One Tree Hill stars meet Christmas
It's officially the start of my favorite time of year: the holiday season! So get ready for an overload of holiday cheer over the next few weeks. We're kicking things off with a rundown of some of the newest TV movies to come out over the last few weeks. I spent most of my Thanksgiving free time sitting at home on the couch with my mom and Golden Retriever watching these flicks!
After all the news that's come out over the last year about what was going on behind the scenes during One Tree Hill, it's been nice to see members of the cast come together in better work environments to create new television moments. Several of those are taking place on the Hallmark and Lifetime channels in the form of holiday movies! Start your marathon with the charming Poinsettias for Christmas on Lifetime. Bethany Joy Lenz plays Ellie, an urban planner who returns home for the holidays to help on her family's poinsettia farm. How do you pronounce "poinsettia"? I learned during this movie that there's a serious debate going! Ellie and Marcus, newly hired help for the family farm, butt heads as they try and diagnose the problem with this year's crop of plants. Ellie must decide if she wants to return to big city life or stay and work at the farm all year round. The beautiful red of the poinsettias is a wonderful visual throughout the movie, and the story is sweet with genuinely good acting. If you're looking for more inspiration, I found this cute article about a real-life poinsettia farm in the Chicagoland area.
Next stop is the Hallmark channel to watch Chad Michael Murray in Road to Christmas. Between watching Chad on Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, the aforementioned One Tree Hill and movie classics like The Cinderella Story, he feels like a big part of my teen and pre-teen years. So it's pretty refreshing to see him back on the screen again in this adorably cheesy flick. Chad plays Danny Wise, whose mother stars in a famous annual Christmas special. Maggie Baker (Jessy Schram) is a producer on the show and pitches the idea to film the special live this year. When Danny is brought in to help, he and Maggie clash over how to put together the best television moments. As these two journey across the country to film segments for the show, they pick up Danny's semi-estranged brothers along the way (the three Wise men, get it?) and battle through snow to make it to Vermont in time for the live filming. It was the first Hallmark movie I watched this season and remains one of my favorites!
Many former One Tree Hill stars align in The Christmas Contract on Lifetime, so you should close out with this as your big finale. When Jolie (the ever charming Hilarie Burton) has to go home to Louisiana for her town's annual Christmas Market, she dreads seeing her ex. Her best friend Naomi (Danneel Ackles) and husband (Antwon Tanner) conspire to get Jolie to take Jack (Robert Buckley), Naomi's brother, home with her as a fake date. Neither Jolie nor Jack are thrilled with the plan, so Naomi has them sign a contract to make sure they each follow through with their part of the bargain. If Jack goes with Jolie, she'll help him build a website to promote his writing. And if Jolie goes with Jack, he'll pretend to be her boyfriend. Unbeknownst to her, Jack agrees to go in order to do research for a romance novel, set in Louisiana, that he's agreed to ghost write. They both sign the contract, and the drama begins. As a Midwesterner, I was hesitant about the Louisiana setting (no snow!), but the film does a great job of supplementing chilly weather with plenty of festive music and decor. It wouldn't be a true One Tree Hill reunion without singer Tyler Hilton popping up to play a few songs along the way! While some of the acting overall is a little shaky, Hilarie and Robert shine as they get to know each other (and fall in love??) while the Cajun music plays.
Haven't You Heard?
Every year when my family puts up holiday decorations, we kick off the season with Bing Crosby's White Christmas album. We used to play the cassette tape, later purchased the CD, and now that the CD stopped working, we play the music on Spotify. Because we used to play the second side of the cassette tape first, we always start halfway through the album, with track number seven, a top-tapping version of Jingle Bells, featuring the Andrews Sisters. It's one of my all-time favorite holiday renditions, and it always signals the start of the Christmas season has begun in our house! As we unpack our decorations, more of my favorites come on, including It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Christmas in Killarney and Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas). It has a classic and comforting holiday feel and will get you humming along as you put up your lights.
Required Reading
Every year, NPR releases a "Book Concierge;" a fun guide to the best reads of the year. It's a great, interactive way to digitally flip through some of the highlights and gives you the opportunity to judge a book by its cover (as we all do from time to time), with a fun rundown of images of each story. It's also the perfect way to spark some additional holiday gift ideas or to add some books to your list to tackle before the end of the year!
