alechowe

With upwards of 30 holiday offerings per year, one is left wondering how Hallmark decides the running order of its annual Countdown to Christmas output. You'd think they'd save their heavy-hitters - the Chaberts, the Walkers, the Wise Mens - for the December 21-25th ratings homestretch, but they don't. For example, this year the network front-loaded its best offerings - A Keller Family Christmas, Three Wisest Men, We Met in December, The More the Merrier, An Alpine Holiday and, most noteworthy, Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper - before or just after Thanksgiving, leaving a slog of mediocre movies for the days leading up to Christmas. Beyond whatever title will feature the annual "Finding Mr. Christmas" contest winter, entries seem to be scheduled haphazardly, which makes it all the more significant that The Christmas Baby was the last to be televised in the 2025 crop.

There's something special about this one on several levels. It's as if Hallmark took a deliberate, giant step forward in its packaging and presentation of humanity. People like Erin and Kelly have never been so fully drawn on this network. They're as different as they can be from the stock Hallmark characters and yet twice as relatable. Through tremendous care given to the writing, direction and acting, a remarkable, disarming ease is created that is totally lacking in Hallmark's 'push the envelope' vehicles for the likes of Jonathan Bennett. The characters in The Christmas Baby are not larger than life. They simply exist in their everyday world, and we fit right in with them. It's such a small shift, especially as the movie tip-toes across the Countdown's 2025 finish line, almost under the radar, but it makes all the difference in the world. This is the way forward for Hallmark. Let people be who they are, not who we need them to be. And we the audience will be there for them.

For a few years, there have been rumblings about GAC starting to go ultra-conservative on us. Then Candace Cameron Bure announced on social media that she hoped to "put the Christ back into Christmas" at her new home. Well, up till now, there has been little difference between GAC and Hallmark product (except Mike Lindell's My Pillow commercials, which run uncomfortably rampant on GAC), but this film will likely be remembered as the one that started the gears turning. Secular audiences will recognize an essentially Christian thread running through the plot, which is chiefly about a brother helping his sister return to God, and a discomfiting sense that everyone in the film's world shares the same faith. There are deep discussions of individuals' relationships with God, belief that we will all be reunited with our loved ones in the afterlife, dialogue like "It's not just sermons and bibles in there; we have fun!" and "Seeing God's light is one of God's greatest gifts." If this is merely one movie about devout Christians during the holiday season, that's valid enough; there's a place at the table for all faiths and belief systems. But if this is the shape of things to come at GAC, you can bet the channel will be as polarizing as the country it serves. The most telling shift is Bure herself. She was the good-time girl of Hallmark, but her singular glow is unmistakably dimmed here. Marc Blucas, another Hallmark mainstay, emerges charmingly unscathed, but Bure is definitely compromised. "Thank you for making Great American Family the fastest growing network," says the channel during its commercial breaks. "We love Christmas just like you, and our Christmas movies are made just for you." There was just enough inference in the voiceover artist that I instinctively understood that she was not talking about me.