Lifetime announces via their press release:
"The holiday season is officially here as Lifetime announces the final original movie for the network’s annual It’s A Wonderful Lifetime movie slate, BeBe Winans’ We Three Kings. Gospel and R&B legend BeBe Winans executive produces and stars alongside his niece, Deborah Joy Winans. The film tells the story of a father attempting to reunite his estranged daughters at the holidays with the power of music, memories and family love.
Kicking off Saturday, November 16, Lifetime’s stocking is stuffed with 12 new festive films, where love blossoms, family bonds grow stronger, friendships shine, decadent treats tempt your tastebuds, and delightful twists keep you on your toes! Grab your eggnog and cozy up for movies every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas."
The full Lifetime Christmas movie slate for 2024 includes:
Christmas at Plumhill Manor
Starring Maria Menounos and Kyle Pryor
Premieres: November 16th at 8pm
Storyline: Margot Stone (Maria Menounos), a beautiful rising architect in New York, discovers a magical Christmas secret in an English countryside manor she unexpectedly inherits. Experiencing Christmas across the pond may make Margot a fish out of water, but an unforeseen romance (Kyle Pryor) and sense of belonging give her a breathtaking new blueprint for love.
Holiday in Happy Hollow
Starring Tamara Almeida and Cody Ray Thompson
Premieres: November 17th at 8pm
Storyline: Real estate developer Gracie's (Tamara Almeida) ambitious new project faces an unexpected roadblock when she stumbles upon a quirky detail from the past: the charming Christmas tree farm she has purchased once raffled off tiny one-foot deeds to local families, each holding a sentimental piece of the land. To salvage her vision, she must team up with local historian Jack (Cody Ray Thompson), embarking on a heartfelt quest to track down these families and persuade them to part with their cherished slices of the farm.
Christmas in the Spotlight
Starring Jessica Lord, Laith Wallschleger, Jeannie Mai and Haley Kalil
Premieres: November 23rd at 8pm
Storyline: Christmas in the Spotlight follows Bowyn (Jessica Lord), a popular musician and celebrity, who despite always singing about love and relationships, hasn’t found Mr. Right yet. Her fame and busy recording schedule make it nearly impossible to date, but when she meets Drew (Laith Wallschleger), a pro football player, backstage at her show with his niece, there’s an undeniable spark between the two of them. When Drew publicly declares he has a crush on Bowyn, they decide to give dating a shot, much to the excitement of her manager Mira (Jeannie Mai). With each passing day they spend together, their feelings grow stronger… but can it last in the limelight, especially when they both have such hectic schedules? With people questioning if their feelings for each other are real or just for show, the pressure mounts from the press, paparazzi, their fans and even their family, including Drew’s sister-in-law, Nicole (Haley Kalil). The pair has until the end of the holiday season to decide if they want to stay together, or let it go down in flames.
Sincerely, Truly Christmas
Starring Paula Brancati, Jake Epstein and Howard Hoover
Premieres: November 24th at 8pm
Storyline: When event planner Christina (Paula Brancati) is fired just before Christmas, she makes a wish that magically comes true. Armed with the ability to hear what people want for Christmas, Christina learns that bringing reclusive one-hit-wonder Dan Copen (Howard Hoover) out of retirement could help get her job back. But to get to Dan, she’ll need to go through handsome realtor Robert (Jake Epstein) who needs help finding the perfect Christmas gift for his son.
BeBe Winans’ We Three Kings
Starring BeBe Winans, Bethany Brown, Lisa Berry, Faith Wright, Romeo Miller and Deborah Joy Winans
Premieres: November 30th at 8pm
Storyline: In BeBe Winans’ We Three Kings, Bebe plays Lincoln, retired musician turned record store owner, and proud father to the three King sisters, Lydia (Lisa Berry), Gracie (Faith Wright) and Abigail (Bethany Brown). For the first time since their mother’s death, the three estranged King sisters return home for the holidays. Lincoln hatches a plan with family friend, Genelle (Deborah Joy Winans) to bring his girls back together again this Christmas. Living under the same roof and hearing their father sing joyful Christmas melodies sparks old family memories. Holiday love songs and mistletoe are found around every corner, and the sisters end up finding love in the very town they tried so hard to leave behind. It isn't long before the sisters face the facts; life's better when they are together.
Make or Bake Christmas
Starring Vivica A. Fox, Jackée Harry, Jasmine Aivaliotis, Landon Moss and Corin Nemec
Premieres: December 1st at 8pm
Storyline: With Christmas fast approaching, Leslie (Vivica A. Fox), known for her expertise in all things domestic and top lifestyle brands, is looking to expand her business. She sets her sights on the bakery, Sugar Bakers, owned by Denise Sugarbaker (Jackée Harry) and run by her son, David (Landon Moss). Determined to make a deal before the end of the year, Leslie sends one of her top employees, Emma (Jasmine Aivaliotis), to go undercover as a seasonal employee in order to convince them to sell. Emma unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with the quaint bakery with its Christmas spirit, staff and especially, David. 'Tis the Season to make or bake Christmas and discover everything sweet during the holidays, including love.
A Very Merry Beauty Salon
Starring Tia Mowry and RonReaco Lee, Donna Biscoe, Cocoa Brown, Ashli Auguillard
Premieres: December 7th at 8pm
Storyline: In A Very Merry Beauty Salon, Sienna (Tia Mowry), the owner of the bustling Divine Beauty Salon is preparing for Atlanta’s Tinsel Ball, where she will be honored for her charitable work in the community. The annual event takes a glamourous turn with the arrival of Lawrence, a charismatic CEO whose family’s wine brand is now co-sponsoring the Ball. Sparks fly between them, but Sienna’s mother Georgia (Donna Biscoe) who is the head of the Ball’s committee, worries his involvement may ruin the event’s traditions. As Sienna and Lawrence are unexpectedly paired as dance partners, romance blooms, setting the stage for a steamy romance that challenges Sienna’s thoughts on love and family and makes this year’s Tinsel Ball the most memorable yet.
How to Fall in Love by Christmas
Starring Teri Hatcher and Dan Payne
Premieres: December 8th at 8pm
Storyline: Nora Winters (Teri Hatcher), the fiercely talented writer-turned-CEO of her own lifestyle brand, PRISM, finds herself in a tight spot when the company’s future hangs in the balance. In a desperate attempt to save her business through a partnership with the popular dating app, Take To Heart, she discovers an unexpected twist! The only way to win them over is to write a column on falling in love by Christmas with the help of Jack (Dan Payne), a charismatic photographer who has been assigned to the piece.
The Holiday Junkie
Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brian Hallisay
Premieres: December 14th at 8pm
Storyline: The Holiday Junkie follows the decorating and planning service company run by Andie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her mother Mimi. After Mimi passes away, Andie is forced to face her first Christmas without her mother and carry The Holiday Junkie torch on her own. Despite the challenges, Andie may also find some love at Christmas along the way with the handsome house manager, Mason (Brian Hallisay), who has his own holiday secrets.
Christmas on the Alpaca Farm
Starring Kirsten Comerford and Matt Wells
Premieres: December 15th at 8pm
Storyline: Jess (Kirsten Comerford) the “Queen of Christmas Sweaters,” quits her job at the hottest fashion label in NYC, intent on winning a Christmas competition with her own line of sustainable luxury knits. Getting her hands dirty, she teams up with Andrew (Matt Wells), a single dad and struggling alpaca farmer, as she helps bring Christmas joy to the farm and love into both of their hearts.
A Carpenter Christmas Romance
Starring Sasha Pieterse and Mitchell Slaggert
Written and Executive Produced by Sarah Drew
Premieres: December 21st at 8pm
Storyline: When novelist Andrea (Sasha Pieterse) hints her upcoming book may be taking a heartbreaking turn, her fans begin protesting, demanding their favorite character doesn’t get killed off. Needing a haven where she can finish her novel, Andrea flees to her family’s farmhouse in the town of Wildwood. Much to her surprise, she ends up running into her ex-crush, Seth (Mitchell Slaggert), an artisanal woodworker who's helping rebuild the town after it was nearly destroyed by a fire. It doesn’t take long for sawdust and sparks of romance fill the air once the two team up and work together to reignite the town's Christmas spirit. Is this romance just a holiday fling that ends when her trip is over? Or can the two build a love that is made to last?
*Note about the content: According to Lifetime, this movie is written and executive produced by Sarah Drew, who also penned A Cowboy Christmas Romance which earned headlines for being a holiday movie with a sex scene and went on to become Lifetime’s highest rated holiday title last year. Sarah Drew continues to infuse the holiday steaminess in A Carpenter Christmas Romance, following the story of best-selling author Andrea (Sasha Pieterse) who is reunited with her sexy ex-crush Seth (Mitchell Slaggert), who is working as a carpenter.
*Based on this information in the press release, I will not further promote this movie. I just wanted to be certain you all were aware of its content.
Engaged by Christmas
Starring Brittany Bristow and Marcus Rosner
Premieres: December 22nd at 8pm
Storyline: When Zoe (Brittany Bristow) writes to advice columnist “Dear Adora” to help save her relationship before the holidays, she puts the advice into practice, and it's disastrous - her boyfriend breaks up with her! When she tracks down Dear Adora to confront her, she discovers it's actually a man named Adam (Marcus Rosner). Zoe vows to keep Adam’s identity a secret if he helps her to repair her life via a series of Christmas themed events publicized by his column. When the interest in their activities gains huge traction, will they also find love?
In addition to these movies, Lifetime's press release states, "As part of this season’s offerings, beginning 10/21 through 1/1, and featuring special holiday-themed playlists through the entire holiday season, Lifetime will be presenting 100 beloved holiday titles on the Lifetime website and app, as well its video-on-demand (VOD) partners. All new premiere movies will also be available day after premiere on TVE/VOD, and Lifetime Movie Club will offer 70 library titles starting 10/25 to stream commercial-free! Holiday Movie Favorites By Lifetime (FAST Channel) kicks off on 11/1 with library titles that will air throughout the holiday season."
I hope you find something you'll enjoy on Lifetime this Christmas. "How to Fall in Love by Christmas" aired on streaming sources last year; I will add the reviews I received of this movie to the streaming review page.
Please share your thoughts in comments.
Have a Merry Day!
Net
image credit: ©2024 A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS, LLC. HISTORY® AND ITS ASSOCIATED MARKS AND LOGOS ARE TRADEMARKS OF A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Quite a surprising list from Lifetime - several Reel One Entertainment movies from 2023 including Sincerely, Tryuly Christmas not previously available in the US.
ReplyDeleteSeveral unexpected movies from other sources.
Most of Reel One's plus a couple of Nicely movies haven't been taken up.
The Heiress Of Christmas is conspicuous by its absence.
Going to be a case of watching Streaming channels to see if any other Christmas movies turn up.
Florence
Interesting to see if maybe Xumo Play steps in again
Yay, Engaged by Christmas ended up here! -Maria
ReplyDeleteAs has been done previously, I am assuming with all the different ways to watch them that the network itself will only have movies on the weekends. Otherwise, they would have mentioned when they would be airing them in the press-release. I hope they continue to air some of my Lifetime favorites such as “Snowed-Inn for Christmas” with Bethany Joy Lenz and Andrew Walker as well as movies with either of the Mowry twins in starring roles especially Tia’s “My Christmas Inn”. [I must be partial to inn/lodge/hotel movies as one of my favorite movies that first premiered on Hallmark is Candace Cameron Bure’s Let It Snow”. :)]. One of the things I do appreciate about Lifetime is that they usually air two 90-minute Christmas movies on Saturday mornings during the season. Everyone should be on the lookout for those.
ReplyDeleteHave you watched Tia in “Mistle Tones”? It’s super cute!
Delete~Paula
Will we see a Christmas thriller on lifetime
ReplyDeleteInteresting that they're continuing program through the end of the year. I don't think they've done that. Looks like they have some good ones in th mix.
ReplyDeleteNet, I bet you are one busy little elf right now trying to get all the Christmas movie info available for all of us. Thank you! Hang in there! Let the fun begin! ~~Jane
ReplyDeleteJane, I’ve been remiss at responding to your sweet, thoughtful comment here. You are so right; this has been and will continue to be a very busy season… but I love it!
DeleteI always look forward to all of the reviews and conversations everyone engages in as we watch the new and classic Christmas movies. Comments & reviews always increase at Christmastime, which keeps me busy, along with schedule updates, and adding Christmas movie posters and images!
And… I love it all! Especially the comments! It’s such a joy to hear from friends who’ve been here all year and those who stop by mainly at Christmastime… just to say hello.
I’m so grateful for you and all of our dear friends here at It’s a Wonderful Movie!
Happy Christmas movie watching, my friend! 🎄❤️ Thank you for your sweet encouragement!
Hmmmmm most of these don’t excite me. I will of course watch “Engaged by Christmas” because I love Brittany and Marcus, and “The Holiday Junkie” because Jennifer and Brian are married in real life and I’m curious to see them act together. Other than that I’ll wait to hear reviews of the others…
ReplyDelete~Paula
I'll be watching Engaged By Christmas because of its two stars and because it looks like it could be a fun movie. The rest - I will wait and see if any get a good number of positive reviews.
ReplyDeleteChristmas at Plumhill Manor. Ugh. I tried, but I couldn’t even make it to the halfway point. Ridiculous script. Horrible acting – all around – both the lead and secondary actors!! The best part of the movie was the scenery and the pretty manor house. Maybe the whole thing gets better as it goes along? I was in no mood to find out. Delete. What I saw was family friendly. ~~Jane (aka Figgy Pudding)
ReplyDeleteHoliday in Happy Hollow. Meh. It gets better as it goes along, however, I still decided to delete at the two-thirds point and I suppose mainly it was just my mood. Actually, if I hadn’t been multitasking, I would have deleted after ten minutes because the acting and music and sound and storyline were just not great, especially in the beginning. For a B-list movie, I suppose it’s okay and I think others might find this one to be fun. It was part cute, part ridiculous, part sweet, part predictable, part quirky. But I just decided I wasn’t really loving it and it was time to move on. What I saw was family friendly. ~~Jane (aka Frosted Fruitcake)
ReplyDeleteSincerely Truly Christmas. This was a bumpy, awkward ride that I jumped off of before it ended. At times it was quirky and cute and weirdly enjoyable; and, yet, at times it also felt uncomfortable and clumsy and unnatural. There was a huge focus on lying. The lead actress’s character claims to be all about “honesty” - to the point where she blames her horribly tacky, insulting, unsolicited, and unprofessional work behavior on “just being honest.” But then halfway through the movie she flip-flops and flat out lies at the biggest moment and doubles down on the lie and then even blames the lie on Jake Epstein’s character. The whole thing just felt ugly to me in my spirit, so I quit watching with about 20 minutes to go. Other than the lying, I suppose it’s family friendly, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you were using it to teach kids what not to do. Also, there’s a father/son relationship where the son seems more in charge than the father. And there are magic wishing powers granted. ~~Jane (aka Dancin’ and Prancin’ in Jingle Bell Square)
ReplyDeleteMake or Bake Christmas. Nope. Fifteen minutes was all I needed to decide I’d have way more fun cleaning the bathroom or organizing my kitchen junk drawer. The tiny bit I saw was very “2nd string” but it was also family friendly. Evidently, I’m grumpy this year and just not "feeling" most of these movies, so don’t anyone base their viewing on me! It’s entirely possible this ended up being a sweet, fun movie. ~~Jane (aka Jack-ie Frost)
ReplyDeleteA Very Merry Beauty Salon. I liked it. Good stories and relationships between all the women that work in the beauty salon. Nice romantic chemistry. The actual Tinsel Ball at the end and honoree stuff and spotlight dance was the weakest part of the movie, but the rest of it was good. Family friendly, except her ball gown was a bit low-cut and her bff is most likely gay but nothing objectionable except for possibly one brief line that I couldn’t interpret clearly even after replaying four times. Not a keeper but nice and warm for a one-time watch. ~~Jane (aka Sparkly Mittens)
ReplyDeleteThe Holiday Junkie. Right after I delete this one, I shall conspire, as I dream by the fire, to face unafraid…. the next holiday movie on the dvr. This one wasn’t family friendly but even if it had been, the whole thing is mostly mediocre and missing Christmas warmth. I mean, seriously, Jennifer, wrote the story (her first), directed it (her first movie) and was the lead actress (opposite her husband) – what could possibly go wrong there?!? It started with grown women who are bff’s and business partners saying “see ya later” with a childish hand-slap routine that was ridiculous and awkward. Then she utters “What the hell?” when walking into a house. Then there was a tawdry double entendre. Then a tacky retelling of a story from when Mason was twelve-years-old about how he was nervous to be playing Joseph in the Nativity play and has to go behind the manger on stage “because he’s pissed his pants” (and these adults laugh hysterically as if it were funny – it wasn’t!). Then a scene with Mason walking around with no shirt on. Then heavy kissing and more. And, finally, we find out her bff is a lesbian, at which point I fast forwarded to see if anything else was mentioned. Naturally, it was. They’re all standing around comparing love-life woes and she tells how she “was in love with a woman who I thought was my soulmate, but then I found out she was married to a man. She made me believe she was going to leave him, but then she changed her mind, went back into the closet, and shattered every fiber of my being.” Even without the homosexual character and other tarnished bits, the movie felt forced and awkward. The overall story idea, in itself, wasn’t a bad one, but it wasn’t executed all that well. The one poignant part of the story is that Andie often calls her mom’s cell phone and talks to her voicemail as a connection and way of healing since her mom died a year ago (the movie is dedicated to Jennifer’s mom, who died of cancer). This movie would’ve benefited from having a different director and a family-friendly script. Delete. ~~Jane (aka Watching the Chestnuts Pop)
ReplyDeleteJane-I appreciate your reviews so much, and especially the details on Holiday Junkie. After reading your review I'm deleting it without even giving it a brief try. I was offended just reading about it! Thank you! ~LR
DeleteLR, I'm glad my review helped. It's a shame about this one since it could have been such a cute movie. ~~Jane
DeleteChristmas on the Alpaca Farm. I almost packed up my milk and cookies and went to bed at the ten-minute mark because of cringeworthy acting and dialogue but it gradually all evened out and – for the most part – improved. I’m glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be a delightful little movie. I still cringed at moments throughout, but it was still cute enough to keep watching. The story was sweet and the overall feeling was very warm and cozy. The farm scenery was authentic and snowy and lovely, and the home interior felt very Christmassy. And the alpacas were adorable!!! I loved that the requisite “snow angel” scene was with the father and his daughter instead of the usual romantic angle. (I got a bit tired of the never-ending references to “sustainability” and “eco-this-and-that”, which all sounds wonderful until you realize that the average person can’t afford a handmade alpaca sweater, no matter how sustainably made it is.) In general, this movie’s not going to win any awards but it’s a nice feel-good film to watch with the family. ~~Jane (aka It’s a Marshmallow World in the Winter)
ReplyDeleteJane-I hadn't watched any of the Lifetime movies this year but you got me to watch this one and it was so sweet! I honestly want to ask my husband for a pet Alpaca! I thought it was a sweet story and a little dufferent than the usual, also nice to have actors I'm not as familiar with an beautiful scenery! It's worth a watch for sure! ~LR
DeleteMy rankings of this year's lineup:
ReplyDelete1, Bebe Winans We Three Kings
2, How to Fall in Love by the Holidays
3, Engaged by Christmas
4, Christmas at Plumhill Manor
5, A Very Merry Beauty Salon
6, Sincerely Truly Christmas
7, Holiday in Sleepy Hallow
8, Make or Bake Christmas
-Maria