Everyone has their favorite holiday food throughout the veritable all-you-can-eat buffet that takes place from November to January. Be it tender roast beef, sweet potato pie, crisp golden turkey, or nutmeg-dusted eggnog, there's at least one delicious treat that almost everyone looks forward to each winter. For many people, Lifetime movies have become the most scrumptious and sometimes saccharine holiday comfort food that becomes ever-more anticipated each year as Halloween fades into the fall of Thanksgiving.
The network has been programming an annual It's a Wonderful Lifetime slate of holiday movies that's only grown with each year. In 2022, both brand-new and classic Lifetime holiday movies will kick off on November 5th with new movies every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all season long. In addition to the live programming of the network, a press release states that "the Lifetime app and Lifetime VOD will showcase over 40 Lifetime favorite holiday titles. Starting November 4th, Lifetime Movie Club will also have 40 of Lifetime’s best holiday movies available to stream commercial-free."
With so many holiday and Christmas movies drifting our way like soft snowfall, let's take a look at highlight some of the most anticipated movies coming this winter through It's a Wonderful Lifetime's slate of programming.
Merry Swissmas (Nov. 5)
Alex (activist and Full House star Jodie Sweetin) has wonderful memories of Christmas with her best friend Beth (Mikaela Lily Davies), until Beth starts dating Alex’s ex, Jesse (David Pinard). Because she has missed the last few Christmases with family due to her demanding job as an architect, Alex is excited to spend the holidays with her mother, Caroline (Jane Wheeler), who is opening an inn in Switzerland.
Much to her dismay, she learns that Jesse and Beth are also visiting for the inn’s opening. When Alex meets Liam (the infinitely charming Tim Rozon), a single father and the manager of her mother’s inn, Liam attempts to show her all the Christmas traditions and culture of Switzerland and helps Alex open herself up to love and forgiveness this holiday season. In a kind of G-rated Christmas twist on Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Merry Swissmas is sure to be a rom-com delight filled with wonderfully uncomfortable moments.
Christmas on Mistletoe Lake (Nov. 10)
What should be one of the more visually stunning films released during the It's a Wonderful Lifetime season, Christmas on Mistletoe Lake looks to take full advantage of its setting and the imagery of the holiday season. Every Christmas, Reilly Shore (Genelle Williams) picks a random spot on the map to take a scenic trip. This year, that destination is the quaint hamlet of Mistletoe Lake. As she arrives, Reilly discovers that the town’s lone bed & breakfast is fully booked due to the town’s annual Christmas Harbor Festival.
When 12-year-old Emma (Hattie Kragten) invites Reilly to stay on her dad’s boat, she learns that Emma’s dad Raymond Mitchell (Corey Sevier) is selling the vessel and can’t participate in the festival. A melancholic Emma enlists Reilly’s help to convince Raymond to enter into the festival so that they can have one last perfect Christmas on the Lake in this quiet, sweet movie.
Reindeer Games Homecoming (Nov. 12)
MacKenzie Graves (the beautiful Sarah Drew of Grey’s Anatomy and Amber Brown) is an intelligent, competitive, nerdy biology teacher in Vermont whose father, the beloved fire chief and the heart of the town’s holiday fundraising tradition “The Reindeer Games,” has passed away. Every year since his death, she competes with his former team of retired firefighters in order to win the Reindeer Games and keep his tradition alive in Reindeer Games Homecoming.
Except, this holiday, her world is rocked when fading Hollywood star and MacKenzie’s high school crush, Chase Weston (Justin Bruening, also of Grey’s Anatomy and Sweet Magnolias), comes home for Christmas to visit his pregnant sister and is begrudgingly roped into participating in the Games. When the opportunity to compete against her former love interest arises, MacKenzie decides to show him up and win the Kris Kringle Cup at all costs. Of course, as the Reindeer Games heat up, so does the rekindling of their romance.
Santa Bootcamp (Nov. 19)
When event planner Emily Strauss (Emily Kinney of the film The Enormity of Life and The Walking Dead) is hired by mall magnate Ed Mancini (Patrick Cassidy of Castle) to stage the ultimate Christmas party for his elitist, wealthy investors, Emily finds herself being sent to a Christmas-themed boot camp to find the perfect Santa for the gala, along with the inspiration she will need to make it a success.
While there, Emily meets Belle (the amazing Rita Moreno of West Side Story and much more), the boot camp's drill sergeant with a heart of gold, who helps Emily rediscover the magic of Christmas and find romance along the way. The star-studded cast of this ebullient, festive film is filled with Tony Award winners and other endearing character actors that are sure to surprise you.
Steppin' Into the Holiday (Nov. 25)
Broadway star Billy Holiday (holiday movie king Mario Lopez of Saved By the Bell) returns to his hometown for Christmas after being abruptly fired as the from his TV series Celebrity Dance Off. While there, he encounters Rae (Jana Kramer), the charismatic owner of the local dance studio where Billy’s young nephew is her star student. Rae is planning a dance recital fundraiser during the holidays with the goal of taking her students to see a Broadway show in New York City. Billy volunteers to help Rae, and of course the sparks start flying in Steppin' Into the Holiday.
Saturday Night Live alum and all-around delight Cheri Oteri stars as Dallas, Billy's high-powered, fast-talking, Hollywood agent, and Courtney Lopez, Mario’s real-life wife, appears as Joanna, the charismatic host of Celebrity Dance Off, who is tapped to replace Billy (her ex) as executive producer and head judge after his popularity hits the skids.
The 12 Days of Christmas Eve (Nov. 26)
The 12 Days of Christmas Eve is the story of Brian Conway (Kelsey Grammer of Frasier), a Scrooge-like businessman whose relationships with those around him have really suffered. While this Christmas season has been the most successful for his business, he’s divorced, his relationship with his daughter Michelle (Spencer Grammer, Kelsey's real daughter) is strained, and he doesn’t have a meaningful connection with his only granddaughter.
After Brian gets into a car accident on Christmas Eve, Santa gives him 12 chances to re-do the day and repair the relationships in his life in what's set to be a combination of It's a Wonderful Life and Groundhog Day. The chemistry between the leads, along with Grammer's proven skills with holiday-themed movies, is sure to make this film a success.
A New Orleans Noel (Dec. 3)
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Grace Hill (Keshia Knight Pulliam) and Anthony Brown (Brad James) may have studied architecture together in college, but the trajectory of their lives took them on completely separate paths. However, when they’re both hired to work on the home of Loretta Brown (the iconic singer Patti LaBelle), these opposites attract over the Christmas season. Tim Reid stars as Marcel Lirette, a handsome, retired friend who moves back to town after years away and sparks some love in Lorretta's life. LaBelle is a powerful, fun presence, and the architectural details of the film in its beautiful titular city sets A New Orleans Noel apart from your average Christmas romance.
Kirk Franklin's The Night Before Christmas (Dec. 10)
Stuck in a blizzard on Christmas Eve, estranged mother and daughter Journee (Naturi Naughton) and Nia (Lorea Turner) are forced to hole up in a church where the entrapped parishioners lament the cancelation of their yearly holiday concert. Christmas spirit takes hold when youth pastor Adam (Luke James) and an ethereal music teacher (Kirk Franklin, one of the most soulful artists in Christian music and a legendary choirmaster) help Journee and Nia reconcile their differences through music, faith, and love. Kirk Fraklin's The Night Before Christmas should be a musically buoyant, delightful, and heartwarming movie that celebrates family, community, and spirituality.
A Christmas to Treasure (Dec. 16)
In A Christmas to Treasure, the passing of the beloved community matriarch Ms. Marley reunites six separated friends for one last holiday treasure hunt in their hometown. While they scavenge around and relive some sweet childhood memories are relived, a tender romance develops between Austin Craig (Taylor Frey) and his former best friend Everett Matthews (Kyle Dean Massey). A sweet, subtle, and patient film that embraces the universal beauty of the holiday spirit, A Christmas to Treasure is sure to be one of the most significant films of the It's a Wonderful Lifetime season.