Rueben's Ramblings

The Hallmark Channel movie Hats Off To Christmas will debut on December 14 at 8 PM.

Mia (Haylie Duff), the loyal and hard-working manager of her small town’s Christmas hat shop, is blindsided when her boss of over ten years asks her to train his son, Nick (Antonio Cupo from Bomb Girls), for a vacant upper-management position that Mia had been coveting. Although Nick is a handsome, successful New York City business consultant, Mia finds training him frustrating until Nick takes an interest in Mia’s son Scotty, helping Scotty with a pumpkin carving contest. However, Mia’s faith in Nick quickly diminishes when Nick fails to show up at the contest. To protect her son from further disappointment, Mia tries to keep Nick out of her and Scotty’s fragile life, and Nick must decide if staying in the small town of Wilsonville is worth giving up the big-city perks he once had in New York.

Here is a trailer for Hats Off to Christmas.

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The Lifetime movie A Snow Globe Christmas will debut on December 14 at 10 PM.

A cynical television executive (Alicia Witt from Friday Night Lights) looks at the perfect world inside a snow globe and rants about how the Christmas movies she produces fall short of real life. Upset, she tries to smash the globe in to pieces, but instead, ends up knocking herself in the head. She wakes up in a perfect snow-covered town, married to her ex, Ted (Donald Faison from Scrubs), with two kids. Trying desperately to return to her old life, she slowly realizes the importance of family and begins to find happiness.

The cast also includes Christina Milian and Trevor Donovan.

Here is a trailer for A Snow Globe Christmas.

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On December 14, Christmas on the Bayou is the new Lifetime holiday movie that will debut at 8 PM

When successful New York marketing executive Katherine (Hilarie Burton from White Collar) discovers her workaholic ways are taking a toll on her eight-year-old son, Zac, she decides to spend Christmas with him and her mother, Lilly (Markie Post) in her home town on the bayou. When Caleb (Tyler Hilton from One Tree Hill) tries to rekindle a childhood romance and convince her to move back home, Katherine is torn between the bright lights of the big city and the quiet, gentler rhythms of her Southern roots. Only a Christmas miracle orchestrated by Papa Noel (Ed Asner) can steer her heart to her true home.

Country singer Randy Travis also stars.

Here is a trailer for Christmas on the Bayou.

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On December 8 and December 9, the two-night movie Bonnie & Clyde will debut at 9 PM (both nights) – simultaneously – on Lifetime, A&E and the History Channel.

Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger will star in the title roles of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the Depression-era outlaw couple whose crime spree enraptured the American public. Rumored to have a sixth-sense to see events before they happened, Barrow was always able to stay one step ahead of the law as they escaped capture time and again. His one blind spot was Parker, who was intent on becoming famous and fed on the alluring media attention, pushing Barrow to commit riskier and more dangerous crimes to generate bigger headlines and make them the most famous criminals of the modern era.

The cast includes Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Elizabeth Reaser, Lane Garrison and Sarah Hyland.

Here is a trailer for the two-night event Bonnie & Clyde.

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The holiday themed movie Guess Who’s Coming To Christmas will debut on the cable channel UP on December 8 at 7 PM.

When his high-maintenance girlfriend Chelsea (Olivia Cheng from Supernatural) refuses to cook, jaded rock star Dax (Drew Lachey from the boy band 98 Degrees) is found by New York paparazzi passed out in his car with a frozen holiday turkey in the passenger seat. In order to repair his tarnished image, Dax publicly agrees to grant a fan’s “Dear Santa” Christmas wish. To his dismay, his manager Jason (Matt Ward from Christmas Comes Home to Canaan) drops Dax off in Cedar Grove, a small Midwest town, where he’s committed to spend a week and perform in a local holiday Christmas concert. At first, Dax is horrified to be stuck in the Reverend Harding (Peter Lacroix from Smallville) family’s home under strict rules and a curfew. But he soon becomes charmed by the Reverend’s wife Lynne (Ellie Harvie from The Holiday Heist), teenage son Tim (Evan Bird from Falling Skies) and very surprised contest winner and daughter Kelly (MacKenzie Porter from Tom, Dick & Harriet), a sassy, unemployed book jacket writer. Dax begins to appreciate what the Hardings have as a family – love, caring and an uplifting holiday spirit.

NOTE: There will be encore presentations of this movie at 9 and 11 PM.

Here is a behind the scenes look at Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas.

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On December 8, the ABC Family movie Holidaze will debut at 8 PM

High powered executive Melody Gerard (Jennie Garth) returns to her sleepy hometown to try and convince everyone to let her company build a giant new discount store. But she’s unexpectedly met with resistance by the townspeople, led by her childhood sweetheart, Carter (Cameron Matheson). Desperate to get out of town and back to her “real” life, Melody takes a spill and wakes up in an alternate universe where she never took the job and is married to Carter.

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Christmas Belle is the new ION movie that will debut at 9 PM on December 8

With her California hometown in the rearview mirror, Belle heads north on business to catalog the sale of a large mansion. While the job is a dream, the client, Hunter Lowell, is not. But, as the two spend more time together, his icy demeanor begins to melt. Although their relationship is budding, Belle’s long-time suitor, Tony, arrives, sending mixed signals to Hunter while adding chaos to the holiday season.

The cast includes Haylie Duff, Nicholas Gonzalez and C. Thomas Howell.

Here is the trailer for Christmas Belle.

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On December 7, the Hallmark Channel movie Santa Switch will air at 8 PM.

As the Christmas season approaches, Dan Ryebeck (Ethan Erickson) is facing unemployment, and struggling to pay for the gifts he thinks will impress his two kids, Sally (Annie Thurman) and Joe (Griffin Cleveland). Always chasing a new business idea, Dan hasn’t had time for family, including his wife Linda (Anne Dudek), who is finally fed up and filing divorce papers. Threatened by Linda’s handsome and successful young boss, Trevor (Steve Valentine), Dan knows he must make this Christmas the best one yet to win his family back. But after auditioning for a mall Santa job and quickly losing his cool, Dan is frustrated and broke, blaming the holidays for his troubles. Little does he know his luck is about to turn around when the real Kris Kringle (Donovan Scott) pays him a visit from the North Pole. Deciding to take a vacation and leave Dan in charge, Kris sends his hard-working elf assistant Eddie (Sean Astin) to guide Dan as the new Santa Claus, hoping he’ll learn a lesson in Christmas spirit.

Here is a trailer for Santa Switch.

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On December 5, a new adaptation of The Sound of Music (the Broadway version NOT the beloved film) will air LIVE on NBC at 8 PM.

Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and singer-actress Carrie Underwood will appear in the lead roles of the classic story of Georg and Maria von Trapp in the story set in pre-World War II Austria about an aspiring nun who leaves the Abby to become a governess for the widower Captain von Trapp’s seven children and finds herself falling in love with her employer and questioning her religious calling.

The cast also includes Audra McDonald (Private Practice), Christian Borle (Smash) and Laura Benanti (Royal Pains).

Here is a behind the scenes look at the LIVE performance of The Sound of Music.

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