In 2023, I sat down to watch all of the Countdown to Christmas movies and Christmas on Cherry Lane became one of my favorites. In 2024, I missed the sequels and as life got harder and more complicated, I missed the sequels. And hey, it’s 2025 and Hallmark has made a triple feature for me obviously to cry on this Sunday.
We could go through the usual – about how Christmas is and what it does or doesn’t mean to me. But I am feeling the joy of Christmas as the movies that Hallmark puts out melt my Grinch heart and make it grow two sizes.
The thing is – Cherry Lane reminds us that every place tells a story – that people have lived there and traditions have been made. It’s a place that has felt like home to someone before you and all you can do is hope that the person after you feels that same sense of hope.
Of joy.
Of family.
Family is a complex thing but it is also a beautiful thing. The bones of creating something beautiful are always there.
Seasons Greetings from Cherry Lane is a reminder that even though Christmas looks different for everyone, we should embrace that. Traditions and family are important, but what is also important is love.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In 1951, a doctor (Cott) wants to make the holiday special for his worried wife (Bourke) before he is shipped out to serve in Korea, but when she suffers a minor fracture to her arm his carefully planned out Christmas Eve plans are upended. In 2003, a newly married couple (Dugdale, Kook) who are always in agreement about everything hosts two sets of in-laws for Christmas Eve for the first time and find that they may not have had as much in common as they thought they did. And in 2024, a couple (Bennett, Rodriguez III) tries to arrange special Christmas surprises for each other but keeping them a secret may be harder than they thought.
WHAT IT’S GIVING: Family
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE: Vincent Rodriguez III and Jonathan Bennett were amazing and reminded me why I don’t like surprises, but also why I should embrace them. However, it was Corey Cott as Charlie that made me cry and really start to feel. Charlie kept saying that he had everything under control, but he didn’t. Charlie was deploying to Korea and he was scared to leave his wife. He was scared of change. Charlie reminded me of how deep love can be felt.
GRINCH-ISH THOUGHTS: Christmas is very strange to me. Why? Because even though traditions are so often the same – trees, music, decorations – they are all so very different. Everyone has a way of celebrating and though the foundation of Christmas is there, but how we bring traditions to life is complex.
But throughout time what remains is that everyone wants everything to be perfect. And here we are – three different timelines and the connection? Well they all take place at the same home. No. 7 Cherry Lane. 1951, 2003, and 2024.
In 1951, Joan and Charlie are dealing with some really heavy emotions. Joan fractured her arm and her husband keeps telling her that she needs to rest and has everything under control. He’s wanting to make this Christmas the best he can for her, as soon after Christmas he is deploying.
And then realizes that she’s equally as afraid. Him leaving, she’s really terrified that he won’t come back. Watching their story unfold – there were a lot of tears. The way that Charlie wants to step in and take care of everything, but also allows himself to be vulnerable with the neighborhood and his wife – I cried.
But he’s afraid. He’s scared of leaving his wife alone. He knows she’ll be okay, but knowing that he’s not going to be there to take care of her feels like a lot. He loves and worships the ground that she walks on. No one can say anything bad about Charlie – because Charlie is a king.
You see no one can do everything. But what Charlie could do – he could write the cards that he was leaving for Joan. The cards that she would get during the weeks that he was gone and she would remember the love that they shared. Charlie wanted to give her so much, and just the fact that he thought about the love that was there… it was so very special.
In 2003, Sarah and Luke are newlyweds and don’t really know how to do Christmas. Their families are opposite and their Christmas traditions live so deep within them. But trying to figure out how to make them get along is hard. Everything is making them fight.
Sarah and Luke have never fought but each are protective over their families and the traditions that they share. Christmas somehow turned into a competition of what is best, but it’s the parents that can’t let go a little bit to let them have their way.
As newlyweds these two are struggling to find their own traditions and their parents finally see it. The parents see that they have to let go a bit in order to let their kids live and find their own way.
As Sarah and Luke find their way, they receive a card in the mail. It’s for Joan – one of the cards that Charlie had written for her. It’s about that Christmas – the Christmas where the neighborhood looked out for them
And then there is Mike and Zian in 2024. They’ve adopted a beautiful girl and they are wanting to make it the best Christmas ever for her. The two are determined to make Christmas special and in that somehow loose sight a little bit. They loose sight of remembering what Christmas is for.
Spending time together.
Celebrating together.
Zian is trying to give Mike one of his favorite Christmas traditions that they’ve never gotten around to. There are a bunch of Christmas cards that were hung on a wreath in a window and though Mike had no idea where the idea came from, he loved it. Life was just too hectic to create it.
Mike has a gift for Zian. Zian was adopted and didn’t know basically anything about his birth family. Mike knew something – as he’d worked with an agency to try to find out anything he could about were Zian came from. He was able to find Zian’s grandfather.
We had to laugh that Mike lost Zian’s grandfather. He wasn’t there to pick him up from the airport and so he set out on an adventure all around town before making it to Mike and Zians.
The Christmas wreath in the window with the cards? Well, that was a tradition that Sarah and Luke started. Mikes father had taken the tradition from them.
And when Zian’s grandfather arrives, he talks about how he loves America and he owes his life to an American. A doctor named Charlie that had saved him.
You guess it – I was a crying mess. I think we need to have stories like this – ones that show us the complexity of family but remind us that family can also be chosen. The way that the world is so big and truly so small is just something that that we all know.
I do not like Christmas. I admit it. It’s for personal reasons. But movies like this remind me that Christmas doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It really can be healing. It’s a matter of how we choose to embrace it or let go of the pain we could feel around it.
It’s movies like this that make me want to honor tradition. They make me want to love Christmas again.
CHRISTMAS CHEER: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
