Love Under the Mistletoe

Christmas in July 2026 wraps up with Jen Lilley (Grace) and Nick Bateman (Ryan) starring in Love Under the Mistletoe. With only six speaking roles in the entire movie (yes... six!), this one leans heavily on the classic Hallmark formula—and it absolutely embraces it.

We've got the overworked big-city executive returning to his small hometown for Christmas. Two former high school crushes reconnect. A charity gala is organized to save a struggling town. And, of course, a BBD (Big Bad Developer) wants to replace a beautiful historic home with a modern condo tower.

Add in a cookie-baking montage, a tree-lighting ceremony, festive decorations everywhere, and you've got the kind of cozy, cookie-cutter Christmas romance Hallmark built its reputation on. But does that formula still work in 2026?

We break the movie down and offer our verdict!

As always, we cover:

• Behind-the-scenes movie fun facts.
 • What we liked and our favorite scenes.
 • Scenes we’d rewrite.
 • The best supporting characters.
 • “Are We Sure?” — our ultimate Hallmark logic check.
 • Will Grace and Ryan last as a couple?
 • The Mistletoe Meter – Let’s talk about that final kiss and give it a letter grade.
 • Who (or what) truly won the movie.
 • We rate the film and talk about what movie is coming up next!

For the love of Hallmark!

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/foreverhallmarkchristmas

Email: ForeverHallmarkChristmas@gmail.com

*** Not affiliated with Hallmark Media. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Forever Hallmark Christmas, a Hallmark movie review podcast where we review one thing and one thing only. That is Hallmark Christmas movies. My name is Rich. As always, joined by my co-host Renee. How's it going, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 0:24

It's going very well, Rich. It's been nice and warm here lately.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

It has. And you just got back from Las Vegas. So was it nice and uh nice and cool out there?

SPEAKER_02 0:32

It was about 110.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Oh, it was warm for sure. All right. Well, we've got our uh our final Christmas in July movie here, and then uh next week we're going back to our our oldies, I guess. Can't wait. Yep. So this is uh the fourth. Uh, and uh you ready to go? I'm ready. All right, so we've got uh this week's movie, Love Under the Mistletoe. Uh actually a movie that uh debuted back on the Hulu channel, uh came out on November 1st, 2024, under the title Operation Mistletoe. But it debuted on the Hallmark Channel July 25th, 2026, and is now available to stream on Hallmark Plus. And Renee, right now you can get Hallmark Plus for $39 a year, their writing special. So if you're a Hallmark fan, go out and grab that. I mean, it's like $3 a month. Heck of a deal. Yeah, it's a heck of a deal. Uh, this movie stars Jen Lilly as Grace, Nick Bateman as Ryan. Uh, a couple writing credits on this one, Kate Knox and Bob Signs. But it sounds like the lead writer on this movie was Ainsley Gordon. She's written a lot for Hallmark as well as some other networks. And here's our little holiday hook. When Grace's former crush Ryan comes home for Christmas, her best friend tries to play matchmaker by hanging mistletoe up all over town. All while she helps him decorate the house he plans to sell. IMDB rating on this one, Ray. Oh, yikes, 5.3 when it was Operation Mistletoe on the Hulu. Um, that's uh that's a bit on the low side. Yeah, sure is. And uh let's do uh a few fun facts with Rich before we uh get into our actual review, if you don't mind. All right, of course. So this one uh was filmed up in North Bay, Ontario, which is a lakeside uh town about four hours north of Toronto, and it was filmed in the summer in August, and it was really, really hot. So, yes, a lot of fake snow in this movie. Uh writer Ainsley Gordon, she wrote the character of Grace with Jen Lilly in mind, which is kind of interesting because a lot of times we know that writers sometimes might have somebody in mind, but they rarely get the actor or actress that they they want. So, but uh she got Jen Lily in this one. And speaking of Ainsley Gordon, the writer, she is actually, in addition to being a writer, she is a Juilliard-trained actress. So she's done a lot of acting uh as well as writing.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Jen Lil Jen Lilly was an executive producer on this movie as long as uh as well as our lead actress. And speaking of Jen Lily, she still has the burgundy dress that she's wearing at the end of the movie. She liked it so much they let her keep it when the film was done. So very cool there. It was a beautiful dress. I really like that look on her. Yeah, it was really nice. If you notice a little size difference between uh Nick Bateman and Jen Lilly in this movie, it was real, just to give you an idea. Jen Lily is five foot two, Nick Bateman six four. Oh wow. So yeah, big height difference. And I think if you you saw that final kiss or whatever, you notice uh yeah, he he was he was he was a good foot taller than her plus. And here's something I found really interesting. Uh some people might not have catch this. I I did. There are only six speaking roles in this entire movie: Grace, Ryan, Olivia, Jack, Quinn, and Mayor Sammy. That's it. Nobody else has a speaking role in the film. I did not catch that. Wow. Yeah, yeah, pretty cool. And those are the fun facts. All right, let's dive into it, Renee. Overall thoughts on this one.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

You know, I love the characters, you know, and I like the actors. And I thought the story is is cute on paper, but I I had some slow moments for me. You know, I was I was watching it and I look at, you know, I was like, okay, what time, how how many minutes am I into it? I felt like I was, you know, I gotta be an hour into it, and it was 28 minutes into it. I said, okay. I mean, but I I was liking it, I just felt it ran, it just felt slow to me. You know, I I it's tough for me to say this because we gotta keep it real, but I you know, I like the actors so much, and I like the you know, uh the idea of this story, I think, is really cute. But yeah, it it dragged a little bit for me.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So we've we've thrown around the terms formulaic and throwback, cookie cutter. I I have to say this is maybe the most formulaic Hallmark Christmas movie I have ever seen, and I'll explain why.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So, first of all, we got the big the big business person, you know, in the big city coming home. That's Ryan coming back home. We have got the old crush there, you know, they're high school crushes, they bump into each other, of course. Uh, we've got you know, they they're planning an event. The town needs them to jump in and plan the Bows and Ribbons Festival because they're old, you know, they're not getting as much money from another cherry that they used to. So now they've got to plan an event. Always in those formulaic uh Hallmark movies from 10 years ago. And then, of course, we got what Hallmark fans call the BBD, the big bad developer that wants to come in and turn grandma's historic house into a condo tower. I mean, it's just that old formulaic on top of formulaic, and I mean, I just don't think in 2024 we see very many movies like this anymore. And that's when this movie was made. It was made in 2024. Uh we got it in 2026, and I started thinking what the heck happened here because you know you have two good actors, you have Jen Lilly and Nick Bateman. Um, you have a good director, Bradley Walsh. She's done Hallmark movies like Catch Me A Few Claws and 'Twas the Day Before Christmas. Really popular movies. But Angley Gordon, between November of 2025 and August of 2026, she's written four Hallmark movies. I mean, you've got to be a darn good writer to have four Hallmark movies written in f in nine months. So you had a really good team here. I just I'm going, why did this just fall so flat? And yeah, for me, I just like you say, it was slow, and and I I definitely couldn't get into this one at all. Just the the the storyline didn't do much for me. Their chemistry didn't do much for me. I like the actors, but uh boy, it's uh yeah, this one was a struggle.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah, and I wanted to like this one more than I did, but it just is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yep. All right, but we can always find things we liked in a movie. And uh how about you? What you uh what are some likes in this one?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Yeah, I like what I'm gonna call a re-meet cute moment. You know, I liked when they remet again for the first time in I don't know how many years it was. I think it was 15, they said, yeah. That's amazing. So, you know, she looked cute, kind of fidgety with herself, nervous, and you know, and uh I I liked that interaction when they first met again. I thought that was a really cute scene, and her silently mouthing either wow or woe after their interaction as she's walking away. I thought that was kind of cute. Little simple things I liked, lots of Christmas colors in the outfits and decorations. It was lots of greens, lots of reds, and it was odd. The the main character I hit even had uh some purple, which I thought was an odd choice, but it was kind of interesting colors to have in the movie. Uh, I also liked Mary Mary, excuse me. I liked Mayor Sammy. I thought her character was good, very likable. Um, she's it was a nice move using the decorating contract for her in the storyline as a carrot stick to get Grace to decorate the house for the fundraiser. Right. And she's also very well put together. I liked her a lot. And Olivia's placement of mistletoes throughout the place. But in particular, in the restaurant where she's trying to set it up, and they all go there for lunch, or and then the table's already taken, and she's like, oh, you can see her face frustrated. I just thought that was so funny. And just Olivia's scheming in general cracked me up. And she, you know, she uses the word operation mistletoe, which is what it's called in Hulu, on Hulu, and uh I thought that was kind of funny. I just you know, there's a few other things, but I'll let you uh hit viewers uh see what you got.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, I I I thought it was really cute that they keep talking about how Grace likes rom com. That's her favorite genre of uh of movie to watch. And of course, you know, we are watching a rom com ourselves. I thought that was kind of a neat little angle to throw in there. Uh, I like the decorations in this movie. I thought they were really solid, uh, you know, all over the place, trees, garland hanging everywhere. And one thing I specifically liked is I really like the look of the Christmas market. So sometimes some of the movies we've seen lately, it kind of looks a little cheap, little tables in that one Christmas construction. You know, it was kind of pop-up white tents. These actually look like real market booths. I think they did a really good job with the uh the the Christmas market there. I know it's gonna be tough to get much snow in the middle of August. Um, so they had to use Smart Official, but I really thought the market looked well done. So yeah, those are some of the things that I liked.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah, I'm with you.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

All right, and this is where I I I had a few more than a couple, but things we'd fixed in a rewrite.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Well, the the first thing for me was the pacing. It seems so slow, like I said at the beginning. As I said, I like the actress, but I was a little bored. And I I don't know how to quite fix that. I'm not a writer, I'm just kind of a super casual fan who watches Hallmark every week. And uh the the the other one, and this is you know me, I sometimes pick up things in shots, and it's continuity for me. When they're making sugar cookies, there was a shot where he rolls up his sleeves, and the next shot is him rolling up his sleeves again, right? So that's like a bad continuity thing. And there was another one similar to that, where he holds up a sugar cookie and he says, Oh, I'm gonna take a bite out of this, and then they show it again, and it has a bite taken out, and then he goes, Okay, here I am, gonna take the bite, and then they show the cookie again, and it's a full cookie. So these are not like rewrites as a story, this is just sort of continuity things that I that just kind of like I said, come on, you guys can. I mean, 2024, Hallmark's usually very good at this stuff. Uh, the other one is in a rewrite. I'd like to know how they got all those fears for the Christmas prank into that vehicle. There were so many, they were so large. I don't know. Under I don't understand how they did that. And the last one for me is the scene where he tells her that he loves her. Her reaction to me was just so bizarre. She just kind of stood there, just kind of blinking her beautiful eyes at him, and I just kind of I did not understand her reaction. If I had said that to her, I mean, aside from the fact that it kind of, you know, I don't know why that came out in that story at that time. But her reaction to me just blew me away. I didn't I don't know how I would have felt if I was on the receiving end of like watching a girl just kind of stare at me blankly like she did, and it's kind of not really react or respond in a way that I would have liked to have seen. Uh, you know, those are I think I would have liked to have written that a little bit better to have a little bit more of a natural, at least what I would consider a natural reaction, considering that she loved Sim, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, and I guess it'll be part of the mistletoe meter, I guess, when we get to it. Uh since we consider dialogue and stuff like that for our mistletoe meter segment. But yeah, that was I I caught that as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

I'm sure you got tons. Let's hear them.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

All right. So the first thing is Olivia was trying way too hard to get Grace and Ryan together. Like it was cute the first couple times, but it went on the whole movie to like to the point where it was getting annoying there towards the end. It's like, oh, please just drop it, Olivia. Um, when when Ryan calls the mayor Madame Mayor instead of Madame Mayor, I I gotta think that was an air either in the script or he's just saying it wrong. But you you don't call someone Madame a mayor, it's it's Madame Mare. So I would have fixed that in a rewrite. Um, you talked about the pace, and I noted this at the 31-minute mark. There's a scene that starts with Grace and Ryan, just the two of them, at grandma's house. That scene goes on for 10 minutes, just the two of them, literally, an entire like in-between commercials. Um, no, they they never leave the house. It's there's no other characters in there. To me, that slowed the entire movie. It wasn't super fast, anyways, but it just kind of came to a standstill there. No scene with two people in one location should ever take 10 minutes. And that that definitely needed to be rewritten somehow. Break it up, shorten it up, whatever. And then my last one here is mistletoe does not have red berries, mistletoe has white berries. What they showed in this movie wasn't mistletoe at all. It was actually it was actually Holly. And and usually I'm gonna let that slide with Hallmark movies, but if you have the name mistletoe in the name of your movie and it's kind of central to the movie, which it was, you gotta at least get the mistletoe right and have mistletoe and not Holly. So those are my uh those are my rewrites.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

I did not know this about mistletoe. I'm glad. Thank you. I learned something. All right, favorite moment. So this is where my I had a really a big struggle with this because I didn't really have one, you know, watching this. Nothing really stood out to me. So I just went with something kind of silly that I thought, unlike you, I got a kick out of Olivia's just going on about it. I just found it. I the more she did it, the more I got a kick out of it. So I have to say, when Olivia said Operation New Year's engagement, I lost it. I was cracking up. That just made me laugh so hard. And that would have been a funny second movie. You know, they could have actually done one fairly quickly and had another one come out like that, you know, maybe this Christmas or something. But uh, you know, I had a I had a struggle picturing finding something else that was a favorite moment. There's likable moments, but a favorite moment, you know, Olivia just saying Operation New Year's Engagement. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So my favorite, I can't believe I think this is the third time that I'm using somebody getting dumped, but it's when Grace dumps Quinn. Okay. So first of all, Quinn brings her a coffee with five creamers and nine sugars, which I found. No one. Yeah, yeah, come on. But then, you know, she basically says, you know, she tells him Quinn, you know, I'm I'm looking for something more serious, and she kind of points over to Ryan. And then Quinn, he either he doesn't get it, or he he just he's kind of clueless. He goes, Well, you I'm sorry, I I can't help you there because I I don't think I'm at the point in my life where I uh I'm looking for anything serious. So he doesn't understand that he's really getting dumped. And um, you know, it she's kind of looking just kind of like nodding, like, okay, yeah, we're in agreement then. Okay, let's uh let's just be friends.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

But I thought he was trying to save face, like like saying, Oh, like, yeah, I wasn't looking for anything anyways. I I kind of thought he was, but yeah, well, I think I kind of misread that.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I think that's what he does. He's basically saying, I'm not looking for things serious, but she's dumping him, but I don't think she re he really actually realizes that he's getting dumped for another person.

unknown 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

So yeah, I thought I don't I I found that one funny. Starting off with the coffee, and then uh just kind of the confusion. I I'm not sure exactly what Quint's intent was there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

And I'm I'm bummed because that guy and I share the same name, so he's a Renee in real life, I think.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So all right, best supporting character. Uh, who could have had a little more screen time in this one?

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Well, I was you know, Olivia's pretty awesome, but I went with her husband Jack, or Grace's brother, played by Stephen Belford, which we've seen before. Uh, he's a good actor. I would have liked to have seen a little see a scene where he and Ryan reminisce more. I know they were talking a little bit about the old days, but I would like to have seen a little bit, not that guys talk this way, but maybe talk about Grace and more along those lines of like how he liked her back in the day and maybe things he would have done, or asking, you know, how come you left or why didn't this work out? You know, I would have liked to have seen more of that. Uh so he was the guy for me that I wanted to see a little bit more of because we did see plenty of Olivia. So he was my guy.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I I really struggled because we only had six characters in this one that actually said anything. Okay, so I'm going really rogue here, okay? I'm going with Mayor Sammy's husband because he was on he was on screen for like three minutes at the end of the movie, standing just right behind her, but never said a single word. She never introduced her anything. And then she just the podium doing her little thing, she's standing right behind her again, but poor guy doesn't get to say anything. It's like, come on. So I'm going to rogue on this one, and I'm going to Mayor Sammy's husband, uh, who deserved a little more screen time. And let's let the guy speak a couple words while we're at it, and we can have we can at least afford seven speaking credits in this one.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

No, I must be tired from my flight this morning because I didn't even know she had a husband. I didn't even pick up on the poor guy in the background.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Oh my god. When the when they when the when they come to the ribbons and bows uh festival party at the very end there, she see they come in together. He's standing right behind her for like two straight minutes, but like he's he's just eye candy, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

So I'm gonna have to rewatch that part just to see him because I honestly don't remember him. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

All right, people love this segment. It's called Are We Sure we call that the logic checks, uh suspension of disbelief that was just a little too crazy that that needs to be called out here. And I I had so many in this one, I narrowed it down to three, but what you got?

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah, so the first major one for me, like that big tree that they decorated, like that tree was so so to me. Like, could have like, are we sure that's like how Hallmark would have a tree decorated? I could have used more decorations, it was crooked on the top. You couldn't place I forget what that thing's called on the top.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

You know, you I thought it was just me, but it it was crooked, right? Yes, it was crooked, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Okay, yeah, and it didn't have a singular point on top, it had like four or five. So you couldn't put like a you know, you'd normally put like an a star or an angel up there or something like that. You know, that had to just kind of be tied up there. So I thought they could have done a better job decorating, considering they have these decorations, they've done it hundreds of times looking magnificently. I don't know why this tree looked funny, like it was I reminded me like a Dr. Seuss tree, it was just like leaning forward, and I mentioned it already. Like, like, are we sure all those spheres would fit in that car? That's you know, yeah. And I don't quite get and you mentioned it just now. Like, are we sure that Quinn getting friend zone? Like, I don't get why he had thoughts that he and Grace were more than they were. She always would was saying, you know, oh, you're a good friend, and I'll call you when I have nothing, you know, no one else to go with me. Like, those are very obvious friend zone words. Any guy should recognize this if you're out there, you know, for all our male homework listeners. But yes, you know, those words, like if those words aren't enough, then ladies pick a different word and you know, let that guy know you're deep in the friend zone because he did not get it. So I don't know why he didn't get it. Those are it for me.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

All right. So my first are we sure is are we sure that Ryan would be wearing a suit every day while back home? The guy the night never just puts on like a sweatshirt or a sweater or anything. He's literally in a suit and tie, and he's back home. He's not doing business, he's not working, he's just kind of hanging around. Even when he was baking the cookies, he was wearing a suit. I'm going, what I I just never you don't see that. I mean, you people change, they kind of go a little more casual. So that's my first are we sure? Are we sure their high school mascot would be called the polar bears? Because and they they say it so many times already. I'm sorry, but unless your high school is in Alaska in the United States, you do not get to call yourselves the polar bears because Alaska is the only place in this country where we have polar bears. So it's another are we sure? It might be someone, okay. Are we sure that they would turn grandma's house and they take an aerial shot? It's like in the middle of this residential neighborhood amongst all these other kind of single-family homes on big lots. Are we really sure they would turn that into high-rise condos? I gotta think there's gonna be some zoning laws in this town that are gonna say, yeah, I don't think so. Um, that that was just ridiculous. Agreed. Yep. All right, is this couple gonna last?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

I don't know. Uh, I'm kind of taking a page out of your one of your recent reviews where you said, you know, they'll last about six months, and then he's gonna miss his work, he's gonna be bored there. He left there for a reason. Uh he loves his work, he says. So I'm I hate to say this because I you know me. I love the hallmark spirit, but they're gonna last six months, maybe a tiny bit longer. I don't I like them, but I don't think they're gonna last 12 months.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yeah, I don't see them lasting either. I first of all I like I I mentioned, I don't think the chemistry was that great between them and all. They haven't seen each other in 15 years. They've had a couple fun days together, but like you say, his business is back in New York, he's really good at it. I'm sure that's where all of his clients are. I'm interested, I don't think they ever said New York officially, did they?

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Um but it was implied to me that it was New York because somebody said that back from New York or something.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

So, you know, that's where all of his clients are. And and yeah, he's that that's his home. Yeah, I don't I don't think these guys are gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

All right, this is probably the uh the favorite segment of everybody out there where we rate the kiss on a letter grade A to F and we call it the mistletoe meter. Let me know, let me know what you think of this one.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Okay, it was a good kiss. Uh, she went in for it, which always to me bumps that rating up. I love it when the lady initiates the kiss. I would have liked to see a little bit more camera work in on the kiss, but overall I thought it was a really nice kiss. It looked very real. I gave it a B.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

So that you only give that first kiss a kiss. So I can't know I'm I'm taking the whole thing in totality here because I I didn't think it was that great at all. But first of all, we first of all we got the I'm in love with you that he gives her, and then she gives him back an I love you, Ryan. Again, you know, that that's gonna ding it for me right off the bat. Keep in mind, these guys only had a crush on each other in high school and they haven't seen each other in 15 years. You don't get an I love you, so that dings it from the get. I I thought it was okay. I th I I I gave it a B minus. I thought it was a little bit on the short side, but what What wrecked the rest of it for me, that first one, maybe even a maybe I'll give it a middle of the road B. I'll probably give it a B minus because of the I loves you. But after that is when the camera work just went crazy because it shot her from the back. And remember, Olivia and Jack are having their little conversation about the New Year's New Year's proposal kind of thing. And and they're showing it like you're supposed to pretend you know uh assume that they're still kissing, but you could totally tell they weren't kissing, and those are the kind of the only angles that we got for the rest of the kiss. Um, and I just thought that was yeah, I think the first kiss was a little bit short. I'll I'll go ahead and bump it up to a B, but the the camera work uh for the rest of the kiss, um, the I loves you. C C plus at best for me. Yeah, I just went down to C plus. Okay. Yeah, I mean well, no, like I said, that I'm taking more than just that first kiss. I'm taking the whole kiss. You know, you had the first kiss, but then you had the rest of the kisses that I don't even sure if they were kissing because the camera work was so bad. And then again, you throw in the I loves you. So I think I think C plus overall.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Yeah, I'm gonna have to start looking at it the way you do because I just look at it the kiss, you know, by itself, in and of itself, right? The kiss. Yeah, but if I take it in with the whole scene, then yeah, I think I would be closer to your rating.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

All right, I circle to this one. Who or what won the movie?

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Oh, hands down, Melanie Leischmann as Olivia. I I know you kind of got tired of her. I didn't. I just loved them the more she went in, the more a kick out I got out of her. I thought she was hilarious and charismatic. Every scene she was in, I just wanted more of her. Uh, she's the reason the movie was originally titled Operation Mistletoe. She was great. I could not get enough of her. She cracked me up every scene. I hope she's uh you know, gets her own movies soon. I I just really like her.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah, none of the actors really jumped out at me. I'm I'm I'm going I'm a little different on this one. So Greg Chown, C-H-O-W-N. I don't know if he's ever been shouted at on a podcast before. He was a production designer on this one. I liked the decorations. I really liked that Christmas market. I'm assuming when all was said and done, he was in charge of all that stuff. Um if there's one thing I kind of liked about the movie, I I really didn't like the story, the writing that much, the characters, whatever. But I I did like uh I did like the the decorations. I did like that look at that Christmas market. Um shooting an ox is always difficult. You gotta use fake snow, but I think they did okay with it. So Greg Chown, congratulations. Uh, you've won the movie for me.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

All right, so we uh we always try to find something to uh that's you know part of the movie here, identifies with the movie to give our rating. And we're gonna go since they didn't use mistletoe, we're gonna go Sprigs of Holly. How many Sprigs of Holly that's funny uh won this movie? Yeah, I thought that'd just be a little uh a little cute here since they couldn't get the mistletoe right, but uh sprigs of Holly, how many do you got?

SPEAKER_02 24:47

I had struggles picking this between a 2.75 Sprigs of Holly or three Sprigs of Holly. I did like the characters, but I was not blown away by the story or the pacing. So I I hate to say this, I'm gonna give them 2.75 Sprigs of Holly.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Wow. You're you're higher than me. I I was kind of going back and forth, okay. This or Christmas under construction, which one did I like better? And and I struggled coming up with an answer. So you know what, Renee? I gave that one a 2.0. I'm gonna give this one a 2.0. I I don't know if one was better than the other. I really couldn't get into this at all. It was really slow. I didn't find much chemistry uh between the characters. It was so over-the-top formula, so bad. Just that we shouldn't see movies this formulae in 2026. Um, I you know, I'm I'm I'm even confused why Hallmark picked this one up for a Christmas July movie. I mean, they saw that this had a 5.3 rating. Obviously, other networks didn't pick it up back in in 2024 when it was filmed. So I I I don't know the business side of obviously like the executives at Hallmark do, but I'm kind of confused why this one got picked up uh uh as a Hallmark Christmas in July movie, and because yeah, it just didn't do much for me.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

You know, I didn't check our our scores against this one this time, but is 2.0 your lowest, or do you have a 1.75 out there?

SPEAKER_00 26:03

No, no, 2.0 is my lowest, and that was Christmas Under Construction. Like I said, that I can't really decide if if I liked one better than the other, this or Christmas Under Construction. I think they were both pretty weak. And they were both two that were on the Hulu channel two years ago. Um so yeah, I'll I'll give it a 2.0, Sprigs of Holly. Wow, alrighty. All right, well, the next movie belongs to me. Um now that we're back doing our our golden oldies here, and we're gonna go to 2012, and we are gonna do a movie called Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, starring Autumn Reaser and Antonio Cupo. And there's a little bit of a debate about this movie, and not a debate about like is it a good movie or not? I think most Hallmark fans consider this to be a pretty solid movie, but the debate is is this a Christmas movie or is it a Thanksgiving movie? Does this belong kind of on Countdown to Christmas? And when Variety and Entertainment Weekly came up with their like top 25 lists back in 2025, I heard people comment that, you know, why isn't this movie on those lists? It should be, and maybe the reason it isn't is because the writers of those lists from Entertainment Weekly and Variety don't consider it a Christmas movie. So I think you and I kind of need to uh to be the judge of this, watch this movie and kind of give our two thoughts. You know, yeah, is it Christmas enough? Obviously, Thanksgiving is kind of Christmas, Jason. Do we consider this to be a Christmas movie? I'm actually gonna reach out to some other people kind of in the Hallmark Instagram space, kind of content creators, uh Hallmark community fans, and and maybe Oh yeah, ask Gary and Amy for sure. I want to know what they think. If anyone who's seen it to see what they think about this, uh uh if they agree with us or disagree, just you know, their feelings, is it a uh a Thanksgiving movie? So, or is it a Christmas movie? And we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Well, tune in next week and hopefully we have a definitive answer unless you and I go split on it for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Yeah, we'll see. And then uh obviously it'll it'll just stay up in the air as uh uh you know as one of those unanswered questions, I guess. But uh until next week, so uh you can uh find us on Instagram Forever Hallmark Christmas. You can drop us a g uh uh an email, uh Forever Hallmark Christmas at gmail.com. And uh let's just keep it for the love of Hallmark.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

For the love of hallmark.