Hallmark For All Seasons

“Crashing Through The Snow” is original Christmas in July premiere which aired on July 10, 2021.  The movie starred Amy Acker, Warren Christie, Brooke Nevin, and Kristian Bruun.  Relatively new writer Tamar Laddy penned the script, with Rich Newey directed (the last Hallmark movie he directed was 2020’s “A Little Christmas Charm” starring Ashley Greene and Brendan Penny (note: I did not do a write up for it).  It was filmed primarily in Winnipeg, Canada but towards the end of the shoot they headed to Banff which is near Calgary.  When I saw Stan Spry was one of the producers, it raised my expectations despite not being familiar with the director or writer.

Music: The movie opened with The Waitresses (and Amy Acker) singing their Christmas classic Christmas Wrapping (affiliate link).  The movie closed with a great song (which I’ve already purchased): Dreaming of a Christmas With You (affiliate link) by The Teskey Brothers.

In a nutshell

You guys.  I wasn’t ready.  I wasn’t prepared for just how much I would love this movie.  And believe me, I LOVED THIS MOVIE.  And while it may not be perfect, it is still a fun, fun addition to my annual Hallmark Christmas movie watching binges.

The Plot of “Crashing Through the Snow”

Maggie and Sam are crashing Christmas. When he proposes they team up against his sister’s perfect Christmas, neither of them are prepared for the blended family challenges that lie ahead.

Actors & Chemistry

Amy Acker and Warren Christie was fabulous together in this movie.  They have worked together in the past, and so it was obviously easy for them to bring chemistry into the mix.  You can’t tell me that you watched that pool scene and thought, “These two do NOT go together,” because they totally did.

“The Most Wonderful Time of Year” is one of my all-time favorite Hallmark Christmas movies (starring Christie along with Brooke Burns and Henry Winker), and I really like Warren Christie.  It’s nice to have him back on Hallmark again (he was also in last year’s If I Only Had Christmas which I was not so impressed with).

Amy Acker is just adorable.  She will always be Fred from “Angel” to me, even after all these years.  And yes, she’s been many projects in the time since that turn, but that role alone has created a lifelong Amy Acker fan in me.  She was great in this movie as a sweet but concerned mom struggling with an attraction for someone she didn’t expect as well as discomfort over her ex-husband moving forward in his life while she was watching it all go down.

The rest of the cast was all good as well.  We got to see Brooke Nevin (“Jingle Around the Clock”), who is always outstanding, and Kristian Bruun, whose first joined Hallmark with a role in 2018’s “A Show Addict’s Christmas.”

Tropes

It’s a Christmas movie.  Of course there were tropes.  Plenty of them!  We had a couple cute kids, some gingerbread house building, ice skating, and a couple of big scarves.  Not only that, but they cut down a Christmas tree, decorated the Christmas tree AND did arts & crafts by making some of their own ornaments!

Sam had a Christmas Eve deadline to pitch to Butterfield AND I’m thinking it was kind of a promotion over what he had been doing abroad since he’d own the place versus being employed by a place. And what Hallmark movie would be complete without some baking involved?

Did I Hear/See That Right?

So while I loved the movie, it was not perfect.

Let’s talk Christmas decorations.  The house is obviously huge, but my goodness, even with as much as I love Christmas I would not decorate my stately home like that.  Or, if I did, it would be a bit more…expensive looking (for lack of a kinder way to say it).  Listen, my decorations on the outside of my house at Christmastime are gaudy and over the top – but I decorate for kids, not adults.  But on the inside I like to keep it a bit more classic and clean.  I would think if I had an estate-type home, I’d stick with very upscale decorations without making it feel like Christmas threw up all over my house.

I didn’t appreciate Jeff the ex-husband being jealous that Maggie was spending time with Sam.  What is she supposed to do when he’s off with Kate and the girls?  Sit in her bedroom and do nothing?  Sure, she wanted to relax, but she also wanted to spend time with her daughters at Christmas.  And while I completely understand that it is a WEIRD dynamic to have two ex-spouses be on vacation at the family home of the new girlfriend, it was Kate that asked Maggie to come.

Maggie should have said no, I think she was right to say yes because Jeff knew how important a family Christmas was to her.  And YES, I understand that Jeff wanted to have the girls with him because he planned on proposing to his GF, the fact is that had he acted with maturity versus being a bit passive-aggressive and a touch mean to Maggie, everything would have been much less awkward.

On the other hand, I feel like Maggie should have stood up for herself just a bit more in some of the scenes with her ex-husband.  She finally did, and confronted him on some of his behaviors, but she should have done it earlier versus letting him get away with it the first half of the week at Kate’s family’s estate.

Did Sam really pitch to Butterfield on CHRISTMAS DAY????

Feelgoods

I had so many feels during this movie.  I appreciated that Kate was not necessarily an evil girlfriend, just hopeful and earnest and going about it all wrong.  And while not every scene was perfect, I never disliked Kate, which points to good writing of this secondary character.

I LOVED the disinterested children’s ski instructor because skiing is the worst.  I’m here for you, pal.

I also loved when they started chanting “Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!” because while the movie implied they were cheering for Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, I know they were actually cheering for Sean Astin’s character in 1993’s “Rudy.”

Don’t get me started on that scene in the pool. “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” is one of my favorite movies in recent years.  That’s all I’ll say about that.

Random Thoughts

Overall this was a very cute movie with plenty of snow and Christmas trees and romance and all the things I love about Hallmark movies.  Not only that, but it was very modern compared to many, many other Hallmark offerings.  We had mentions of Instagram, Zoom, Uber, TikTok, Tinder, Hinge and Bumble.  The movie’s technology was so current that it felt weird to have Maggie mention creating the pitch deck in PowerPoint.

And that’s not the only bit of modernity.  Kate and Sam clearly were going to meet up at her room for some late night shenanigans when Jeff showed up on her doorstep instead.  But Kate and Jeff clearly have a weird interest in bringing up dead Presidents during their flirting.

Re-watchability

I am definitely watching “Crashing Through The Snow” again.  I made sure NOT to delete it once I was done watching it last night, because I know I’ll want to watch it again between now and December.

The Ranking

“Crashing Through The Snow” is the winner so far this year.  It was the exact movie I wanted for Christmas in July and I will watch every year it airs.  I LOVED it.

1. Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
2. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
3. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
4. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
5. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
6. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
7. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
8. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
9. Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
10. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)*
11. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
12. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
13. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
14. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
15. Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
16. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
17. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
18. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
19. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
20. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
21. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
22. Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)

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

What did you think of “Crashing Through The Snow”?  Comment below and let me know!