In recent years, the Hallmark Channel has been producing more Christmas movies than ever before. Hallmark Christmas movies continue to grow in popularity, with podcasts, board games, apparel, candy, and much more made in tribute to those who eagerly watch each and every new Hallmark movie every year.
But with the sheer volume of movies the network continues to release, it’s only natural that some true gem movies can wind up flying under the radar. Hidden gems exist in virtually every genre of movie and television, and in a genre as densely populated as the Hallmark Christmas movie genre, there are quite a few movies worth revisiting.
Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas (2011)
Hallmark has produced many adaptations of author Debbie Macomber’s romance novels. The 2011 film Trading Christmas is yet another of them, and also serves as a clear response to the classic Christmas romance movie The Holiday.
Trading Christmas stars Faith Ford, Tom Cavanagh, Gil Bellows, and Gabrielle Miller as two couples who wind up meeting and falling in unconventional love at the holidays when Emily (Ford) and Charles (Cavanagh) swap homes in Washington and Boston for the holidays.
The Christmas Pageant (2011)
Another underrated movie released in 2011, The Christmas Pageant follows Hallmark’s convention of a successful big city businesswoman finding fulfillment in a small town’s seasonal events.
Melissa Gilbert stars as Vera, a Broadway musical director who is offered the option of directing a town pageant during the holidays. Filled with many lively and quirky small town characters, and the theme of a second chance at a lost love, the film is filled with warmth and fun.
The Christmas Box (1995)
An earlier Hallmark Christmas movie, The Christmas Box was produced in 1995, based on a book by Richard Paul Evans. Though produced by Hallmark, it first aired as part of CBS’s Hallmark partnership during the 1990s.
Starring Richard Thomas, Annette O’Toole, and Hollywood legend Maureen O’Hara, The Christmas Box is a rare Hallmark movie that explores intergenerational issues of love, work, family, loss, and faith. It centers around a family in transition and crisis, and how an unplanned experience can help them move forward.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Released in 2008, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is a fun Hallmark movie filled with mischief, matchmaking, and miscommunication. The film finds everyone’s favorite Fonzie Henry Winkler in the leading role as Ralph, a mischievous retired man who meddles in his niece’s love life just in time for the holidays.
Brooke Burns stars as that niece, Jen, who makes an unexpected connection with Warren Christie’s Morgan – a young man who helps Ralph at the airport during their travels, and who Ralph invites to stay at Jen’s home without warning.
Journey Back to Christmas (2016)
It’s not often that Hallmark allows its romance movies to be filled with hints of magic and whimsy these days. The 2016 film Journey Back to Christmas, starring one of Hallmark’s resident Christmas queens Candace Cameron Bure, has plenty of magic to spare, and will pull at viewers’ heartstrings, too.
Bure stars as Hanna, a nurse from World War II who is inexplicably sent through time to the present day. While in the present, she makes a connection with two men: Oliver Hudson’s Jake, with whom she forges a meaningful bond, and Tom Skerritt’s Tobias Cook, who has a truly magical (and highly spoilery) connection to her past era.
The Nine Lives of Christmas (2014)
Another Christmas movie that is filled with plenty of light fun – in addition to some undeniable cuteness – is 2014’s The Nine Lives of Christmas. Starring Kimberley Sustad as veterinary student Marilee and Brandon Routh as firefighter Zachary, Nine Lives features all the familiar beats of a meet cute and miscommunications.
But it also features a double love story at its center. Not only do Zachary and Marilee find themselves falling for one another after they keep crossing paths, but their cats, the adorable Queenie and Ambrose, wind up falling head over paws, too.
Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle (2009)
In yet another classic turn from Hallmark’s go-to author Debbie Macomber, Hallmark briefly produced a series of films around the character Mrs. Miracle, perfectly cast with iconic television grandma and late actor Doris Roberts.
In the first film, Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle, Mrs. Miracle is a lovely elderly woman named Mrs. Merkle who arrives as the housekeeper desperately needed by single father, Seth (James Van Der Beek). In addition to being a housekeeper, Mrs. Merkle is a gifted matchmaker, making a match between Seth and Reba (Erin Karpluk). Oh, and she just might happen to be an angel, too.
Matchmaker Santa (2012)
Lacey Chabert is another of Hallmark’s undeniable Christmas queens, with quite the impressive resume of Christmas movies to boast about. But one of her best movies is one that flies under the radar in comparison to some of her newer, flashier fare: 2012’s Matchmaker Santa.
Chabert stars as Melanie, a hopeless romantic who has always wanted to find the love her parents had. Currently in an unhappy relationship with a clueless boyfriend, Melanie hits it off with her boyfriend’s friend, Dean (Adam Mayfield). And through some magical intervention, and good old fashioned matchmaking from an adorable Santa, Melanie finds the love she’s always been looking for right in time for Christmas.
Naughty or Nice (2012)
Another movie that features the big man in red himself is the undeniably cheesy and sweet 2012 film Naughty or Nice. Starring Hilarie Burton as a young woman named Krissy Kringle, Naughty or Nice explores what happens when Santa’s magical naughty or nice list just so happens to be mailed to the wrong K. Kringle.
With the naughty or nice list in her possession, Krissy is able to learn the truth about everyone in her life – both the good and the bad. And through her friendship with department store elf Marco, Krissy sets about righting many wrongs in her own life – many of which were her own making.
A Grandpa for Christmas (2007)
Though romance movies may now be Hallmark’s bread and butter, one of their most underrated movies – and perhaps one of their best movies, period – is one that focuses on the love between family. 2007’s A Grandpa for Christmas stars Ernest Borgnine as Bert, a grouchy old former entertainer who learns he has a granddaughter when he is suddenly tasked with being her guardian.
The tensions between the newly reunited and introduced family members go back generations, but the love that blooms between Bert and his granddaughter, Becca (Juliette Goglia), is arguably one of the purest, most genuinely told and acted stories in all of Hallmark history.
