“USS Christmas” came out in 2020 and stars Jen Lilley as a journalist named Maddie. Maddie follows a lead on a story onto a Christmastime tiger cruise on a naval ship (a tiger cruise, per the U.S. Department of Defense, gives the opportunity to “friends and family of deployed sailors and Marines to spend time aboard a sea-going vessel to experience the ship’s day-to-day operations”). There, she meets naval officer Billy, played by Trevor Donovan. As the two solve a mystery and fall in love, Maddie teaches Billy the magic of Christmas.
“USS Christmas” has a formulaic story; we’ve seen the tough, holiday-hating male lead see the light thanks to his love interest’s Christmas spirit plenty of times before. That said, this movie isn’t entirely predictable; its unfolding mystery adds some intrigue that we don’t get from the typical Hallmark holiday content, and it might provide something special for some fans. Still, not everything that makes “USS Christmas” unique makes it a Christmas movie that we’ll want to rewatch every year. While the naval ship setting certainly puts a fresh twist on the typical rom-com, it doesn’t make for a particularly warm holiday vibe. It’s easy to miss that small-town, Christmas-y mood that others give us.
The 2019 Hallmark holiday film “Angel Falls: A Novel Holiday” brings us another enemies-to-lovers tale, as the Hallmark Channel loves to do. Jen Lilley plays Hannah, a book editor who is forced to reunite with her nemesis, Ryan, played by the always charming Carlo Marks. Their feud is, of course, no match for holiday spirit. The pair falls in love with the help of a guardian angel who helps the story play out. “One thing I loved about this film is they are childhood friends who later turned to nemeses. … It provides a lot of drama right off the get-go,” Lilley told TV Insider about the film.
This movie isn’t without flaws, and it won’t be everyone’s favorite on the list since it is, in some ways, more predictable and unoriginal than the others. Still, when it comes to favorite Hallmark Christmas movies, most of us want something that feels like an instant classic that we can watch every year while wrapping presents and baking cookies. Of all three options, this pick gives those warm, fuzzy, magical Christmas vibes that we’re looking for in a Hallmark holiday classic, putting it a leg above the rest.
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