Hallmark For All Seasons

“One December Night,” starring Peter Gallagher, Bruce Campbell, Eloise Mumford and Brett Dalton, aired on November 13 during 2021’s Miracles of Christmas on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel.  The movie is set in a fictional town called Pineville but was filmed in New York in the Poughkeepsie/Newburgh area.

Directed by Clare Niederpruem (Holiday for Heroes, Love on Iceland), the screenplay was written by Eric Brooks (Love Takes Flight, A Nashville Christmas Carol) and Sib Ventress (Love, Take Two).

This movie poster is pretty great.  I love that they are standing on a record.  The only issue is that other than the word “December,” there’s very little hear that says CHRISTMAS.  But it is still a poster that clearly shows there are four stars in this movie, and each is just as important as the next.

Music: Fans of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and well, his career in general, know that Peter Gallagher is a highly respected Broadway actor and singer.  In this movie, he performed the original song, “One December Night,” as well as an unreleased single, “Coming Home.” Sadly, the songs sung the Addison character don’t appear to be available, which makes me sad.

In a nutshell

I thought this movie was fantastic from beginning to end.

The Plot of “One December Night”

Two music managers must put their history aside to oversee the televised reunion performance of their rock star fathers with a fractured past. 

Actors & Chemistry

Getting Bruce Campbell and Peter Gallagher in a Hallmark movie was a fantastic choice.  Both command your attention on the screen and then when you put them together – Hallmark Christmas movie magic.  I love that in some roles Bruce Campbell embraces the camp of it all, but in this one he toned down that tendency and gave a really solid performance as a man struggling to hide the fact he has Alzheimer’s. But in particular, I thought Peter Gallagher was the winner of the movie, for one particular scene I’ll talk about later.

This is the most I’ve liked Brett Dalton in a Hallmark movie.  I liked him a lot in this, and I’m glad he finally hit the right balance between leading man and “I’m only backing up the female lead because this is Hallmark.”  Not only that, but his pairing with Eloise Mumford was a great decision.  They were very natural together and I totally believed they had a history together.  And while I didn’t get heat from their chemistry, their kisses were amazing.

Tropes

Lots of good tropes in this movie.  After the initial credits (which I loved), we had a skyline drone shot of New York City. Quinn and Addison dinked EMPTY coffee cups.  However, I appreciated that later in the movie when Jason and Quinn were drinking from coffee cups, one of them actually slurped, implying real liquid in the cups. Two main characters don’t get along (that would be Mike and Steve).

Quinn had a GIANT scarf in a scene at the beginning of the movie and we had a couple shots of an old red truck.  The gift shop had snow globes on the shelf, and Big Red had a front porch.  And while it’s not the actual circle necklace I usually spot, Peter Gallagher’s character clearly had his wife’s wedding ring on a chain hanging from his neck.  Does that count?

Quinn and Jason decorated TWO trees, one of which is for the town tree lighting.  We had some baking and cookie decorating.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

I don’t find much to fault with this movie.  There was one scene where Jason had just figured out what was going on with his dad, when Quinn walked up.  He said, “Can we talk later?” and she said yes.  But then in the next scene he clearly hadn’t told her yet about his dad, which is what I thought he wanted to do when he bookmarked talking to her later.  But a couple scenes later he DID tell her, so it must have been intentional.

Feelgoods

The opening credits. I loved that they used real footage of Peter Gallagher and Bruce Campbell from their younger years.

Pineville!  We live near a town called Pineville, and just last week my husband asked, “Do they ever set those movies in a town called Pineville?”  I told him no, not to my knowledge.  And then this movie came on and was set in Pineville!  He feels seen.

So let’s talk about the scene that made me cry.  Quinn and her dad are in the kitchen making cookies, and he tells Quinn that he stayed away at her mom’s request, and then the mom passed away before he was ready to change (read: get sober). He then said he knew he wasn’t a good father.  At the end he said, “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry.”  Those three sorrys could have sounded false, but Peter Gallagher hit just the right tone with every single one and it was lovely.

After the nephew Troy admitted to Mike that they made  the video of Steve singing “One December Night,” he went to Quinn to apologize.  I loved what she said to him: “What matters is what happens next.”

Re-watchability of “One December Night”

Yep, I’ll be rewatching this every year.  It was heartfelt and emotional, without becoming schmaltzy.

The Ranking

“One December Night,” landed in the Top 5!

1. The Santa Stakeout (air date: Oct 24) – 730 pts – weighted score: 122.3 (85.8%)
2. A Christmas Family Tree (air date: Nov 14) – 730 pts – weighted score: 121.9 (85.5%)
3. You, Me and The Christmas Trees (air date: Oct 22) – 716 pts – weighted score: 121.3 (85.1%)
4. Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
5. One December Night (air date: Nov 13) – 695 pts – weighted score: 116.3 (81.6%)
6. A Mrs. Miracle Christmas (air date: Nov 6) – 688 pts – weighted score: 116.2 (81.5%)
7. Boyfriends of Christmas Past (air date: Oct 23) – 673 pts – weighted score: 116.1 (81.5%)
8. Next Stop, Christmas (air date: Nov 6) – 682 pts – weighted score: 114.7 (80.5%)
9. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
10. The Christmas Promise (air date: Oct 30) – 675 pts – weighted score: 114.1 (80.0%)
11. Gingerbread Miracle (air date: Nov 5) – 671 pts – weighted score: 114.0 (80.0%)
12. Christmas In My Heart (air date: Oct 23) – 675 pts – weighted score: 113.9 (79.9%)
13. Open at Christmas (air date: Nov 12) – 658 pts – weighted score: 111.6 (78.3%)
14. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
15. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
16. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
17. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
18. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
19. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
20. Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
21. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
22. South Beach Love (air date: Oct 9) – 615 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
23. Love Strikes Twice (air date: Oct 2) – 608 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
24. A Holiday in Harlem (air date: Nov 7) – 628 pts – weighted score: 105.1 (73.7%)
25. Christmas Sail (air date: Oct 31) – 606 pts – weighted score: 105.1 (73.7%)
26. Christmas in Harmony (air date: Oct 29) – 605 pts – weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
27. A Christmas Treasure (air date: Nov 7) – 625 pts – weighted score: 104.6 (73.4%)
28. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
29. Coyote Creek Christmas (air date: Oct 30) – 614 pts – weighted score: 104.3 (73.2%)
30. Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
31. Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (air date: Oct 1) – 595 pts – weighted score: 103.0 (72.2%)
32. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
33. Advice to Love By (air date: Oct 16) – 599 pts – weighted score: 102.2 (71.7)
34. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
35. Taking the Reins (air date: Sept 28) – 574 pts – weighted score: 101.2 (71.0%)
36. Raise a Glass to Love (air date: Sept 18) – 590 pts – weighted score: 100.7 (70.7%)
37. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
38. Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
39. Sweet Pecan Summer (air date: ) – 576 pts – weighted score: 97.3 (68.3%)
40. Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
41. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
42. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
43. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
44. Finding Love in Mountain View (air date: ) – 504 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
45. A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
46. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
47. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
48. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
49. Journey of my Heart (air date: ) – 450 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
50. 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 “One December Night”?  Comment below and let me know!