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If you watch a lot of Hallmark holiday movies, you'll notice faces that reappear over and over again. Hallmark is nothing if not reliant on safe, predictable storytelling, and this tendency extends to the people they hire to act in their made-for-tv films -- once you've proven that you can provide a stable, likable presence in a lead role, they'll keep on booking you. 

But while Hallmark male stars need to personify whatever romantic fantasy Hallmark is selling -- whether that's sensitive, or caring, or supporting, or rugged, or good at fighting fires -- their actresses have an altogether different responsibility. Since a large portion of the Hallmark viewership is made up of women, these actresses need to be aspirational and, above all else, relatable. We need to be able to see ourselves in them, which isn't as easy a task as it sounds. So when they find a performer who can do it well,...

At this point, every TV channel and streaming network has gotten in on the Christmas movie craze, collectively realizing that by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, audiences are eager to turn off their brains and indulge in a little hot cocoa and PG-rated romance. But although Netflix is on the case now, spending the holiday season offering us time-traveling knights and an endless array of royalty looking for love in its connected holiday cinematic universe, Hallmark is still the undefeated champ when it comes to the made-for-tv Christmas movie. The network has it down to a science, overhauling its entire schedule between October and December to accommodate the dozens of cheesy romances it churns out each year. 

But not all of these Christmas flicks are created equal: There are some real stinkers amongst the bunch, as well as a few sparkling gems that somehow seem to defy the limitations of their genre.