If You Watch One Holiday Movie This Weekend: Hallmark’s Sugarplummed Is Our Pick

Mandi Bierly

5 December 2024 at 11:00 am·7-min read

With Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas and Lifetime’s It’s a Wonderful Lifetime now in full swing, and Netflix and other networks loading their sleighs, we’re here once again to help you choose between the season’s many offerings. Each Thursday, we’ll spotlight the original holiday romance that should be at the top of your weekend list and preview why other debuts will make you merry.

THE ONE TO WATCH

More from TVLine

Sugarplummed
(premieres Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)

If you got a kick out of Hallmark’s recent Believe in Christmas, in which a holiday-movie aficionado dragged her friend to a town called Christmasland, you will enjoy this flick, which is even more meta. Lawyer Emily (Psych’s Maggie Lawson) wishes on a star tree topper that she’ll finally be able to give her family a Christmas as amazing as the ones in The Harmony Home Network’s beloved Sugarplum film franchise. Heroine Sugarplum (Janel Parrish) magically appears in the flesh, ready to help save the town bakery or offer romantic advice for courting a prince in disguise. But she has to settle for assisting in the completion of Emily’s holiday checklist, posing as her college pal Sue. Only then, Sugarplum believes, will she be able to return to her movie town, Perfection.

Parrish, a Hallmark veteran, is utterly charming in the caricature role, frequently quoting from the rule book that everyone in Sugarplum’s world adheres to, and that, for a time, works in ours as well. An early highlight is Sugarplum reacting to Emily’s debrief on the contentious case she’s trying to settle before the holidays: “A local business is at risk, and it’s a cozy winter lodge that grows Christmas trees, and it’s being threatened by a heartless business executive right before Christmas? This is where I thrive! I can help!” Sugarplum says, jumping up and down. (We won’t spoil the plan, but it involves two cameos.) Rule 39 may be constant — “A bag of any size can contain a full winter wardrobe, including multiple coats, scarves, and mittens” — but the magic eventually starts to fade, and Sugarplum’s meddling backfires (cue a mug shot montage). In the end, both women learn what’s truly needed for an ideal Christmas.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Janel Parrish (@janelparrish)

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

Runner-Up: Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane

Jonathan Bennett remains the king of expressing Christmas exasperation, as seen in our runner-up pick, Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane (streaming now on Hallmark+). The first of three sequels to last year’s standout Christmas on Cherry Lane, the movie again unfolds on Christmas Eve in three timelines: In 2024, husbands Mike (Bennett) and Zian (Vincent Rodriguez III) are so busy pulling off special surprises for each other that they’re barely speaking. (Mike’s involves finding, and losing, adopted Zian’s grandfather.) In 2003, newlyweds Sarah (Sarah Chen) and Luke (Shannon Kook) are hosting their parents, who disagree about literally everything. And in 1951, the year their shared home was built, doctor Charlie (Corey Cott) and his wife, Joan (Annabelle Borke), are muddling through somehow knowing that he’ll be deployed to Korea in the new year. The film doesn’t match the feels and reveals of the original, but Mike and Zian’s arc will definitely get you teary-eyed, and it’s interesting to see how the lore of 7 Cherry Lane began.

The Best of the Rest…

Brewster’s Millions: Christmas (streaming now on BET+)
Self-indulgent Morgan Brewster (China Anne McClain), niece of Richard Pryor’s character in 1985’s Brewster’s Millions, has her bank accounts frozen and receives an ultimatum from her widowed aunt (a fabulous Telma Hopkins). She’ll lose her fortune and chance to run the family business if she doesn’t complete four tasks my midnight Christmas Eve: provide shelter for someone in need; give a child a unique gift worth more than money; restore her own faith in the meaning of Christmas; and open her heart to true love. Romeo Miller costars as Morgan’s appointed watcher, Andrew, while Pryor’s daughter Rain plays Morgan’s transitional housing neighbor Opal. Richard Pryor Jr. portrays Monty in flashbacks.

A Dance in the Snow (premieres Thursday, Dec. 5 at 8 pm and repeats Sunday, Dec. 8 at 6 pm on Hallmark Mystery)
Devoted single mom Melanie (Erica Cerra) is working with teacher Daniel (Mark Ghanimé) to surprise her autistic daughter Jenny (Vanessa Burghardt) with a winter formal that’s inclusive for neurodiverse students. Jenny and her friends, meanwhile, are secretly organizing their own dance to honor Melanie. That mother-daughter relationship is special, but it may be the way Jenny and her first love, Will (Dorian Giordano), comfort each other through their fears (such as Jenny’s of snow) that you find most touching.

A Season to Remember (premieres Saturday, Dec. 7 at 9 pm on OWN)
OWN comes in hot with its first of three new 2024 holiday movies. Ambitious Detroit TV sports reporter Symone (Michele Weaver) has a shot at the anchor chair if she can score a big interview for the Christmas Day broadcast and find her voice. Know that not everyone at the station is as evil as they initially seem and that her freelance cameraman, Iggy (Nathan Owens), has a shirtless dunk-tank scene.

A Very Merry Beauty Salon (premieres Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8 pm on Lifetime)
Divorced Atlanta salon owner Sienna (Tia Mowry) doesn’t need a date for the Tinsel Ball, where she’ll be honored for her work with women’s shelters. But she does require a partner for the choreographed spotlight dance. Cut to her friend Kyle (Arrington Foster) faking an injury so that the ball’s co-sponsor, winemaker Lawrence (RonReaco Lee), can step in for rehearsals. Can Sienna learn to trust again? Will her colleagues, widow Miss Kimmy (Cocoa Brown) and soldier’s girlfriend Ella (Ashli Auguillard), get the happy endings they deserve?

Leah’s Perfect Gift (premieres Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
Jewish Leah (Emily Arlook from Netflix’s Nobody Wants This) is genuinely thrilled to experience her first Christmas in Connecticut with boyfriend Graham (Evan Roderick) and his family. His very particular mother (Barbara Niven), however, isn’t fond of changes, like having some real competition at the annual gingerbread house-decorating contest. This is Arlook’s debut as a Hallmark leading lady. We hope to see her in other seasons.

Private Princess Christmas (premieres Friday, Dec. 6 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
It’s Hallmark’s take on Private Benjamin! To prove to her mother, the Queen of Wingravia (Erica Durance), that she will one day make a worthy successor, lackadaisical Princess Violet (Ali Skovbye) must graduate from a 10-day leadership boot camp at a Colorado military academy. It’s ridiculous at times, but absolutely worth it to hear Captain Ryan Douglas (Tony nominee Derek Klena), the cadets’ instructor, croon “Edelweiss” at the veterans home.

Once Upon a Christmas Wish (premieres Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8 pm on Great American Family)
Small-town mayor Brian Ortega’s (Mario Lopez) lost fourth-grade letter to Santa finally gets sent, and his wishes start coming true. The result is a surprising amount of dance numbers; Brian’s late mother adored Fred Astaire films, and his childhood crush, aspiring singer-turned-event planner Nina (Courtney Lopez, Mario’s wife), is home for the holidays. The pair team up to organize a festival that they hope will save the town’s identity and her grandma’s inn from a developer.

That Christmas (streaming now on Netflix)
In this sweet animated tale, co-written by Love Actually’s Richard Curtis, a blizzard wreaks havoc on England’s Wellington-on-Sea at Christmas. Santa (voiced by Brian Cox) is forced to be strategic with the presents he leaves children unexpectedly celebrating without their stranded parents: a boy named Danny (Jack Wisniewski), who’s home alone because his single nurse mom (Jodie Whittaker) has to work on the holiday; and twins, one of whom is nice and the other naughty. The real hero here is icy schoolmarm Ms. Trapper (Fiona Shaw), who begins to thaw around Danny and wields her power well in a crisis.

New Christmas TV Movies to Watch in 2024

Christmas Time Is Here! Your Guide to 90+ Holiday Movies on Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix and More in 2024

View List

Best of TVLine