If there’s one thing I look forward to during the holiday season, it’s the abundance of cheesy holiday TV movies. The Hallmark channel is notorious for their ample supply of these holiday movies, so much so that the quality of these movies have been criticized for lacking originality and consisting of purely of unlikely set-ups that lead to all fluff and no substance. I can see where these critics come from, but regardless, if you enjoy these festive TV movies as much as I do I have the scoop on how to view responsibly.

To begin with, Hallmark is a machine made for the production of holiday movies and thus they epitomize the term cliché, but once in a while they make some creative new content worth watching, or at least so heart-warming it’s worth a one-time watch during the holidays. For cat lovers there is The Nine Lives of Christmas which includes not only a romance between two humans, but also a romance between two cats; I highly recommend watching this with your furry pal curled up in your lap. A Bride for Christmas has a Julia Roberts’ Runaway Bride premise, but manages to avoid it’s downfall by including dogs and limiting its cheesiness, making it an enjoyable watch for the holidays. The Christmas Parade includes a “Christmas Miracle!” made possible by a vain city girl turned charitable lover of small towns, and its execution is so wonderful that it’s cheesiness doesn’t bubble over, but rather, makes it heartwarming enough to make you overlook its clichés.

My favorite channel for holiday movies is Ion Television as it offers new story ideas, such as this years new historical fiction film A Christmas Truce that takes place during and after World War II. How Sarah Got Her Wings is a breath of fresh powdered snow, as it differs from the standard girl-meets-boy and then girl-falls-in-love-with-boy, which is how these holiday movies typically go, by including redemption and character growth of the main character and plenty of secondary characters. Even some of Ion Television’s more cliché movies, such as A Christmas Wedding Date where Christmas Eve is repeated for the protagonist who can’t seem to get it right, hold an originality to their characters that make the experience enjoyable. I recommend all of the Ion original holiday movies if you’re seeking higher quality movies that also warm your heart.

These are my recommendations which I hope can help you sift through the bland holiday movies on TV to actually find something you’ll enjoy. If you see a recommendation you think you’d like, feel free to look up the synopsis online and use itsawonderfulmovie.blogspot.com as a guide to find when that movie will be airing; this is my go-to reference and I hope it is useful to you during our fast approaching winter break.