Last year I ranked the 2018 Hallmark Christmas movies but it became apparent in early 2019 that my rankings were not accurate at all – I let a love for specific actors override any feeling I had about whether the movie was actually good or not. At one point I watched one when it re-aired and realized I had made a grave error by ranking it as high as I did in my original rankings. I quickly set about creating a spreadsheet with categories, scores, and formulas for weighting those scores. I also created a scale on which I automatically assigned points to all of the actors/actresses from 40 points down to 25 points. This way, if say, Jill Wagner and Kris Polaha starred in a movie together, they’d earn 80 points automatically, and it would go up from there depending on the secondary characters.
We’re now halfway through the year, and so far I have re-watched 16 of the 2018 Christmas movies. That’s just under half. And so far, my rankings have shifted only a little bit. “Small Town Christmas” starring my all-time fave Kris Polaha, is now solidly in first place instead of third, and “Christmas in Grand Valley” moved up from 6th place to 3rd thus far. Others haven’t moved at all – “Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa” (#2), “Christmas at Pemberley Manor” (#4), and “A Godwink Christmas” (#5) all maintain the same spots they had when they were originally ranked.
The one that has dropped the most is “Northern Lights of Christmas” – when originally ranked it was my number 1 movie but upon rewatching, sadly, despite the fact that I ADORE Ashley Williams (she is one of my top 3 favorite female Hallstars), the movie is just not that good, and has tumbled to the 14th spot thus far.
I still have many more 2018 Christmas movies saved on my Tivo (at least 12 more), and so I know these rankings will continue to shift a bit even if I can’t wait all 38 movies that were released. I can say with all confidence that I know for a fact nothing will score lower than “Christmas at Graceland” but it’s possible something will score lower than “Northern” and enable it to rise in the ranks a bit. Time will tell.
And yes, I know you want to know my actor scales. I won’t list them all since I don’t want to “out” the Hallmark actors that are not my faves. But I will say this much: the actors that are 40 points are Brennan Elliott, Kris Polaha, Michael Rady, Paul Campbell and Paul Greene. The actresses that are 40 points are Ashley Williams, Jen Lilley, Jill Wagner, Nikki DeLoach and Rachel Boston.
