a megamix of all the previous artists combined together. It seemed an odd idea, and it’s not really gone over very well, and barely made an impact on the music charts. So why not go back to the original and best version of the song and revisit how it all came together?

One of those cheap and cheerful Hallmark-style Christmas movies, I actually didn’t mind this one. The story is age-old - guy comes back from the big city and stirs up trouble with the locals, but ultimately falls in love with the area and with someone in particular and they all live happily ever after. It’s predictable but also done quite well. There’s at least some chemistry between the leads, and I did sort of care about the business so happy that it all worked out okay.

This was a super quick read, considering there was quite a lot going on with the giving tree and the morals around that, as well as kids having their own emotional traumas and meltdowns, plus the Christmas play, and then all the normal rom-com elements thrown on top of that. No time to get bored, whizzed through it and enjoyed the ride!

I like that Lindsay Lohan is becoming the new queen of Christmas on Netflix, and I think this year’s film was just a bit better than the last one. It’s one of those contrived setups but there’s some good chemistry between the leads and Kristin Chenowith is brilliant as the dragon potential in-laws. It’s not the kind of film I’m going to seek out again or want to rewatch over and over at Christmas, but for our first festive movie for 2024, I’m happy with it.

There’s quite a good idea at the heart of this book, 24 hours in the lives of a handful of different characters whose lives are about to intertwine for surprising and emotional reasons. I quite enjoyed the journey but have to admit almost all the characters were pretty unlikeable. I think the best friend Todd was the only one who came out of it okay. But still, could be worth a look, it was a quick read and an interesting concept.

I listened to the audiobook of this, so checked in for an hour or so each day over Christmas. It was a nice story, actually, a slight twist on the usual tale of someone taking a fake partner home for Christmas to please the family - this time the fake girlfriend falls for the sister and twists and turns ensue. I liked that everyone was so respectful of everyone else’s feelings and giving them space to work through it all, it was just a nice and calm tale, told well.

I hadn’t initially planned for this to be a Film Watch viewing, as I thought it was TV rather than movie. But my new metric is whether it appears on Letterboxd, and it does, so what the hey, it counts. It was a bit short and kept going to ad break cards (although thankfully no actual ads) but definitely a film. Hmm. The actual story though was good - love the accents, love the setting, nice family in difficult circumstances, would have liked it to be a bit more heisty than just walking through a forest, but entertaining and a good cast.

I was quite enjoying the banter of this, just a grumpy guy and a Santa character chatting away, but there was a whole sub-plot that came out of nowhere and didn’t make sense. Did I black out at some point? Because there was a lot of talk about an iPad and then suddenly Santa had the iPad and he was being chased but it wasn’t at all clear why or what had happened. Presumably it was going to be explained later at some point but I just couldn’t be bothered with it.

This was an okay movie, derivative of all the other body switch movies but at least leaning into that and referencing them all - including the one Jennifer Garner herself has been in! It was more confusing to try and keep track of who was doing what and what their goals were because there were three switches, rather than just one. Although, still not sure how the baby and the dog switched because there’s no way either of them were wishing for that to happen at the exact right moment.

Turns out, Melissa Joan Hart has made something of a career of cheesy Christmas movies recently, so after Holiday in Handcuffs, it was only fair to check out another one. I wanted to like this because, you know, MJH and baking, what more do you need? Actually, it was no good, and a bit of a slog so that I had to give up. The Nutcracker coming to life is one thing, but then he had no real personality or charisma so I just wanted him to go back to being a toy.

What a terrible film this is. Mr C was sure this was a Christmas film, and I guess it is as it’s based around the holidays but that’s about as far as it goes. I’m never sure about a movie that leans into the was-fat-but-now-thin-so-everything-will-be-better trope and on top of that, all the characters in this are completely awful before and after. And I’m not even sure what the point of it was?

I was aware that this film has very poor reviews but I’ve read the book and it has a great cast, so why not give it a go? Turns out, I loved it! I can see why people don’t necessarily like it as it’s a bit grinch trying to skip Christmas, but I thought it was funny, and in the end quite moving. The neighbours were a nightmare and I would definitely have moved long before it got to this point, but hey, all’s well that ends well.

Despite a couple of stinkers so far this year, I’m still on a mission to watch more of these cheesy romance movies - not everything has to be a massive blockbuster, right? I jumped at this one because of Teri Hatcher and it was actually surprisingly good. The situation contrived and the love story a bit forced, but it had some good themes of learning about yourself and starting over, and not being judgemental about other people. I liked it!

I didn’t think this was going to be a particularly good movie, the title being a pretty bad start to things. But I was curious and gave it a go. It was terrible. Really bad and obvious sets, some dodgy accent work, terrible dialogue and implausible storylines. I suspect there was going to be some falling in love at some point, but there was no chemistry between any of the characters, either the sisters, the ones who were getting married, or the ones who were presumably going to end up together. Best avoided.

This was an okay movie, Melissa McCarthy pretty much holding the whole thing but the relationship between her and Paapa’s character was good. They tried so hard to cover all the potential plot holes with the wishes and stuff but then I think they missed a pretty important one.

This was a really good, traditional festive rom-com style book, with our hero coming home in something of a disgrace and revitalising the area and solving lots of people’s problems. It doesn’t all go smoothly though, and I liked the will-they-won’t-they of the relationship between two people that clearly love each other, and the ever-growing mystery around her father and suspect council goings on. A really good read, and I hadn’t realised that Wynbridge was a series so there are more books to get stuck into.

I wasn’t expect much from this movie, but actually, I ended up really enjoying it. It’s a blatant copy of Groundhog Day but it kind of leans into it with the clock and everything so it’s not annoying. I love messing about with time and the chance to redo things and see what different outcomes there will be, so it was right up my street from that point of view.

I love Melissa Joan Hart, mostly from nostalgia of kids shows, and this TV movie has been in my sights for a few years now but it’s taken until now to find the time and the streaming to get it watched. I’m not sure if it wouldn’t have better to stay unwatched as it’s not that great! MJH and Mario López are both fun and have good chemistry, and they do the best with what they’ve got, but it’s not a great movie.

I read this because it was sold as a time looping festive story, in the spirit of Groundhog Day. And it started out like that, ooh what is this weird looping, and reliving the same day, and all the joy and hilarity that comes with that. but then there were only a couple of loops until we got stuck back in to the rom-com side of things. And then there was never any real resolution to why it had been happening. The characters and story were cute but in the end it was just frustrating.

We watched and at first I thought it was going okay. I mean, it wasn’t good but it was just a cheesy Christmas movie with people learning lessons and getting in the festive spirit. There was over-acting aplenty, and precocious kids, but it was entertaining enough with a glass of wine.

It feels like we’re lacking brand new credible festive movies this year, so grabbed at this one with both hands after loving the first one. It didn’t quite live up to that original from last year, but it was still pretty good - nice and frothy and with the addition of a Sam Ryder song and the fabulous Krakowski… excellent.

I’ve not really reviewed a dedicated holiday album before, although there was that Halloween one by Duran Duran earlier this year. Christmas albums can be a bit repetitive, but this one by Cher is absolutely legendary. The single and lead track that she’s been promoting on all the TV shows is brilliant, it really gets you in the mood and then it’s followed up by fantastic guests, great old and new songs, and an overall brilliant hour of tunes.

I’m willing to suspend plenty of belief and common sense and, quite frankly, intelligence, to watch these super cheesy Christmas movies - in fact, that’s part of the charm to get lost in a schmaltzy world of nonsense. But this one was really dull, and the premise just didn’t make any sense at all. So I canned it after twenty minutes. On to the next!

I feel like this book hits slightly differently now we have experienced a global lockdown, but this was written in 2017 before any of those events occurred. The book is billed as life-affirming and funny but I didn’t find it to be those things - it was drama, it was tough, emotional and moving, it was families finding out a lot about each other in a short space of time, it was illness and loss and grief. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, it’s just not quite what I was expecting. In places, it was quite predictable, but not in a bad way either… it was well written and an engrossing read, if ultimately quite depressing.

Sarah Morgan’s Christmas books are becoming something of a staple and this was another good one. A group of friends head to a remote and romantic inn for their festive book club meeting and they have plenty going on in their own lives, let alone getting involved in the drama of the inn itself. Good characters, great friendships, plenty of ups and downs in family, friend, and romantic relationships, and that lovely festive feeling throughout.

Oof, this is not a good film. It’s quite simple in premise and storyline which is fine, it’s quite refreshing not to have a gazillion sub-plots going on, just a few relationships that need a helping hand. But there are too many problems to ignore - the travelling situation doesn’t seem that bad, the chemistry between the two is off, and some of the dialogue is painful. But it has a happy ending, and the uncle is adorable, so could be worse.

This one is a formulaic story about mistaken identity and falling slowly in love, whilst also having the trope of a made-up country, a strained family relationship, and learning to help the community on the sidelines. It has plenty of problems, many of which I’ve made note of above, but actually if you just go with it, it’s not the worst Christmas movie out there - quite entertaining really, and some fun interactions between the brother and sister.

There was no Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops this year, which was both completely understandable and also a real shock. The show has been drifting further and further from the TV schedules and therefore the public consciousness that it was inevitable it would one day drop off the festive TV guides. But it was still a shame to see it was missing. However, BBC Four is still dedicated to showing old episodes of the music show and the 1998 Christmas Day special has been available for a while. It’s a great show, stacked with 90s pop hits and some surprises along the way, all capably helmed by Jamie Theakston, Kate Thornton and Jayne Middlemiss. SO NINETIES!

Yay for another Emma Roberts holiday movie! This one was quite similar to Holidate but with a focus in on one specific time of year - New Year! It took a minute to get going, I thought, with us all having to get through the trick of them looking like they were talking about and to each other but actually not, etc, etc. But once they properly met and the evening began, it was fantastic!

I quite enjoyed the other books in this series featuring Van Lifers travelling around in their little vans and having cosy encounters with their movable bookshops and bakeries. This one was similar but featuring a new set of characters as Flora left her life behind and started over in a Christmas shop campervan in Lapland. It’s a nice rom-com with funny moments and plenty of fun characters to follow around.

I wanted to watch this after suddenly hearing about the meme that Kermit is responsible for 9/11 (in the alternate universe without him the towers are still standing) but unfortunately, I didn’t get that far. It was all just a bit scrappy, the various muppets were all over the place and I only got about half the references anyway. If there was a story, it was taking its time to get going… plus Whoopi and David were watching from a summer meadow which wasn’t very Christmassy.

There’s no getting away from the fact that this is a slightly oddball movie - the fact that the brother immediately starts hitting on SJP’s character is supremely uncomfortable, but then Elliot wasn’t exactly subtle once the sister showed up. It was never quite clear what the focus was or where it was going, or what the main aim was, but perhaps that’s because the main point of the whole thing was that families are weird.

Mm, couldn’t get past the twenty minute rule on this one. We flicked between lots of different characters without really getting a good sense of who they are and how they relate to each other, somehow there was a lot of scenes but the story didn’t progress at all, and more than anything, the main guy just didn’t seem sympathetic at all so I didn’t care what was going to happen upon his homecoming. Pass.

When I heard there was going to be a tv series continuing the Santa Clause film franchise on the small screen, I was… bemused. I watched the first film a long while back, and thought it was okay, but hadn’t got round to watching the next two so it obviously wasn’t that special. And I didn’t know they were popular enough to warrant a return of the characters to the world of Santa, elves, and the North Pole.

Sometimes I write about festive episodes of series that I like but this time I thought it’d be fun to focus on every Christmas episode from ten years’ of Friends. They spend more time on Thanksgiving, obviously, with some really classic episodes in November: the football game, Brad Pitt, Joey with a turkey stuck on his head, etc. But Christmas does crop up every now and again, quite inconsistently, through the decade.

This was a different book to the one I was expecting - it wasn’t just a festive rom-com, I mean, it was hardly that at all really. Emma splits up with her partner and has an unfortunate accident that means she heads home to recover and re-connect with her family. It had elements of magic and long family feuds and that village mentality where everyone knows each other’s business. It reminded me a lot of Practical Magic (the movie, I haven’t read the book yet), so it was good but it wasn’t quite what I had hoped.

Mixed feelings about this one - it’s a great cast (except, you know) and the concept is interesting and fun. I like that it’s a slightly darker take on festive stories, to balance out the sugary sweetness of many others. But I feel like it could have been so much better. Vince’s babbling didn’t quite fit, for me, I’m assuming a lot of that was him improvising. And the CG to make the elves smaller fell a little bit into that uncanny valley so that it was a little bit creepy. But it was entertaining and certainly a lot better than many other Christmas films around.

This is a lovely gentle little movie about people finding the meaning of Christmas in connecting with other people. At first, you’re really uptight with all the commuters and thinking there’s no way this party can work, but gradually as the film unwinds, you start to relax into it too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to talk to commuters all of a sudden, but it’s a great message not to judge people as you never know what’s going on in their lives.

Terrible, terrible film! The guy is basically one step away from being a serial killer, and the woman is completely unflexible and holding a grudge for something that didn’t really sound like much of a problem at all. The film spends a good 15 minutes in the American sunshine, which is never ideal for when you want a Christmas movie, but it does eventually get near the festive season.

This is another take on the Shop Around the Corner/You’ve Got Mail story where people are rivals in real life and falling in love via their writing - this time it’s app messaging. That part of it was kinda fun, it’s a good storyline and they update it quite well. The leads do better when they’re bickering than when they’re getting on, but that’s okay. The other part of it is the whole business side, which I think is a fundamental flaw to the whole movie.

Ah, this was a pretty dull movie, to be honest. It started okay, looked like it might have something interesting about it, but then it felt like all the threads that were set up didn’t go anywhere. What was the point of the viral video? And what was the big deal about the dad knowing before the girl about the casting? For a movie about dance, there wasn’t a lot about dancing. All a bit odd. The only chemistry in the movie was between father and daughter - because they are real life father and daughter! The rest is completely forgettable.

I’ve been on the Sarah Morgan festive book train for a couple of years, and enjoyed them. This one was another very good Christmas rom-com, with a family coming together with very different viewpoints and learning to forgive and respect each other’s choices. I liked the story, I liked that the big confusion of Lucy’s arrival was actually dealt with quite quickly and just set up everything that happened next rather than being a big plot point. I did think some of the dialogue was a bit clunky and it was a little bit drawn out in places, but these are minor complaints for another entertaining read.

Yay, a new and decent Christmas rom-com. This one took a minute to get going, at first I wasn’t sure either of the characters were going to be engaging (she was getting excited about Eureka lemons, etc) but it didn’t take long for the action to get going and their real personalities to shine through. I thought the lead two had brilliant chemistry, to the point that it felt so confusing what they saw in their other partners. But a great journey to get them together, even if his phone forgetfulness was just a little bit contrived to help up the stakes. Otherwise, perfect, and with a Say Anything reference at the end, too.