Yahoo Lifestyle If You Watch One Holiday Movie This Weekend: Hallmark’s The Christmas Charade Is Our Pick
As loyal fans of the holiday romance genre, we are prepared to start the most wonderful time of the year before spooky season ends. With Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas and Great American Family’s Great American Christmas now in full swing, and Lifetime and other networks loading their sleighs, we’re here once again to help you choose between the many offerings. Each Thursday, we’ll spotlight the movie that should be at the top of your weekend list and preview why other debuts will make you merry.
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THE ONE TO WATCH
The Christmas Charade
(Premieres Saturday, Oct. 26 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
We may never get to watch anyone but baker Hannah Swensen solve a murder during the holidays. So we’ll just have to settle for an elementary school librarian helping to thwart a jewelry heist at the Mistletoe Ball. Rachel Skarsten stars as Whitney, who was raised by two home security experts to believe adventure is best enjoyed in books and movies. Wanting to shake things up a bit, she agrees to a blind date — and accidentally sits down with undercover FBI agent Josh (Corey Sevier, also the director), who assumes she’s the new colleague posing as his girlfriend for a lunch date with the suspected thief and his wife. Once Whitney inadvertently talks her way into helping the wife plan the ball, where a $10 million necklace will be the centerpiece, there’s no turning back.
The script (by Kate Pragnell, also Sevier’s wife) hits all the fun notes you’d anticipate. A training montage reveals Whitney has more skills than Josh thinks. Curmudgeon/lone wolf Josh gets roped into playing Whitney’s boyfriend for a holiday game night with her parents. They perform a tango to “Por Una Cabeza,” which you’ll recognize from Scent of a Woman, and a stunt that defies gravity. The best part: You won’t see the end twist coming. Should Sevier and Skarsten, co-stars in Jazz Ramsey: A K-9 Mystery earlier this year as well, want to partner for another sting, we’re in.
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Runner-Up: The 5-Year Christmas Party
Anyone who loves the 2012 Danica McKellar-Dustin Milligan Lifetime classic Love at the Christmas Table might have a soft spot for our runner-up pick, The 5-Year Christmas Party (premieres Sunday, Oct. 27 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel). It’s another heartfelt story about two friends taking years to become something more. Only this time, theater school crushes Alice (Katie Findlay) and Max (Jordan Fisher) acknowledge their feelings from the start, then choose not to date because he’s leaving for L.A. to pursue screen acting and she’s staying in Chicago to one day direct theater. Christmas season after Christmas season, jobs at his sister’s catering company bring them back together long enough to reconnect and grow closer before one of them pulls away again. Findlay and Fisher are a winning duo, equally comfortable in the banter-filled moments and in the quieter ones where twinkling or teary eyes do some of the talking.
The Best of the Rest…
This Time Each Year (premieres Thursday, Oct. 24 at 8 pm and repeats Sunday, Oct. 27 at 6 pm on Hallmark Mystery)
In their first pairing, network favorites Alison Sweeney and Niall Matter deliver moving performances as separated couple Lauren and Kevin, who stage a fake reunion when her mother makes a surprise appearance for the holidays. Don’t expect a farce. They work through real problems: the fallout of buying her dream money pit, the regaining of trust now that he’s sober, and the shame that stops her from seeing that imperfect lives can be beautiful.
A Christmas Castle Proposal (premieres Saturday, Oct. 26 at 8 pm on Great American Family)
This sequel to the 2023 rom-com A Royal in Paradise finds Prince Alexander of Torovia (Mitchell Bourke), novelist Olivia (Rhiannon Fish, always charming), and her parents visiting his mother’s country palace for the annual Christmas banquet. While busy Alex tries to find the time to pop the question, Olivia debates whether she wants him to, given how stressed she feels memorizing his family tree and finishing her latest book. No pressure, Olivia, but this is definitely meant to be a trilogy!
Operation Nutcracker (airs Friday, Oct. 25 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
Following a July premiere on Hallmark’s streamer, the romance makes its linear debut. A suitcase mix-up at the airport sends driven event planner Lottie (Ashley Newbrough) and black sheep philanthropist Tristan (Christopher Russell) on a search for the rare nutcracker he was transporting home to Boston for his family’s annual Christmas charity auction. Can they find it in time? Will they address their respective mommy and daddy issues? Does Tristan’s eggplant-colored suit deserve more screen time?
Christmas Time Is Here! Your Guide to 90+ Holiday Movies on Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix and More in 2024
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