Sarah Says

Christmas Con is over and this podcast is overdue - next year I’m going to clone myself like The Santa Clause 2 so everything goes out on time! Hallmark crushed the weekend with a Ted Lasso Jan Maas movie (just don’t watch it if you’re Norwegian apparently) and Lifetime brought us divas. What a weekend! Hallmark Movies and Mysteries earned an apology from me and Melissa Peterman made an appearance on UpTV. Find all that and more now and look for a special Christmas Con recap podcast sometime this week…hopefully.

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! It’s that time: Thanksgiving week the busiest movie week of the year is done and we survived! Fifteen movies later, A Biltmore Christmas absolutely decimated every movie that came before it. Lifetime scored a five with Christmas at the Chalet with Teri Hatcher, but fell off a cliff with Laughing All The Way. UpTV continues its streak of great movies with Mistletoe Connection. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries did okay but not great with Season for Family. Hallmark did well for the week of their double features, my personal favorites being Catch Me If You Claus, Our Christmas Mural, Letters to Santa, and Holiday Road. Christmas in Notting Hill and Haul Out The Holly: Lit Up were also fun and lighthearted. And then there was GAC. Is there really anything else to say? Catch all my thoughts now!

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! Week 5 of Christmas Around the Channels is a week late because Thanksgiving Week nearly crushed me, but we’re here! Double podcast week! Hallmark Movies and Mysteries crushed it with A World Record Christmas while regular Hallmark held its own with Navigating Christmas. A Merry Scottish Christmas saw a Party of Five reunion of Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert. Meanwhile Holiday Hotline on Sunday stole another favorite of the year. Lifetime started strong with Christmas Plus One and Planes, Trains, and Christmas Trees. UpTV did better than I expected with Country Hearts Christmas, and GAC kept up with their solid meh movies in Santa, Maybe and A Paris Christmas Waltz. Streaming services Netflix and Freevee suffered with their less than stellar Best. Christmas. Ever! and EXmas. Find all that and more now! And come back later this week for the Thanksgiving week 6 recap!

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! Week 4 of Christmas Around the Channels is done, I’m now back from my work trip and finally remembered I never scheduled this post. Figures. What can I say? I got distracted by how good UpTV has been this year. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries had their first true mystery Christmas movie in Mystery on Mistletoe Lane which was a solid concept for them with Victor Webster and Erica Cerra. Hallmark ran the gambit of movies with the not great Everything Christmas, and solid movies in Christmas Island and A Heidelberg Holiday. GAC fell flat for me with Daniel Lissing’s Christmas Keepsake and I didn’t watch A Christmas Blessing, but based on the photoshop I wouldn’t hold out much hope. Then there was UpTV with real life couple Franco Lo Presti and Emily Alatalo. When I tell you I’m obsessed. They crushed it. It’s a must watch movie for me. Find all that and more now! (And I promise not to forget to post it again next week)

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! Week 3 is officially in the naughty or nice list and we have very clear winners and losers of the week. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries came out strong again with My Christmas Guide, earning itself a 4.5 for the week. Hallmark had a rollercoaster weekend with the standard Flipping for Christmas, the bizarre Never Been Chris’d, and shining with my second 5 of the year with The Santa Summit. 99% of watchers would agree that Tyler Hynes was wasted this year. GAC balanced out with the boring but fine Dash of Christmas and the supremely unimpressive Our Christmas Wedding. And then UpTV joined the chat with a 5 out the gates in We’re Scrooged. Hear all that and more now!

Week 2 of Christmas Around the Channels is done and thank goodness last week was the starting line up for Hallmark Channel. Kicking the week off, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries stole the week with Ms. Christmas Comes to Town. You know the rule, if it doesn’t make me cry, it’s not a 5! But maybe moving to Thursday night wasn’t the best idea for my emotional well being! Hallmark had a so/so weekend with Christmas By Design, Mystic Christmas, and Joyeux Noel - Mystic being my favorite of the weekend. And GAC did much better in the set decor this week in both of their movies but the two Hallmark alums Paul Greene and Jill Wagner had less than zero chemistry in Bringing Christmas Home while Ash Tsai and Joey Heyworth did pretty well in their very standard Christmas plot line Journey To Christmas. Find all my thoughts and more now!

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone! Week 1 of the 2023 Christmas Around the Channels recap is here and what a strong start it was for Hallmark! Technically the season kicked off with GAC trying to start Christmas a week early, but Destined 2: Christmas Once More wasn’t worthy of early airtime. But kicking it off for Hallmark, Checkin It Twice with Kevin McGarry and Kim Matula, followed by Where Are You, Christmas? on Saturday starting Lyndsy Fonseca and Michael Rady put the channel firmly into ratings first place. Both storylines were fun and the pairing was great for both. Twas The Text Before Christmas on GAC Saturday starring Merritt Patterson and Trevor Donovan was a definite step up for them garnering them a 3.75/5, and rounding out the week on Hallmark was Under the Christmas Sky featuring Ryan Paevey and Jessica Parker Kennedy. Unfortunately that one didn’t have a lot of chemistry or a strong plot, but every other part of the movie kept it fresh enough for a 3.5/5. Listen now for all the best and worst parts and let’s kick off the 2023 Christmas movie season together!

In this part two continuum of the Christmas Around the Channels preview, I give my first thoughts on all 9 2023 Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Miracles of Christmas, both of the new Hallmark Movies Now streaming service option, GAC Family’s Great American Christmas and UpTV’s Merry Movie Christmas lineups. We still don’t have any definitive Lifetime lineup but are we shocked? No. Lifetime - seriously - why do you do this to me? Find where all your favorites stack up ahead of time and now that the dates are becoming a little clearer, will I go back on my word and actually watch the full GAC lineup? Find out all that and more now!

Happy almost fa la la la holidays! Can you believe we are less than a month away from Christmas movies returning?! Where has the year gone?? And how is everyone?? I know it’s been a while - it’s crazy how fast the year has flown by. But I’m back and we are READY. This podcast is devoted solely to a rundown of all the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies starting next month. Check back early next week for a rundown of Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, UpTV, and GAC Family movies. Also, Hallmark - if you’re listening - hi. There’s still time to reach out before Christmas begins 😉

I know I know - it’s almost the end of April! But never fear, I’m here finally with the March wrap up podcast with all the Bonus Original Content movies for Hallmark and the books I read…and didn’t finish. Hallmark had 3 BOC movies in March, The Love Club Nicole’s Pen Pal, Game of Love, and A Winning Team. They were all solid movies but A Winning Team is my overall winner of the bunch. I read six books in March, and didn’t finish three. I started the month on a Sarah Adams kick finally getting to read some of her catalog with The Cheat Sheet and When In Rome. Both were super fun, fast reads and I can’t wait to get my hands on her next book (spoiler alert - I just got an ARC I’m in the middle of now). Next I had a few ARCs sent to me to read, Off The Map by Trish Doller was a very fast 272 page read. Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams had a strong premise but it just lacked something for me overall. Finally I finished the Adair Family Series by Samantha Young with Only You. Instant must read. Top three of the Adair family to be honest. Which you can read all of the Adair family on Kindle Unlimited now! To the DNFs, I hit my first ever DNF for Samantha Young with A Cosmic Love - I never thought I’d say that but it just didn’t grab me. Next I tried to continue the Elle Kennedy Briar U series with Hunter’s book The Play but I think I’m officially done with that series. It just doesn’t compare to the Briar Off Campus OG four to me. Lastly I tried reading Float Plan by Trish Doller, a prequel to Off The Map, but it was just a little too heavy for me at the beginning but I really should give it a second chance. Hear all that and more now!