Every Christmas Has a Story (TV Movie 2016) Poster

(2016 TV Movie)

User Reviews

Review this title
19 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
Some Stories Are Better Than Others
boblipton13 November 2016
When newsreader Lori Loughlin says on air that she doesn't like Christmas, she and her producer, ex-lover Colin Ferguson are shipped to Christmas-centric Hollyvale so she can "find her Christmas spirit". Can she do that when the town seems to be losing its own?

I sat down to watch this Hallmark TV Christmas movie, expecting it to be pretty much predictable, standard fare, but soon found it something entirely different. The script started in one direction and quickly veered into a mystery about the town and then into yet another one, eventually revealing itself as a meditation on what Christmas means to people in a secular age.

Although the stand-out role in these movies is usually some old-time performer in a support role, intended to please old geezers like me ("These young whippersnappers don't know how to hold your attention!"), here the laurels belong to Mr. Ferguson with his rubber-faced reaction shots. Well done all around!
22 out of 24 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Too Bad it wasn't filmed in North Dakota
buffalopie23 December 2017
Just saw this movie and we live in North Dakota. There would be no way people would be walking around with unzipped coats or lighter clothing. The license plates were correct and the GPS map she was using was also correct, just way colder than the movie portrayed. Also, not all that many trees in North Dakota. I liked the story, but mostly just liked that fact that it took place in North Dakota. Wish it would have been filmed here.
16 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Charming enough story
TheLittleSongbird19 February 2023
There has never been any bias for or against Hallmark Christmas films. Actually think there are a mix of good, bad (and worse in some cases) and somewhere between mediocre and decent, so it's a variable output really. One just needs to know what to expect and not to expect too much. Will admit to not being crazy about the premise, it didn't sound very interesting and had potential to be cheesy and mean spirited. And how good a premise is is one of the most common main reasons for watching anything.

While not perfectly executed or great, 'Every Christmas Has a Story' was pretty decent and much more appealing story wise than how it sounded on paper, with it not being as cheesy, forced or mean spirited as feared. 2016 was an uneven year for Hallmark, but not too bad when it came to their Countdown to Christmas output. A few disappointed, 'A December Bride' being a big example, but most were above average and a few above good. 'Every Christmas Has a Story' is somewhere in the middle.

'Every Christmas Has a Story' isn't perfect. The story takes a bit of time to get going and is very formulaic, not many surprises or innovations here and that is including the secret (which didn't live up to the deep and dark promise). Some of the dialogue in the earlier stages is on the contrived and silly side, some of the more banter-ish parts a little too hostile.

Furthermore the ending is too pat and also very abrupt. The mayor is too caricaturish in an over the top way.

However, a lot is good. Visually, 'Every Christmas Has a Story' is good looking. It's beautifully photographed and the scenery is quite captivating, even if it is not the real authentic location. The music isn't as too loud or as too constant as it can be with Hallmark. The dialogue flows better and more naturally than the dialogue in most Hallmark films and doesn't fall as much into cheese and soap, it sometimes does but only in spurts. The story generally is very light-hearted and really warms the heart, despite its predictability and a couple of other things, and the characters on the whole didn't bore or irritate me.

Lori Loughlin and Colin Ferguson are very charming and easy going leads with no signs of being over taxed. They have a natural and easy to buy chemistry and their relationship isn't aimless or rushed too much. The supporting cast are more than able, being into their roles while having enough subtlety. Excepting the mayor. Did like how they featured quite heavily in the goings on.

Overall, not something to be enthused over but decent and better than it sounds. 6/10.
9 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
nice
Kirpianuscus21 November 2019
Like many other Hallmark Christmas films, an adorable story, decent performances, flavor of cookies and the romance slice. A mistake in TV show. And a "punishment" with surprising result. Few small details. And a lovely end. A tree , a lonely man after a difficult moment, the deep meaning of presence in a town from North Dakota. And a just seductive, easy, off course, story. And nothing more but enough for many tastes.
11 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Not bad.
jrbusiness-644999 November 2020
This was an alright movie. I picked it to add to my Christmas movie challenge.

I like it when they go to little towns and it is all christmassy.

This now helps to take my christmas movies to 35 out of 100.

Will I watch this again? Yeah maybe.
12 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
A Christmas Mystery worthy of the news!
adamjohns-425759 December 2021
Why would anyone ever let Colin Ferguson go? The guy has been handsome since before 1990, with barely a change at all and not just his face and body, but the personality that shines from him. I would bet a lot of money that he's a really nice guy. So, I'm not sure that the lead female deserves him.

It's actually not a bad romantic story at all and I like the other "story" that the journalists are chasing.

The mayor is over the top, but aren't they always. It's as if they find the weirdest extra in the bunch, give them a suit, a wig and a script and let them loose.

Although it's essentially about the leads disdain for Christmas, it doesn't really have many festivities going on, but there's enough to make it cheery and enjoyable.

I'm fairly shallow, so it probably scores higher because of Colin, but I don't care.

6ish/10?
7 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Good Enough
Christmas-Reviewer3 September 2017
BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.

While unknowingly on air, a TV personality accidentally admits she hates Christmas. In order to keep her job her boss sends her to a small town. The town in called "Hollyvale" Here she do news stories about this town and how the town is crazy about "Christmas". So she does daily stories from "Hollyvale"

Coming with her is her ex-boyfriend who also happens to be her boss.

The acting is fine. Christmas Movie fans will love this film.
19 out of 28 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Pretty cute Hallmark
HotToastyRag22 December 2020
Without Colin Ferguson, I probably wouldn't have sat through this movie more than once. The story itself really isn't my cup of tea. A news anchor (Lori Loughlin) has an embarrassing mistake on live television, exposing her as someone who doesn't like Christmas. To save face, the network orders her to do a several-day small-town exposé in a place guaranteed to instill her in the Christmas spirit. I know lots of Hallmarks feature a plot or subplot of a character who doesn't like Christmas then learns to love it; but this one felt really forced and almost offensive. Her television blooper could have easily been explained away, and after the holiday season had ended, people would forget all about it. What if she was Jewish or Buddhist and held no special feeling for the Christian holiday - would the network still force her to change her views?

Once she gets to town, the movie gets a little better, since she and her cameraman (Colin) try and fail to ignore their rekindled feelings. They were an item in the past, so do you think the small-town charm and Christmas magic might help them get back together and solve all their emotional problems?

You'll have to watch this Hallmark Christmas special to find out. It might not end up being your favorite, but you'll probably enjoy it. I've happily watched it three times, glad for the gorgeous eye candy.
8 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Didn't hold my interest
Beehive7227 November 2021
I love a good Christmas movie, this was a little dull and obviously predictable.

So what the main character isn't into Christmas, seems to be very shocking to everyone, wonder what I'm missing?
7 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
We like both the leads
VetteRanger16 December 2023
Both Colin and Lori have been in some of our favorite Hallmark vehicles, and we feel Hallmark knee-jerked when they canceled her Garage Sale mystery movie series. I mean, good feeling movies are all about redemption ... a large percentage of their Christmas movies are about people who make a mistake and must seek redemption ... including this one? So they'd have been wiser to go that route with her. No viewers would leave Hallmark because she paid to get her daughter into USC. Trust me. However, we were disgusted on how fast they canceled her.

Back to the movie ... it has a bit of a small-town Christmas mystery, and the High School girl who works at the hotel and takes on a news feed steals the movie. Lori and Colin are okay, but the girl is fantastic. It's not a movie we get the "treasured story" feel out of, but we enjoyed it.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Not worth watching. Hallmark dropped the ball on this one.
smithduke2 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
OK...I felt this movie lacked hearat! It's about a famous news anchor/reporter and her "best"friend from college/producer that ended up going to a small town to report on Christmas. I am a big fan of Lifetime movies and no matter how corny, predictable, etc. I still love them. This one was disappointing! I like Lori Loughlin but in this movie, I didn't feel it with her. She seemed negative from beginning to end. Very little emotion and warmth. There is a scene in the beginning where the two check into a hotel. A teenager, who works at the hotel, (Loughlin's actual daughter) carries their heavy suitcases up the stairs and neither character offers to help this woman, a star-struck girl. Like I said, it just lacked any warmth, love, emotion, etc.
10 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Don't look too closely and it might keep your interest.
rebekahrox14 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This was a weak premise but was bolstered by likable leads, two mysteries, and a nice romance. There was even a bit of a twist at the end regarding the nature of one of the mysteries that I didn't see coming.

I must say off the bat that even though Lori Loughlin is 6 years older than her co-star, she looks great and the match was very believable. If she has had work done, one certainly can't tell, unlike some other older actresses that Hallmark casts inappropriately. Had to get that off my chest.

Of course one has to suspend disbelief in order to find an excuse to get Lori out of the city to the small town that will help her find her Christmas spirit. Once there, the mystery of why the annual town Christmas trees, that were the town's main attraction during the season quit coming, and why Lori lost her Christmas spirit to begin with. What is the town trying to hide from talk-show host/journalist? It did keep my interest, although the deep dark secret wasn't too deep, or all that dark. I thought it was kind of clever that the whole town was conspiring to create a phony mystery that the journalist could "investigate" and thus help them out. They pulled a fast one on the audience and Lori!
17 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Two melancholy stories make this one of the more heartfelt offerings in Hallmark's holiday films.
cgvsluis8 December 2023
On air personality Kate Harper (Lori Loughlin) accidentally lets it slip that she doesn't like Christmas while her microphone is still on. This leads to a big backlash from her fans. The studio sends her and her director, Jack Brewster (Colin Ferguson), to Hollyvale, North Dakota...the little town with the biggest Christmas spirit, so Kate can do live segments proving that she has found the Christmas spirit again. Only there she becomes distracted by the town tree mystery...which leads her to Vernon Hollis, who has a sad Christmas story of his own.

Hallmark regulars Lori Loughlin and Colin Ferguson are well cast opposite one another as former college sweethearts. The story culminates in a very Christmas event with Santa himself.

I think Hallmark holiday aficionados will like this film, but grinches beware your hearts may grow if you watch this one.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
A poor production
dancve30 December 2018
Bad acting, bad directing, bad everything! Obviously not filmed in North Dacota. Actors pretending its cold while wearing unzipped coats. Its supposed to be winter but the leafes are still on the trees.
11 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Harassment for the holidays
jv_gymnast28 December 2018
The action that sets this movie going is this: A woman politely turns down a gift from a man. He continues to harass her for several minutes as she keeps politely deflecting him. He then gets so far into her personal space that when she turns around, he gets knocked over. Somehow, no one has a problem with the harassment. In fact, the woman is considered a bad person because the man lives Christmas, and she prefers not to celebrate it. Her boss even has a staff meeting where, in front of co-workers, she also acts like politely preferring not to celebrate means the woman is bad. No one even thinks to defend the woman and say, "The man was harassing her-- shouldn't we do something about that?" How is this a feel-good movie? The woman has to spend the rest of the plot atoning for being harassed?
12 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Anticlimactic tree mystery
MickyG33327 November 2023
7.4 stars.

A woman hosts a morning show and gets caught making some negative comments about Christmas immediately after the show, and it's all televised live because they forgot to stop the camera. The rest of the story is about her trying to make up for the blunder.

I'd say this is a bit different than most Hallmark films. The actors are mainstream, both of them have been in so many films and TV shows, it's difficult to keep track. I realize she is one of the main Hallmark ladies (until she did some very bad things-now she won't be cast in much, if anything).

So with that all out of the way, I must admit this was an interesting movie, not boring, not too strange, satisfactory, but not great. Something goes wrong with the storytelling somewhere, mainly because tidbits of information are not realistic. In other words, it just doesn't add up in many ways, from the romance, and the history of why they didn't stay together, and her father situation doesn't make sense. I could elaborate on a few reasons why the facts don't line up, but I'll mention one. The whole mystery behind the tree is misleading. They try to create a mystery out of something that is simply tragic, so I was a bit deflated after seeing why the hush hush. That ruined the experience just enough for 'Every Christmas Has a Story', to be a bit less of a story and more of a bait and switch.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Relax folks, it's Lori Loughlin and she always wins her audience over
Ed-Shullivan2 January 2019
Okay, so this made for TV film is not a Christmas film classic in the realms of (1954) White Christmas or (1946) It's A Wonderful Life, but it does star the adorable Lori Loughlin who has always maintained a strong and supportive fan base because of her undeniable charm and innocence, and the camera loves her.

So why not have her actually star in a TV Christmas film in which she is actually in front of the camera making a Christmas faux pas by stating that she does not celebrate Christmas, and then accidentally throw a Christmas lover into the sacred Christmas tree, all caught on camera?

Only Lori Loughlin's never ending charm can win her audience back after this faux pas and so she goes to visit a small little town in North Dakota which is known for celebrating Christmas only to discover the town has its own dirty little secret. Gradually Lori helps this little North Dakota town rekindle their love and spirit of Christmas just as she finds her own inner Christmas spirit. Along the way Lori also rekindles her relationship with her estranged father, and she starts re-engaging with her lost love from her college days. Mrs. Shullivan and I enjoyed the film and you will too. Ignore the naysayers, it's Lori Loughlin, you can't go wrong.

I give this Christmas themed film a decent 8 out of 10 rating
14 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Great, new classic.
wkozak22123 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I really like this film. It is funny, heart warming and has just a hint of sadness. The cast is great. They click. The story is engaging. The town reminds me of the one where mygrad school was. Everyone knew everyone. They also decorated for the holidays. Lori's daughter looks just like her!
9 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
the town of my dreams!!
MovieMom197324 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
MovieMom1973 here!! today my husband, two teenage daughters, and i all watched this movie together because it is a christmas movie and we love christmas movies!! overall i would have to say that i liked it a lot although there were some parts that were a bit concerning!!

so the movie begins with kate harper who is a news anchor for a television station!! it is almost time for christmas but due to an unfortunate technical accident she admits on the air that she doesn't like christmas!! this was very shocking and i could see by their expressions that my daughters were very shocked too!! i suggested that we should turn it off but my husband pointed out that we haven't made it more than five minutes into the last several movies we tried to watch so we decided to give it another chance!! fortunately kate harper is invited to the town of hollyvale to rediscover her christmas spirit!! the mayor says that they want to put a little "ho ho ho" back in her day which i thought was very sweet!! but then my oldest daughter was shocked because she said that that is a bad word!! i can't imagine anyone turning santa's words into something bad so that was disheartening and i just hope my daughter doesn't let it keep her down!!

kate harper and her producer jack go to hollyvale and it is clear that this is a town that really does love christmas!! i turned to my husband and said that i hope we can go to a place like that one day!! i bet it would be really fun if they made every day christmas!! but kate harper notices something which is that the town doesn't seem to have many people around and it did seem a bit surprising!! but jack says she should focus more on finding her christmas spirit again instead of trying to make their work there into an investigative piece!! also the girl who helps get them to their rooms in the hotel drags their luggage up step by step and that is not good because you can scuff the floors that way!! my husband and i immediately paused the movie and had a long talk with our daughters about how a scuffed floor is NOT a happy floor!! #lifelessons

we soon learn that the most important christmas tradition in this town is putting up a tree in the town square but that the trees they need stopped coming two years ago!! kate harper wants to focus on why that is but jack wants to focus on the happiness of christmas!! my family and i were torn about this!! on the one hand it makes sense for a reporter to want to find the truth about a mystery!! on the other hand she is supposed to be finding her christmas spirit not the truth about a mystery!! it really gave us all something to think about!! #christmasmystery??

it turns out that the man who supplies the christmas trees stopped sending them because his wife died on a night when they put the christmas tree up three years ago!! #sad i have to say i'm not sure how much i like it when there is death in a christmas movie!! they are supposed to be happy!! also the mayor of hollyvale was being secretive about that event and i think that public officials should be truthful!! #alwaystellthetruth

fortunately in the end the man brings a christmas tree and kate harper brings her christmas spirit and jack brings kate harper's dad in a santa suit!! also kate harper and jack kiss live on the air!! but it ends kind of abruptly right after that!! i wonder if maybe they plan to continue the story in a sequel!! they could call it "every christmas has another story!!" okay!! MovieMom1973 signing off for now!!

#MovieMom1973 #REALreviewer #reviewercommunity #talktoyourchildren #MOMMYJUICE!!
8 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Clear your history

Recently Viewed