Hallmark For All Seasons

I’m back!!! Finally, all my traveling is DONE for the season. You know what that means – WATCHING HALLMARK MOVIES!! After looking through my DVR, I have decided to give myself some grace. I’ll watch three movies at a time, and probably just review the one I know people will be most interested in hearing about and just rank the other two. If I happen to watch two that I love, I’ll review both but it may take longer. Knowing there is a marathon of all the movies taking place this coming weekend, I need to get it all done ASAP. Here’s the first write-up of MANY coming out this week!

“Haul Out the Holly” starring Lacey Chabert and Wes Brown, as well as Melissa Peterman and Stephen Tobolowsky, aired on November 26, 2022 during Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas.  The movie was set in and filmed in Utah.

Maclain Nelson directed, with Andy Sandberg providing the script.  Nelson previously directed 2018’s “Small Town Christmas” and Christmas in Vienna, among others.  Sandberg previously wrote Five More Minutes.

Music (affiliate links): Obviously the movie opens with the song for which it is named after, We Need a Little Christmas, by Johnny Mathis. Crain’s Deck the Halls played as the neighborhood crew arrived to help Emily decorate her house. During the snowman building scene, What Christmas Means to Me by Joss Stone was playing.

In a nutshell

Oh my word, I loved this movie.  I loved all the holiday hi-jinks and high shenanigans count.  Was it absurd?  100%.  And I loved every minute of it.

The Plot of “Haul Out the Holly”

When Emily unexpectedly spends the holidays alone at her parents’ house, their HOA insists that she participate in its many Christmas festivities.

Actors & Chemistry

First, I loved how absurdly over the top some of the acting was.  It was madcap fun the entire way through, from Wes Brown’s overzealous HOA checklists to Stephen Tobolowsky clearly being told, “Say whatever you want, whenever you want.” While Lacey Chabert mostly played the straight man to everyone else’s hijinks, you could tell she was along for the ride and game for anything.

The secondary cast was great as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the surprise of not just ONE Hallmark hunk with a cameo, but TWO!  We had Kristoffer Polaha AND Eric Mabius.  So. FUN.  Stephen Tobolowsky was hilarious in every scene he was in, and Melissa Peterman was just delightful.

Find the Tropes!

Plenty of tropes, and I think I missed some when I was making the list.  The house had a front porch, and we saw a 70s star (Ellen Travolta played one of the neighbors).  Emily had a Bad Boyfriend, and they all attended a tree lighting on Emily’s first night home.

There was some cookie decorating, some hot cocoa, and WOW were those snowmen as fake as fake could be.  In fact, I think the snowman that Emily and Jared decorated was CGI’d into the shot.  I don’t think they were even standing next to anything.

The entire cul-de-sac participated in a snowball fight, as well as caroling.  We got to see some product placement (hello, Ninja Speedi), we saw cute kids AND a cute dog, and Jared dressed up as Santa at the Christmas carnival.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

How rich are her parents to live in THAT house and then just GIVE it to their daughter?  I mean, I have so many questions.  Is the mortgage paid off on that bad boy?  Because that has to be a million-dollar house.  And yes, she lived in it as a child, so they’ve owned the house at least 20 years, but is it paid off?  Did they buy it for half a mill in 2002 and get a 20-year mortgage?   And with them buying a place in Florida, where did they get money to do THAT?  Usually people use the sale proceeds of one house to buy another.  So they appear to be “we can cover two mortgages no problem” kind of people.

HOAs would not require homeowners to have insane holiday decorations.  Everyone that lives in an HOA neighborhood knows that HOAs only seek to RESTRICT what people can do to their houses.  My outside display comes with a radio station you can tune to in your car, and one year I got a letter from the HOA saying that I couldn’t put a sign on the corner of my yard letting people know what station to turn to.  Because the HOA has a rule against signs in the yard.  Not everyone celebrates Christmas, so there’s no way the HOA would require homeowners to decorate.

Feelgoods

I loved how funny this movie was.  One of my favorite lines was during the HOA meeting when Ellen Travolta’s character said, “I finally know what FOMO feels like.”  Melissa Peterman’s character Pamela asks, “Define FOMO.”  Ellen says, “Fear of Making Out,” and then from off-camera you hear Pamela say, “Sorry about that, Bob,” to her husband.  SO FUNNY.  And there were so many throwaways jokes like that which made this one of the funniest movies to come along in a long time.

I got other feels as well, such as when Emily sits down to watch a movie and says, “Oh please let it be the one where she finds out her boyfriend is a prince,” which is a shout out to her own 2014 movie, “A Royal Christmas,” but then when she sees it is “Christmas in Vienna,” she says, “Oh, I love that guy!” giving a shout-out to her frequent co-star, Brennan Elliott.

I love a good White Elephant party, even if the one shown didn’t match the rules we play by at our house.  Never heard of a 10 second final swap, although people that attend our party are known for occasionally swapping gifts once the game is done.

I also loved not only that we got Polaha to pop up in the movie, but they allowed him to do his Jimmy Stewart impression that he worked so hard on for “Small Town Christmas.”  At the time, in interviews he spoke about channeling Stewart while acting in that movie, and being told to dial it back just a bit.  But you can still hear it here and there when you watch “Small Town.”

General Thoughts

I don’t know how many caught this “episode” of Tiny Mic Big Voices on Melissa Peterman’s Instagram in which she interviewed Lacey while the movie was being filmed, but it was a highlight and I’ll bet this movie was so much fun to make.

Re-watchability of “Haul Out the Holly”

This movie aired almost a month ago and I’ve already watched it multiple times.  I adore this movie and it is infinitely rewatchable.

The Rankings

As for “Haul,” it easily claimed the third spot for the year. The scores for two other movies I watched yesterday are in the list below.  I hope you don’t mind that I’m taking a short cut and only doing write-ups of the notable movies I loved from this year.

1. Ghosts of Christmas Always (air date: Oct 30) – 732 pts – weighted score: 122.4 (85.9%)
2. Three Wise Men and a Baby (air date: Nov 19) – 735 pts – weighted score: 122.2 (85.7%)
3. Haul Out the Holly (air date: Nov 26) – 729 pts – weighted score: 121.0 (84.9%)
4. Lights, Camera, Christmas! (air date: Nov 5) – 671 pts – weighted score: 113.1 (79.4%)
5. A Kismet Christmas (air date: Oct 24) – 664 pts – weighted score: 113.2 (79.4%)
6. Our Italian Christmas Memories (air date: Nov 12) 665 pts – weighted score: 112.4 (78.9%)
7. Christmas at the Golden Dragon (air date: Nov 13) – 665 pts – weighted score: 112.1 (78.7%)
8. Two Tickets to Paradise (air date: June 25) – 664 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
9. Just One Kiss (air date: Apr 2) – 660 pts – weighted score: 111.2 (78.0%)
10. The Presence of Love (air date: Mar 13) – 650 pts – weighted score: 110.9 (77.8%)
11. Wedding of a Lifetime (air date: Sept 17) – 640 pts – weighted score: 108.2 (75.9%)
12. Dating the Delaneys (air date: Aug 20) – 638 pts – weighted score: 106.5 (74.7%)
13. Love, Classified (air date: Apr 16) – 624 pts – weighted score: 106.1 (74.4%)
14. All Saints Christmas (air date: Nov 5) – 624 pts – weighted score: 106.0 (74.4%)
15. A Royal Runaway Romance (air date: Apr 9) – 617 pts – weighted score: 105.9 (74.3%)
16. Jolly Good Christmas (air date: Oct 29) – 625 pts – weighted score: 105.7 (74.2%)
17. We Wish You a Married Christmas (air date: Oct 22) – 623 pts – weighted score: 105.7 (74.1%)
18. My Southern Family Christmas (air date: Nov 24) – 621 pts – weighted score: 105.6 (74.1%)
19. The Royal Nanny (air date: Nov 12) – 611 pts – weighted score: 105.5 (74.0%)
20. In Merry Measure (air date: Nov 11) – 625 pts – weighted score: 105.4 (73.9%)
21. Rip in Time (air date: May 22) – 622 pts – weighted score: 105.3 (73.9%)
22. Inventing the Christmas Prince (air date: Nov 18) – 614 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
23. We Need a Little Christmas (air date: Oct 22) – 614 pts – weighted score: 105.1 (73.7%)
24. Campfire Christmas (air date: July 16) – 621 pts – weighted score: 104.9 (73.6%)
25. Noel Next Door (air date: Oct 21) – 609 pts – weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
26. Caribbean Summer (air date: June 11) – 636 pts – weighted score: 104.7 (73.5%)
27. A Cozy Christmas Inn (air date: Oct 28) – 626 pts – weighted score: 104.6 (73.5%)
28. Always Amore (air date: Apr 3) – 618 pts – weighted score: 104.5 (73.3%)
29. The Most Colorful Time of Year (air date: Dec 9) – 596 pts – weighted score: 103.5 (72.6%)
30. Hidden Gems (air date: Jun 4) – 611 pts – weighted score: 102.3 (71.8%)
31. A Magical Christmas Village (air date: Nov 4) – 592 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
32. Pumpkin Everything (air date: Oct 8) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.6 (71.3%)
33. Autumn in the City (air date: Oct 15) – 594 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
34. Love in the Limelight (air date: Aug 6) – 604 pts – weighted score: 100.0 (70.2%)
35. Second Chance at Love (air date: Mar 26) – 585 pts – weighted score: 99.7 (69.9%)
36. When I Think of Christmas (air date: Nov 20) – 577 pts – weighted score: 99.3 (69.6%)
37. Christmas Bedtime Stories (air date: Oct 29) – 575 pts – weighted score: 98.8 (69.3%)
38. Romance in Style (air date: Aug 13) – 562 pts – weighted score: 97.2 (68.2%)
39. Big Sky River (air date: Aug 7) – 568 pts – weighted score: 97.1 (68.1%)
40. Game, Set, Love (air date: Aug 27) – 552 pts – weighted score: 95.3 (66.9%)
41. A Tail of Love (air date: Apr 23) – 557 pts – weighted score: 94.4 (66.2%)
42. The Perfect Pairing (air date: Jan 15) – 563 pts – weighted score: 92.7 (65.0%)
43. Christmas in Toyland (air date: July 23) – 544 pts – weighted score: 92.4 (64.8%)
44. The Wedding Veil Legacy (air date: Feb 19) – 543 pts – weighted score: 92.0 (64.5%)
45. Welcome to Mama’s (air date: Feb 26) – 540 pts – weighted score: 91.9 (64.5%)
46. Butlers in Love (air date: Jan 29) – 527 pts – weighted score: 91.3 (64.0%)
47. Feeling Butterflies (air date: Mar 12) – 542 pts – weighted score: 91.2 (64.0%)
48. To Her, With Love (air date: Sept 11) – 536 pts – weighted score: 89.4 (62.7%)
49. The Wedding Veil Unveiled (air date: Feb 12) – 515 pts – weighted score: 86.9 (61.0%)
50. My Grown-Up Christmas List (air date: July 9) – 514 pts – weighted score: 86.9 (60.9%)
51. Road Trip Romance (air date: May 14) – 492 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.3%)
52. Don’t Forget I Love You (air date: Jan 22) – 508 pts – weighted score: 85.8 (60.2%)
53. The Wedding Veil (air date: Jan 8) – 508 pts – weighted score: 83.3 (58.4%)
54. Where the Heart Belongs (air date: Jan 1) – 435 pts – weighted score: 74.5 (52.3%)
55. 14 Love Letters (air date: July 31) – 420 pts – weighted score: 73.5 (51.6%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Haul Out the Holly”?  Comment below and let me know!