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| image via: Great American Media |
Great American Family is currently airing their weekend marathon of 2024 Christmas movies - ranked by the votes of viewers.
I previously mentioned this marathon in my last post, but I've been seeing lots of comments about this on social media, so I wanted to hop on here and share my take on it, as well. (see below schedule)
Saturday, December 28, 2024
(times below in Eastern Standard Time)
18. Christmas in Scotland – 10am
17. Get Him Back for Christmas – 12pm
16. Christmas by Candlelight – 2pm
15. Tails of Christmas – 4pm
14. Christmas Wreaths and Ribbons – 6pm
13. A Royal Christmas Ballet – 8pm
12. Once Upon a Christmas Wish – 10pm
Sunday, December 29, 2024
11. A Christmas Castle Proposal – 12am
10. A Cozy Christmas Quilt – 2am
9. Coupled Up for Christmas – 4am
8. I Heard the Bells – 6am
7. Let it Snow – 8am
6. A Vintage Christmas – 10am
5. A Little Women’s Christmas – 12pm
4. A Cinderella Christmas Ball – 2pm
3. Home Sweet Christmas – 4pm
2. Christmas Under the Northern Lights – 6pm
1. A Christmas Less Traveled - 8pm
I know Great American Family was trying to do a fun movie event with this; however, based on what I'm seeing on social media, it seems many fans are disappointed with the results, as I am. Some of the results feel more like a popularity contest, than what movie is actually best.
Personally, I love Great American Family and the scripture messages in the commercial breaks, but I think it's rather harsh to reveal the lineup of movies worst to best like this, from 18 to 1. I can only imagine those who came in last place must feel somewhat discouraged by their placement.
Yes, I do the It's a Wonderful Movie Awards each year, but I only reveal the top three favorites from each category. I never reveal which movie received the least votes, as I would never want to hurt the actors and writers involved.
I've seen many commenters say that Get Him Back for Christmas and Once Upon a Christmas Wish belonged at the top of the list, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Here's a sampling of comments I've seen...
"I can’t believe Get Him Back for Christmas is #17! What is wrong with you people!? That was the best movie of the season!! Unbelievable 😡" ~Nicole
"Loved your movies this year but totally disagree with rankings of best - Get him back was one of the best!!" ~Sharman
"I Heard the Bells should be #1! This movie was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen!!!" ~Vicki
"I think both "Get Him Back for Christmas" and "Once Upon a Christmas Wish" should be listed higher on the Countdown - I really enjoyed both movies! 🎄🎄" ~Donna
"Get him Back for Christmas should have been higher on the list. It was a cute movie and I love the PenaVegas!" ~Robi
"Don’t agree with order." ~Judy
"Get Him Back For Christmas and Once Upon a Christmas Wish should be at the top! Way to go Great American Family welcoming these new actors to your channel and placing their movies so low on the list. Let it Snow should not even be on it and others that are old that you all bought from streaming just to fill the spots each weekend." ~Holly
"I absolutely loved Get Him Back for Christmas - was in my top 5. So disappointed to see it at 17. Wow. Even the supporting cast was awesome" ~Angela
"Loved all the Christmas movies and loved the messages in them. Another great year. Thanks GAF! You do an Amazing job every year and I can't wait to see what's in store in the New Year & next Christmas!❤️" ~Mildred
"A little confused on these rankings so far! I’ve been watching GAF’s movies since year 1 and “Get Him Back for Christmas” was one of the best movies yet of any year. Surprised it’s not #1, being that it had the most engagement in the comments from any premiere this year." ~Maria
"Unreal that Get Him Back for Christmas was #17! This was by far the best movie in my opinion and the highest ranked movie on IMDB out of all the Great American Christmas movies this year." ~Michael
Please share your thoughts in comments below.
Which Great American Family Christmas movie was your favorite?
Do you agree with these rankings? What is your feel of the 2024 GAF Christmas movies overall?
Merry Christmas Week
and Happy New Year!!!
Net
I totally agree with the person who said that Let it Snow shouldn’t be on the list. I just looked it up and it premiered in 2013. That shouldn’t count at all as a GAF movie. Totally not fair.
ReplyDeleteAgree 💯percent! I’ve always liked Let it Snow, but it doesn’t belong on this list. This should be the new premieres only!!!!
DeleteTo be honest, I wasn’t impressed by either of Candace’s 2 new movies and they are both in the top 3? That’s curious.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments, I liked Once Upon a Christmas Wish and Get Him Back for Christmas best. And yes, I voted. Melissa
Only rankings I care about are my own. And honestly, as nice as these marathons are, all they do is confuse people whenever they do air ('wait, did we ever vote on these?' (um, why do you think they had you rank the movies 100/0?), 'Did this start today?', 'When will that movie air?', 'I'm so confused right now, I don't recall ever being asked to vote, only just to leave a ranking in a review', etc). -Maria
ReplyDeleteMaria, GAF had a separate page on their website for ranking the movies. I'm not sure many people knew about it.
DeleteI know what you mean about the confusion. I think many people are wondering how they were supposed to vote. Also, not sure why the schedule is on their website, but not on some of the cable guides. That makes it really confusing to watch the movies we most want to see.
Hope you can still catch some of your favorites this weekend! :
Get Him Back to Christmas could at the top of the list & it’s the best movie
ReplyDeleteLet It Snow was a classic Hallmark movie
ReplyDeleteCinderella Christmas ball should be #2
ReplyDeleteA Cinderella Christmas Ball should be #1 for the incredible acting and beautiful story. I was crying when Danica was crying and really feeling the deep emotions of conflicted Prince Phillip and the very happy surprise of the Duke learning he had a daughter.
DeleteOnce upon a Christmas wish should be #1
ReplyDeleteI didn't look up any of the social media chatter about this though I did see that GAF promoted the rankings. That said, I'm not bothered by it. Like you said in your opening, its creation was all in fun. I rank Christmas movies each year too. My thought is always to have fun and even the movies I do rank "last," it's not that they aren't cute (it's rare that I don't like anything about a movie), it's just they remain kind of "middle of the pack" or "so so." And I think that's all GAF's goal/idea is too. It's just kind of finding out what everyone enjoyed most and making a fun game of it. :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched any of the movies yet so can't rank them but what annoyed me greatly was them putting ALL of the listings in the guide by the name "Great American Christmas Viewer Review Movie Countdown"...for ALL 18 of the movies. You have no idea what movie it is until you open each one of them to see what the movie is. They originally had all the movies ranked by NAME on the guide a few days ago and then changed it to this same generic name for all of them.
ReplyDeleteI also love Great American Family, but I feel bad for the movies that came in last. Not cool.
ReplyDeleteMy kids and I really liked the new movie with Alexa and Carlos. It should’ve been much higher than 17. I hope they see how much love they’re getting from fans. Christie
ReplyDeleteHi Net,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. These rankings have to hurt and should not have been shared. I really enjoyed "Get Him Back for Christmas" and "Once Upon A Christmas Wish" like others here and I am shocked to see both movies ranked so low. And, it is disappointing to see "I Heard the Bells' in the middle of the pack. It was such a touching movie. I am happy to see "A Cinderella Christmas Ball" and "Christmas Under the Northern Lights" ranked so high because both movies were delightful. But, I would have preferred to not see the movies ranked at all. Or at least, it would have been best to just show the top three like you do Net. Much more positive way to share results.
I agree that there is no reason to release the ranking to the public....top three is great ...sort of indicates all are winners! Maybe they just want to create controversy -hence more publicity...but like so much these days -seems harsh.....
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that the Let It Snow should not have been included. It was a Hallmark movie from over 10 yrs ago. It was fine then but it is 10+ yrs later. I did watch the Once Upon a Christmas Wish for a different reason than many (the location of where it was filmed is near). I actually liked the Candace Cameron movie that came up 3rd better than the one that came up first.
ReplyDeleteOf all I think that the one with Jill Wagner and Jesse Hutch should have been first. Another one --I Heard the Bells was also from a prior year and should probably not have been included.
I agree with the comments made here a 100%. In my humble opinion the Little Women movie was a let down. I Heard the Bells was a terrific movie that I will watch every Christmas Season.
ReplyDeleteNet make a valid point of GAF advertising the top 5 or 6 movies of Christmas 2024 and leave it at that. I voted on the GAF website and some of my favorites made the top 10.
Everyone take care as we move on to 2025.
-Gabe’s Mom
I had Get Him Back for Christmas as number one, Christmas Less Traveled as number 2, A Cinderella Christmas Ball as three.
ReplyDeleteNot bothered at all. I have rarely participated in these and when I have my choices have never matched up. In addition, sometimes movies grow on me after I step back and watch without any expectations. Also, actors and actresses have to be able to handle the constant critiquing, though I do think it should only have included movies released just this year. I think "Once Upon A Christmas Wish" and "Get Him Back for Christmas" probably suffered from being at the very end. My suggestion for GAF would be to focus more on family Christmas movies instead of couple movies. One of the reasons I liked "A Christmas . . . Present" so well is because it was a family Christmas movie. The real spirit of Christmas (Christ) is all about families. I like a good romance movie (emphasis on good), but I am actually tired of these actors and actresses never progressing in their movies to playing characters that more closely mirror their ages and experiences. I would LOVE more Christmas movies focused on families rather than romance.
ReplyDeleteI personally didn’t agree 💯% with their choices but I loved A Christmas Less Traveled and it would have been my pick for #1, sorry. But it really doesn’t matter that much too me, just so I got a chance to see them one last time, and catch a few I missed
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Net. I think it would have been more polite to do the ranking the way you do it, list the top 3 or 5 and stop there as to not hurt anyones feelings, especially new actors to the GAF channel. I agree with everyone, I think Get Him Back for Christmas and Once Upon A Christmas Wish should have been ranked higher. Great American family had a lot of amazing movies this year (and years past) and a lot of ones I passed on/didn’t even watch past 30 minutes. But no need to be rude/embarrass anyone by listing each movie.
ReplyDelete~Paula
Well we need to understand that the ranking WERE based on a popularity content. People were asked to review movies and give them ratings. Those ratings were used to put this marathon together. I am surprised that Get Him back for Christmas was so low. It was one of the best IMO.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it could be that Get him back was played much later in the season and people haven't got around to watching yet? I have many on my dvr, but I did watch some of the movies from Oct and Nov already. The later movies even from HM are still on my dvr. Maybe that is why the list is like this, more people saw the top 10 movies?
DeleteI'm a bit surprised.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with the results! Great job!
ReplyDeleteFrndly TV and GAF must have listened to me ha-ha. I just noticed that they changed that "Great American Christmas Viewer Review Movie Countdown" guide name for the actual movie names. My DVR page on Frndly now shows all the names of the movies now. Great job GAF and Frndly TV!
ReplyDeleteI had also posted on X that I felt the ratings were skewed. In my opinion, many people submit reviews early on and rate the early movies higher due to the excitement of new movies. As the season goes on, people are busier and don't submit as many reviews. I would rather rate the movies in a separate submission after more people have had a chance to view them and participate. We had to rank the movies trying to guess the outcome - not submit our personal overall ratings. I really loved the majority of the movies on GAF this year and gave out lots of high scores on my movie reviews that I submitted to GAF. My main issue is that Get Him Back For Christmas should have been in the top 3 - or the top 10 at the very least. I absolutely loved this movie! I think we are blessed to have Alexa and Carlos making movies for GAF and it has to be discouraging to them to see their first Christmas movie on GAF rated 17. I don't think this rating was accurate at all! I was glad to see so many people sharing their love for the movie after the results were posted. I love GAF and want it to succeed. I want to encourage our talented actors who are making movies for GAF to stay with the network! I hope we haven't lost Jen Lilley! In the future, I would rather GAF run an after Christmas marathon and just run the new premieres in order of how they aired on the network and avoid ranking them - and avoid drama. Again, I love GAF and enjoyed all the new Christmas movies. I am looking forward to all to come in 2025.
ReplyDeleteThank you Net for all you do!
Gena
Gena, I agree with you (and Sabrina) that people were more likely to submit reviews early in the season and rate them higher simply due to all the excitement of a new Christmas season. And then as time went on everyone probably got much more busy and couldn't quite keep up with the large number of movies on their dvr's. I also agree that a marathon of movies done by the original date of airing would have perhaps been a better idea to "avoid drama". But, I guess the drama itself is kind of entertaining and drums up more publicity!?! 😂 ~~Jane
DeleteI didn't watch many GAF movies, I have many on the dvr still, but NO WAY Christmas Wreaths and Ribbons should be ranked higher than any other movie, let alone Get Him back for christmas. In fact any of the acquired movies that people already saw should not be higher than original content. Now it makes me wonder, isa it because some of the higher up movies are not exclusive with GAF?
ReplyDeleteSo… most of my thoughts will probably be a bit unpopular and contrarian. I have not watched most of the GAF movies yet but, ultimately, I am not bothered by the rankings and agree with those who view it as just a fun way for GAF to drum up enthusiasm. Contrary to popular opinion, however, I don’t believe everyone deserves a trophy - in life or in movie rankings. The idea of “not” ranking movies simply to avoid hurting the feelings of someone involved in the production just doesn’t sit well with me. Everyone involved in these movies is part of a money-making business, part of a “product” being sold. Why do we coddle actors, writers, artists, musicians, etc. and try to protect their feelings, yet we don’t coddle small and big business owners who are also producing and selling products for money? Let’s say I own a bakery and produce lots of yummy products and next week I decide to try a new recipe and start making Lavender Cayenne Raspberry Peanut Butter Pumpkin Clove Caraway Seed Pistachio Gluten Free Muffins. I think they’re great! My husband thinks they’re great (or so he says!)! I’ve even decided to enter them in the State Fair baking competition. But I come in second-to-last in that competition and the “reviews” from my paying bakery customers are downright awful and scorching (I may have even lost a few customers!). A few of my longtime, loyal customers claim to love them simply because they love me and want to support me (but I do notice they’ve never re-purchased any of these muffins!). So, do I get my feelings hurt that my artistic bakery confection was rejected by my “reviewers”? Maybe? But in order to stay in business, I accept the feedback and critiques and regroup and try something different next time. If Chic-fil-A tries a new sandwich on their menu and people can't stand the taste, do they get their feelings hurt, or do they take it off the menu and try something different? If Apple makes a new phone that their “reviewers” very loudly reject, do their engineers go into a fetal position in a cave and cry? Well… that’s a possibility 😊 but I imagine the big wigs will find alternate engineers and move on to a product that makes money. All my nonsense is to make the point that we should not be unduly unkind or hateful in our reviews/comments/rankings, but we should definitely share our honest opinions (which, of course, will differ with others’ opinions). If the sound was bad in a movie, is it not fair to say the sound was bad? Likewise, with the acting and directing, if someone thinks it was not so good, it’s fair to state that opinion in a review or a ranking. And, once again, folks will all have different opinions. Everyone involved in these movies is an adult who is basically selling a product (usually for a lot of money!) and that adult should be able to handle criticism and low rankings, as well as accolades and high rankings. It would be different if we were dealing with young children or impressionable teens. ~~Jane
ReplyDeleteMy additional (😂) thoughts on GAF putting out a ranking this soon is that it’s rather premature and probably based on a tiny handful of enthusiastic and bored people. But, on the other hand, now is also the ideal marketing time (other than July) for GAF to re-broadcast their top Christmas movies. I think perhaps a better idea would have been a New Year’s weekend marathon that included all their Christmas movies from this year and the past couple years based on original airing dates, but that would not have provided any “fun” marketing gimmicks for them. Oh, well, they are a business and if they want to keep their loyal fans, they will learn from all the feedback whether to do this kind of thing next year, or not. ~~Jane
ReplyDeletep.s. -- I haven’t watched Get Him Back for Christmas yet (and I’m assuming it will be a movie that I very much like!), but is it also possible some of the social-media outcry is not based on the movie itself, but more a popularity contest or love for the PenaVegas and what they stand for and what they’ve been through this year???
p.p.s. -- I agree that Let It Snow should not have been included in rankings due to it’s original air date on Hallmark. Also, I have watched #3 and #5 on the list and my opinion is that neither one should be that high; to me, those rankings seem more like a lovefest for the celebrities than for the actual movies.
p.p.p.s. -- The people voting at GAF are probably serious GAF enthusiasts and different than the people voting at IMDB but I feel IMDB is a better cross-section of the population. When you do a comparison, it turns out that the GAF “results” are not all in line with IMDB’s rankings. Just one example (out of several), “A Christmas Castle Proposal” and “Home Sweet Christmas” had identical ratings of 6.4 with approximately 275 people voting on each, yet GAF has one at #11 and one at #3 – why such a difference?!?! Likewise, “A Cinderella Christmas Ball” had a rating of 7.0 with 300 people voting on IMDB, yet GAF ranked that movie lower than Candace and Cameron’s movie?? Which leads me to a vague conclusion that either GAF is skewing the results, or you have a bunch of Candace enthusiasts who make up most of the GAF fans (or they’ve been voting multiple times). Also, “Once Upon a Christmas Wish” had almost as good a ranking as “A Little Women’s Christmas” on IMDB, so I question why it got ranked so low on GAF. If GAF is not skewing the ranking, then it all boils down to the individual people who are avid and eager fans and have the inclination and the excess time to be voting on GAF for every single movie. {Btw, “Get Him Back for Christmas” got a whopping 7.3 on IMDB!! But with only 155 people voting you can’t equally compare with the other movies.}
p.p.p.p.s. -- Also, I agree with Net about absolutely loving GAF’s Scripture messages and heartwarming breaks (although some of the actual paid commercials are inching closer to Hallmark’s and I wouldn’t want children to see them).
Jane, excellent points! I have never put much faith into these movie rankings primarily for two reasons, both of which you have pointed out: 1) As I have said before, many reviewers focus on the actors and not on the movies. Do I think that the PenaVegas movie and Candace's movies are at least partially based on them and not the movies? Absolutely! 2) Do we know how the rankings were tabulated? Were percentages used or actual numbers? For example, if one movie was watched by, say, 500 people (I know these numbers are ridiculously low - it's only for point of illustration), and 499 loved it, and another movies was watched by 1000 people and 950 loved it, would they rank movie #2 higher because more people watched and loved it, or #1 higher because the percentage of people who loved it is higher? (And as you also mentioned Jane, how many people vote over and over and over?!) Yes, it's fun to see these the results of rankings, but to rely on them for anything? Uh-uh! I'll stick with the thorough reviews on this site!
DeleteI don’t think that the movies at the bottom of the list are worried about being there. Take Get Him Back for Christmas according to IMBD it has a 7.4 rating by their fans. With the top 5 viewer movies only A Cinderella Christmas.Ball had a 7.0 rating the rest were under 7. The top four according to IMDB 1). Get Him Back for Christmas 7.4 rating 2). A Cinderella Christmas Ball 7.0 rating 3). I Heard the Bells 6.8 rating 4). A Christmas Less Traveled 6.7 rating.
ReplyDelete