Hallmark For All Seasons

“Good Morning Christmas!” aired on November 25, 2020 on the Hallmark Channel.  It starred Alison Sweeney and Marc Blucas, who charmed me as a pair in 2016’s “The Irresistible Blueberry Farm.”  Riley Weston wrote the screenplay, while Paul Ziller directed.  Weston is responsible for one of my favorite older Hallmark movies, 2008’s “The Nanny Express” starring Vanessa Marcil and Brennan Elliott. Ziller has been directing for Hallmark since 2018, and directed Just My Type and Love In Store earlier this year. The movie was filmed in Vancouver with additional locations in Burnaby and Langley.

In a nutshell

You guys.  These two actors are just so darn cute together, OF COURSE I loved the movie!!

Plot of “Good Morning Christmas!”

Two squabbling TV hosts, Brian and Melissa, are sent to a festive small town over Christmas. While pretending to get along for the sake of appearance, they discover that there’s more to each other than they thought.

Actors

In 2015, Alison Sweeney made a Hallmark movie with Jonathan Scarfe called “Love on the Air,” which has been a favorite of mine since the first time I saw it (it is permanently saved on my Tivo).  Additionally, I watched “Days of Our Lives” as a kid and watched Sweeney as the evil Sami for years.  I have a special fondness for her as a result.

Then you have Marc Blucas, who gets no respect for his role as Riley on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” even though his character was a good dude (I’m one that happened to like Riley).  Blucas has turned to Hallmark and I enjoy his movies very much, from “Miss Christmas” to Holiday for Heroes.

Six Degrees of Kris Polaha: Alison Sweeney is 3 steps away from Polaha.  She co-starred with Cameron Matheson in the “Murder She Baked” movies, and Mathison went on to co-star with Mira Sorvino in another Hallmark movie, “A Christmas to Remember.”  Sorvino and Polaha shared the screen on “Behind the Leaves” last year.

Chemistry

Oh yeah, Sweeney and Blucas definitely have chemistry.  You can tell they like each other as actors and people, just by the way they allow their characters to interact so freely and casually.  It’s both good acting and infusing their characters with their own personalities, I think. They need to make more movies together.  One every four years is not enough!

Tropes

The characters don’t like each other at all in the beginning.  Then we saw a cute house with a front porch. The network’s project has a Christmas Eve deadline (the announcement of Brian’s departure).  The town they go to is called Mistletoe.

At the restaurant someone asked for a selfie.  They built a gingerbread house.  Melissa talked about how she’s been too focused on her career to have a relationship.

During the three-legged wreath race they had a trip and fall.  Later, Melissa headed to the town’s Christmas fair where they enjoyed some empty coffee cups.  The day capped off with the Christmas tree lighting.

They even managed to get in some tree decorating since Melissa told the innkeeper that she was missing decorating a tree (my quibble is they didn’t put the LIGHTS ON FIRST which everyone knows that’s how it’s supposed to be done).

Yay for real ice skating by Alison!  In this movie Brian had a Bad Girlfriend – one who dislikes Christmas and just wants to hang out at a hotel instead of festive Inn.  We got some crafting when the town had a stocking decoration night.

We had a sneak attack with caroling when Brian began singing “Jingle Bells” while in his room.  Brian set up the Inn’s kitchen so Melissa could make some cookies, followed up with some hot cocoa.

There was a misunderstanding (that could have been resolved had Melissa just let Brian finish what he wanted to tell her after he broke up with his girlfriend and turned down doing the reality TV show with her, too).

And in the end she got her sleigh ride while both their wishes came true.

Bingo Card Score for “Good Morning Christmas!”

This one was chock full of tropes and it paid off!  I got TWO bingos after covering 14 spots! Feel free to download my free bingo cards and play along!

Did I Hear/See That Right?

So here’s what I don’t understand.  They are supposed to be highlighting the various events that make Mistletoe the most Christmasy town ever.  But they aren’t HOSTING.  They aren’t doing stories for the show. I really noticed it during the ice skating scene.  The camera guy was there filming, but Brian and Melissa had no mics on, and weren’t talking to the camera about the event.  It was almost like the camera was only filming B-roll.  So what are Brian and Melissa doing to highlight each particular event? Are they just the hosts and someone else does the actual stories? And is their TV show a live-to-tape news show?  Chat show?  I have no idea.

Feelgoods

I’m a planner so I appreciated Melissa’s need to plan everything out.  I’m with you, girl.

After Brian and Melissa won the stocking contest and the prize was the last dance, it was clear that Brian was going to honor that bet with very little hesitation.  And yet she gave him the out so that he could leave with his girlfriend.  I know that was the right thing to do, but I was still crying, “Nooooo!!!!” as he got his coat and left.

I was happy they used mistletoe instead of holly when they did the wish on the tree.  White berries = mistletoe.

I liked that even when she wouldn’t listen, even when she misunderstood the note and thought it was from James, and even though he didn’t get to talk to her, Brian STILL planned on doing the carriage ride for her as a Christmas gift, knowing that it’s what she had always wished for.

Re-watchability

Oh 100% I’ll watch this again.  The chemistry is palpable and I enjoyed the movie tremendously.

The Ranking

“Good Morning Christmas!” is so great, it made it into my Top 5. It’s such a fun movie and I appreciated that it leaned into all our favorite tropes but not in a treacly way.  It was great.

1. One Royal Holiday (air date: Oct 31) – 722 pts – weighted score: 121.8 (85.5%)
2. On the 12th Date of Christmas (air date: Nov 1) – 707 pts – weighted score: 119.2 (83.6%)
3. The Christmas House (air date: Nov 22) – 710 pts – weighted score: 118.6 (83.2%)
4. Sweet Autumn (air date: Oct 17) – 693 pts – weighted score: 118.5 (83.1%)
5. Good Morning, Christmas! (air date: Nov 25) – 698 pts – weighted score: 118.2 (82.9%)
6. A Timeless Christmas (air date: Nov 14) – 700 pts – weighted score: 117.7 (82.6%)
7. Deliver by Christmas (air date: Oct 25) – 697 pts – weighted score: 117.4 (82.4%)
8. Christmas With the Darlings (air date: Nov 8) – 691 pts – weighted score: 117.2 (82.2%)
9. Christmas Waltz (air date: Nov 29) – 694 pts – weighted score: 116.1 (81.5%)
10. Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater (air date: Nov 7) – 681 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
11. The Christmas Bow (air date: Nov 8) – 676 pts – weighted score: 113.2 (79.4%)
12. Cranberry Christmas (air date: Oct 31) – 650 pts – weighted score: 112.1 (78.6%)
13. The Angel Tree (air date: Nov 21) – 670 pts – weighted score: 110.9 (77.8%)
14. Matching Hearts (air date: Feb 8) – 640 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
15. Winter in Vail (air date: Jan 4) – 623 pts – weighted score: 108.8 (76.4%)
16. Wedding Every Weekend (air date: Aug 15) – 639 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
17. Love in Store (air date: Feb 22) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.2 (75.9%)
18. Christmas in Vienna (air date: Nov 14) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.0 (75.1%)
19. A Nashville Christmas Carol (air date: Nov 21) – 634 pts – weighted score: 107.0 (75.1%)
20. Love on Harbor Island (air date: Aug 8) – 634 pts – weighted score: 106.9 (75.0%)
21. Holly & Ivy (air date: Oct 31) – 615 pts – weighted score: 106.8 (74.9%)
22. The Secret Ingredient (air date: Feb 15) – 617 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
23. The Christmas Doctor (air date: Nov 15) – 605 pts (weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
24. Country at Heart (air date: Oct 3) – 611 pts – weighted score: 104.1 (73.1%)
25. You’re Bacon Me Crazy (air date: Apr 4) – 591 pts – weighted score: 104.0 (72.9%)
26. My Best Friend’s Bouquet (air date: Oct 10) – 599 pts – weighted score: 103.4 (72.5%)
27. The Christmas Ring (air date: Nov 7) – 609 pts – weighted score: 103.3 (72.5%)
28. Fashionably Yours (air date: Apr 11) – 594 pts – weighted score: 102.6 (72.0%)
29. Follow Your Heart (air date: Oct 4) – 585 pts – weighted score: 101.6 (71.3%)
30. A Godwink Christmas: Second Chance, First Love (air date: Nov 22) – 587 pts – weighted score: 100.9 (70.8%)
31. Christmas Tree Lane (air date: Oct 24) – 574 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
32. A Valentine’s Match (air date: Feb 1) – 562 pts – weighted score: 99.8 (70.0%)
33. Love On Iceland (air date: Jan 18) – 563 pts – weighted score: 99.4 (69.7%)
34. Hearts of Winter (air date: Jan 25) – 561 pts – weighted score: 98.2 (68.9%)
35. Heart of the Holidays (air date: Nov 23) – 570 pts – weighted score: 97.9 (68.7%)
36. Jingle Bell Bride (air date: Oct 24) – 558 pts – weighted score: 97.9 (68.7%)
37. Just My Type (air date: Mar 28) – 565 pts – weighted score: 95.4 (66.9%)
38. Meet Me At Christmas (air date: Nov 15) 532 pts – weighted score: 91.1 (63.9%)
39. Bad Date Chronicles (air date: Feb 28) – 520 pts – weighted score: 91.0 (63.9%)
40. Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
41. Nature of Love (air date: Apr 18) – 520 pts – weighted score: 90.3 (63.3%)
42. If I Only Had Christmas (air date: Nov 29) – 535 pts – weighted score: 90.0 (63.2%)
43. Chateau Christmas (air date: Oct 25) – 502 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.3%)
44. Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
45. Love Under the Olive Tree (air date: June 20) – 473 pts – weighted score: 85.0 (59.6%)
46. In the Key of Love (air date: Mar 14) – 470 pts – weighted score: 82.5 (57.9%)
47. Love in the Forecast (air date: Jun 13) – 440 pts – weighted score: 72.5 (50.8%)
48. Midway to Love (air date: June 26) – 410 pts – weighted score: 69.0 (48.4%)
49. Falling at Look Lodge (air date: Sept 26) – 350 pts – weighted score: 64.0 (44.9%)
50. Romance in the Air (air date: Aug 1) – 367 pts – weighted score: 63.2 (44.3%)
51. Follow Me to Daisy Hills (air date: Sept 19) – 337 pts – weighted score: 62.8 (44.1%)
52. How to Train Your Husband (air date: May 16) – 350 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.9%)

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

In any event, what did you think of “Good Morning Christmas!”?  Comment below and let me know!