As a special gift for viewers, Great American Family is giving us *Welcome Home Wednesday*, which means you can watch both of last weekend's original Christmas movies TONIGHT back to back from 8pm-12am!
🎄 Christmas Keepsake, starring Daniel Lissing and Jillian Murray, airs at 8pm/7c.
🎄 A Christmas Blessing, starring Lori Loughlin, James Tupper, and Jesse Hutch, airs at 10pm/9c.
Mostly positive reviews have come in from the It's a Wonderful Movie family members for these movies. I will include them here...
Christmas Keepsake
🎄 Christmas Keepsake: This was a sweet and heartwarming story that showed the wonderful relationship of father and daughter within two families. I absolutely loved that Daniel Lissing got to play his authentic Australian self in this movie; that was great, and I could listen to him recite the phone book and be happy. Jillian was bubbly as usual, and Ellie Stewart was wonderful as Daniel's daughter. Although it was pretty obvious who the time capsule belonged to, the plot was thoughtfully done. Overall, a genuine and sweet family movie with a nice love story thrown in. I always enjoy seeing the traditions and events in communities that usually happen during the holidays. ~ Debbie
🎄 Christmas Keepsake is family friendly about following their relocate to new city on Ashbury Grove in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, A Father named Tom bonds his Daughter named Grace & stumbles upon an unexpected romance with a woman named Elizabeth who works at Luna’s Bakery & Cafe while down the original owner of Christmas time capsule when Grace find’s Christmas tin box buried in the show in the backyard. Tom & Grace meet Elizabeth’s Mom named Luna. ~Anonymous
🎄 Christmas Keepsake is so sweet! –Maria
🎄 Christmas Keepsake is a.keper.for.me! The chemistry of the cast and all the Christmas feels. The mystery was easy to figure out, but was still cute. ~Misty
🎄 Misty- I got the same vibes from the movie. In fact, the children and the older (but wiser) characters connected with the children and moved the story along. Giving it a thumbs up because it is family friendly. -Gabe’s Mom
🎄 Christmas Keepsake is such a great story, full of sweet and touching moments. I was so happy to see Daniel Lissing again. He is such a good actor. He and Jillian Murray were so genuine and sincere in their roles. And I like a girl playing a daughter. Father-daughter relationship was so mature and strong. I like the idea of a time capsule and how they brought the topic of family traditions. Living in the world like it is now, you realize that there's nothing more important than your family, friends, all the people you love. Spending time with them. celebrating Christmas together, having traditions you follow every year, that's what a real treasure. So grateful to GAF for showing the real values. I've enjoyed their Christmas movies so much so far. ~Oksanka~
🎄 Review: Christmas Keepsake -
Family-friendly? Yes -
Keeper? Yes -
First, I must admit, I am a sucker for Christmas movies that have a sweet, well-behaved child at the center of it, especially since there don't seem to be as many of these kind of movies as there once was. Here we have a 12-year-old, played wonderfully by Ellie Stewart, who is not afraid to show love to her father (Lissing) and bonds with the local baker (Murry).
But I also enjoyed this movie for its (for lack of a better word) gentleness. There are no big dramatic scenes, no bad people, no rushing around - just an easy-going, nice (and nicely-paced) movie. And I could sense the chemistry between the two leads (and if you watch the behind-the-scenes clip, you can see that the two leads have real affection for each other). Also, I like how, for a change, one of the leads (Murray) was hesitant to get into a relationship not because of a past relationship, but because the loss of her father tore her apart and she did not want to feel that sense of loss again. (In fact, there is no indication that she was ever in a relationship in her past. How unique is that?!) One minor qualm, though - they reference that the father and daughter prayed when they went to the nativity scene - it would have been nice if they had showed them there praying together.
While I can seen where some might find this movie too slow-paced, maybe even boring, that was not the case for me. It's a keeper! ~Mark 25
🎄 Christmas Keepsake I just absolutely loved! Jillian Murray and Daniel Lissing were adorable and loved their Chemistry. The storyline I really liked, and the actress who played his daughter was so cute, and loved how she played off of Daniel and Jillian. This is one I am definitely keeping! :) ~Anonymous
🎄 Christmas Keepsake - truly sorry to say this, but it was really boring. Not very well thought out plot because not just it was slow paced (it's not always a bad thing) but also not much happened here. I am sure that this movie will still get a lot of positive reviews thanks to Daniel. I liked him in this movie and also the actress that played his daughter but did not like the main actress. I know that a lots of Hallmark and GAF actors had a cosmetic procedures and i usually do not mind it but i think that here it made it less believable for me, a small town baker with a botox in her face. Also, do not understand why her mother somewhere in the first half of the movie mentioned "Destiny" i think that "God's plan" would be more "channel appropriate". ~Anonymous
A Christmas Blessing
🎄 I don't know how, but I got to watch A Christmas Blessing on YouTube this afternoon before it comes on tonight. It is a wonderful movie. Almost perfect, but too little of Jesse's character. It needs a sequel. It seemed too short and had great side characters. ~Misty
🎄 A Christmas Blessing was a great movie and family friendly. All of the actors did a great job, but Jesse Hutch was outstanding! Great job to all the actors! ~Joyce in Carolina
🎄 A Christmas Blessing (Blessings of Christmas): This was a fabulous movie that brought it all! First and foremost, Jesse Hutch as an angel, yes please! He was fantastic and I might add, handsome as ever! Lori and James were amazing together (again) and had such great chemistry. Kudos to them for absolutely nailing their characters (I also loved that she kissed him at the end). The supporting cast was the best you could ask for: Karen Holness, Jason Cermak, Laura Bertram, Tammy Gillis, Bronwen Smith, I mean...Nailed it! The location/scenery/what looked like real snow (actual wetness on the streets) was an added plus to make it authentic and the building shots were true to where a food bank/feeding station might be in a city. The movie was funny, heartfelt, and showed what can happen when a community pulls together to help those who need it. Showing love through volunteerism and giving was what this movie was about, and it came through in spades (the fact that Lori does this in real life is wonderful and made this an easy character for her to portray). Having Jesse write bible verses on the walls of the food bank was an added bonus and gave meaning to the movie, along with his prayer before dinner - wonderful! The music and decorations were great as well and the message of the movie gave us the true meaning of Christmas. This is a new favorite that I will watch over and over. ~Debbie
🎄 A Christmas Blessing is so amazing!! 5 stars all around. -Maria
🎄 The winner this weekend was Great American Family no one else was even close. Saturday night Christmas Keepsake was a family friendly and sweet movie. Having Daniel Lissing use his Australian accent was genius. A Christmas Blessing was the best movie on Sunday. With great a cast I love the casting of Jesse Hutch as Otto was the best casting. I would love to see a series with Jesse reprising his role of Otto. ~Bebe
🎄 A Christmas Blessing is another one that I absolutely loved. I love that Lori Laughlin is back and she did just such an incredible job. Jesse Hutch's character was also fun and Jesse did an amazing job as well! Loved that Service was the central theme of this movie, and how important it really is especially around this time of year! This one is a keeper as well : ) ~Anonymous
🎄 A Christmas Blessing - the best movie of GAF so far (and i don't mean just this year). This definitely deserve a sequel or even a mini series. It kinda reminded me of tv show "Touched by an Angel". ~Anonymous
🎄 A CHRISTMAS BLESSING tells a delightful, winsome story about the meaning of Christmas. It has a strong Christian worldview that stresses prayer, salvation and the joy of giving, including making a reference to Acts. 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The exact lyrics of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” about the salvation Jesus brings are heard at least twice. Also, Otto uses Chapter Three of Ecclesiastes to help Adam tell his feelings to Mandy. A CHRISTMAS BLESSING is a heartwarming movie for the whole family. ~Anonymous
🎄 A Christmas Blessing - very standard fare, all the Canadian background actors I am used to seeing in Holiday movies. This was very watchable, nice to see Lori again. It was predictable and formulaic but thats what I watch these movies for! A story encouraging giving at the holidays. It had a slightly different name on IMDB, not sure why. –MS
🎄 "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle"
A Christmas Blessing is such an inspirational and phenomenal movie! Enjoyed every moment of it. It was such a pleasure to see Lori Loughlin again, she's such a great actress. Jesse Hutch was just amazing in the role of Otto. James Tupper was also so great. They had such a chemistry with Lori Loughlin. It's a different Christmas movie, with true values. So much wisdom. I like they included the Bible Scriptures, the prayer. Thinking about people in need, giving them your time, your care, making a Christmas dinner for them - what a great way to celebrate Christmas. ~Oksanka~
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Thank you all for taking the time to share these reviews with us!
If anyone else would like to add a review for either of these movies, please feel free to share in the comments below. We would love to hear from you, too!
Plus, you can see even more Movie Reviews for the 2023 Christmas Movie Premieres here:
https://itsawonderfulmovie.blogspot.com/2023/10/2023-christmas-movie-reviews-from-its.html
Happy Christmas movie watching!
Blessings, Net
