Hallmark For All Seasons

Countdown to Christmas 2019

Hallmark’s “Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays”

“Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays” aired on Hallmark Channel on Saturday, November 23 at 8 p.m. “Home for the Holidays” is a sort-of sequel to last year’s “Graceland” movies, although the only unifier it has was Graceland itself. And that’s a GOOD thing. This time around, Kaitlin Doubleday and Adrian Grenier are the stars in this much-improved “Graceland” story, filmed entirely in Memphis, Tennessee.

In a nutshell

I was so relieved at how much better this movie was than the previous to “Graceland” movies. It helped that Pickler had no part in this movie (I watched the whole thing in fear, waiting for her and Wes Brown to pop in for a cameo of some kind).

Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays — image: Hallmark Crown Media

Plot

Harper (Doubleday) is a museum curator who returns home to Memphis after a three-year stint in Europe. She is a candidate for a new position in London, but wants to celebrate the holidays with her sister and family. While home, she takes a job as a nanny for the children of widower Owen (Grenier). Harper and Owen joins forces to plan a joint event at Graceland on Christmas Eve. As they continue to work together, Harper’s feelings for Owen grow, and she must decide whether to remain in Memphis or go back to Europe, leaving behind Owen and the children she’s come to love.

Actors

Both Doubleday and Grenier were great, but the real standouts for me were the kids. All three kids were quirky and fun and real. I especially loved the younger daughter Camilla, played by Nina Thurmond. This was her first major movie role and she was adorable. She needs to play Erin Cahill’s daughter in the future because they both have the same naturally upcurved mouth and thus could totally play a mother/daughter duo.

As for Six Degrees of Kris Polaha, Adrian Grenier is only two step aways! He co-starred with Armie Hammer in the tv show “Entourage,” and Hammer previously shared the screen with Polaha in 2008’s “Billy the Early Years.”

Chemistry

The whole crew in this movie worked tremendously well together, from the kids to the adults. I think Doubleday and Grenier and a nice, easy compatibility on screen and there were several throw-away little moments that I loved (such as when Owen was heading upstairs and looked back at Harper one last time). Little things like that make a movie, and help build the on-screen chemistry, and the actors on this movie nailed those small moments throughout this movie.

Feelgoods

I can’t really say I had any feelgoods from this movie, but that’s not a bad thing. I don’t think this movie was necessarily going for big emotional moments.

Tropes

Y’all, “Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays” had SO MANY tropes.

It started off strong with a Big City drone shot of the skyline and never slowed down. They went tree shopping, and then decorated MULTIPLE trees (including one at Graceland). Owen was a workaholic single parent to three cute kids. There were TWO baking scenes and TWO scenes featuring Christmas caroling. WHAT? This movie was crazy!

But that’s not all. The movie featured a snowglobe, drinking hot cocoa, creating homemade ornaments, a promotion (of sorts) on the line, a woman falling for a wealthy man, and the kiss was in the last scene (sadly no snowfall – but more on the snow later). All in all, this movie practically threw up Hallmark tropes.

Bingo Card Score for “Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays”

For a movie featuring so many tropes, I still had no bingo. I got so excited when it was brought up that they were going ice skating – that would have given me a bingo! – but they pivoted and went sledding instead, and down went my chances. But still, I covered 13 of 25 spots on my card.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

All right, let’s dig in. First up: the snow. Look, anyone who is remotely familiar with weather patterns in the U.S. knows that it rarely snows in Memphis, TN. It is not a city known for freezing cold weather and copious amounts of snowfall. So I did a little research. The last winter season they had consecutive days with measurable snow was in 1951 (9 days). Later, in 1963, they did get a storm that dumped a whopping 14″ of snow, but since then, Memphis has not gotten nearly that amount. And yet this movie insisted on showing us that 1) Memphis is freezing cold and 2) gets so much snow that it lays around for days not melting. No, just no. The amount of snow they showed in this movie became more and more absurd as the movie went on.

There were a few other quibbles, but the only one I’ll note is that at the beginning of the movie, Owen finds his daughter’s shoe on the floor near the front door, carries it around for a bit, and then lays it on the kitchen counter. Ew. That’s a counter I’ll never use for food prep again.

Re-watchability

As I said, I did like this movie a lot more than the previous two installments. Will I watch it again? Possibly. The jury is out. While I liked many things about it, the overuse of snow was very annoying (I long for a Southern-set movie that lets us celebrate the holiday WITHOUT snow and freezing temps since there’s a large portion of this country that does not regularly get snowfall in winter). I can see myself watching a few minutes of the movie if I happen to come across it, but I doubt I’d sit and choose to watch it again.

The Ranking

Despite a few faults, I still liked this movie and it ended up in the middle of the pack for the year.

Two Turtle Doves (air date: Nov 1) – 742 pts – weighted score: 123.7 (86.8%)
Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses (air date: Oct 26) – 719 pts – weighted score: 121.0 (84.9%)
Love to the Rescue RE-RANKED (air date: March 23) – 708 pts – weighted score: 120.6 (84.6%)
Winter Love Story (air date: January 19) – 685 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
Mystery 101 (air date: January 27 (HMM)) – 454 pts – weighted score: 94.2 (80.5%)
Love on the Menu (air date: February 23) – 642 pts – weighted score: 113.8 (79.9%)
Bottled With Love (air date: April 13) – 649 pts – weighted score: 112.2 (78.7%)
Love Takes Flight (air date: April 27) – 670 pts – weighted score: 111.0 (77.9%)
Love, Romance & Chocolate (air date: February 16) – 627 pts – weighted score: 110.2 (77.3%)
The Last Bridesmaid (air date: June 22) – 643 pts – weighted score: 109.2 (76.6%)
Love, Fall and Order (air date: Oct 12) – 636 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
Paris, Wine & Romance (air date: May 4) – 638 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 (air date: June 8) – 635 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
Over the Moon in Love (air date: Oct 5) – 613 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
Flip That Romance (air date: March 16) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
My One and Only (air date: Aug 31) – 597 pts – weighted score: 105.6 (74.1%)
Mystery 101: Playing Dead (air date: June 23 (HMM)) – 425 pts – weighted score: 86.5 (73.9%)
A Summer Romance (air date: Aug 17) – 577 pts – weighted score: 103.7 (72.7%)
True Love Blooms (air date: April 6) – 598 pts – weighted score: 103.1 (72.3%)
Forever in My Heart (air date: Sept 14) – 560 pts – weighted score: 102.4 (71.8%)
The Mistletoe Secret (air date: Nov 11) – 585 pts – weighted score: 102.2 (71.7%)
Christmas Under the Stars (air date: Nov 16) – 576 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
The Story of Us (air date: February 9) – 605 pts – weighted score: 101.3 (71.1%)
Holiday for Heroes (air date: Nov 8) – 566 pts – weighted score: 99.8 (70.0%)
A Brush with Love (air date: March 30) – 563 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays – 558 pts – weighted score: 97.7 (68.6%)
A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love (air date: Nov 17) – 548 pts – weighted score: 96.9 (68.0%)
Ruby Herring: Silent Witness (air date: January 20 (HMM)) – 357 pts – weighted score: 79.5 (67.9%)
Love, Unleashed (air date: July 6, 2019) – 559 pts – weighted score: 96.2 (67.5%)
Love Under the Rainbow (air date: March 9) – 581 pts – weighted score: 96.0 (67.4%)
One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 535 pts – weighted score: 95.8 (67.2%)
Just Add Romance (air date: March 2) – 548 pts – weighted score: 95.6 (67.1%)
Christmas Scavenger Hunt (air date: Nov 3) – 561 pts – weighted score: 95.4 (66.9%)
From Friend to Fiance (air date: May 25) – 555 pts – weighted score: 94.8% (66.5%)
Picture a Perfect Christmas (air date: Nov 10) – 529 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
Write Before Christmas (air date: Nov 17) – 529 pts – weighted score: 94.1 (66.0%)
Christmas Camp (air date: July 11) – 530 pts – weighted score: 93.9 (65.9%)
Love and Sunshine (air date: Aug 3) – 504 pts – weighted score: 91.7 (64.3%)
Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For (air date: March 10 (HMM) – 354 pts – weighted score: 74.1 (63.3%)
A Christmas Miracle (air date: Nov 14) – 494 pts – weighted score: 90.1 (63.2%)
Sister of the Bride (air date: June 29) – 516 pts – weighted score: 89.8 (63.0%)
Valentine in the Vineyard (air date: February 2) – 503 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
Love, Take Two (air date: June 15) – 507 pts – weighted score: 87.8 (61.6%)
All Summer Long (air date: Aug 24) – 512 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
Snowcoming (air date: January 26) – 485 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.2%)
The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 475 pts – weighted score: 85.9 (60.2%)
Merry & Bright (air date: Nov 2) – 483 pts – weighted score: 84.4 (59.2%)
Nostalgic Christmas (air date: Oct 31) – 446 pts – weighted score: 79.2 (55.6%)
A Merry Christmas Match (air date: Oct 25) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.3 (54.9%)
Sailing Into Love (air date: May 18) – 455 pts – weighted score: 78.0 (54.7%)
Rome in Love (air date: July 27) – 436 pts – weighted score: 76.7 (53.8%)
A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas (air date: Nov 7) – 398 pts – weighted score: 72.3 (50.7%)
A Taste of Summer (air date: Aug 10) – 403 pts – weighted score: 70.9 (49.7%)
A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 380 pts – weighted score: 70.5 (49.5%)
A Feeling of Home (air date: May 11) – 386 pts – weighted score: 69.7% (48.9%)
Love in the Sun (air date: June 1) – 361 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.8%)