Hallmark movies Archives - View from the Front Porch

1 12, 2025

Christmas Movies – A Holiday Tradition

By judythemorgan|2025-11-30T15:12:43-06:00December 1st, 2025|A Writer's Life, Christmas, Holidays|2 Comments

Christmas movies have become a holiday staple.

The Hallmark Channel began its “Countdown to Christmas” programming in 2009. In 2019, Hannukkah-themed movies were added to the lineup, and now Hallmark offers a broad spectrum of holiday subjects and stars. Currently, Lifetime, Netflix, and others have joined in offering similar movies.

Hallmark television movies begin in mid-October and run through December every year. Originally only aired in the US, they now also air in Canada and Europe.

Opinions about holiday movies vary. Critics say, “October is too early!” “Too cheesy!” “Poor acting!” “Cliched dialogue!” “Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all!” That last may be true since there’s a Hallmark Christmas Movie Bingo game that you can play as you watch.

But viewing numbers don’t lie. Millions watch these formulaic and peppy holiday films. And, yes, I am one of them.

One of my favorite Hallmark movies so far this year is Season 2 of the Mistletoe Murders series. The episodes have my three favorite things – Christmas, mystery, and romance combine into a relaxing evening’s viewing.

Of course, no holiday movie viewing is complete without the oldies, White Christmas (1954) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946).

White Christmas has it all — romance, Rogers and Hammerstein songs, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney singing, and Danny Kaye dancing. Nothing sets the holiday mood better for me than watching the musical set in New England.

I suspect many of my readers weren’t around when it debuted in 1954. But I’m guessing everyone has heard the song and watched the classic. This is my favorite scene.

Now, don’t you feel more in the holiday spirit? Ironic, too, since the classic song, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” was written tongue-in-cheek by Irving Berlin, a Jew who did not much care for the holiday.

What’s your favorite holiday movie for getting in the holiday spirit?

Welcome December

By judythemorgan|2019-12-01T19:06:55-06:00December 2nd, 2019|Holidays|1 Comment

That means hearing “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Christmas hymns like “Carol of the Bells.” Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas songs—in December. I love Christmas hymns year round and wish we sang those more throughout the year.

But Christmas songs? We’ve been hearing them now for two months.

Hallmark Christmas movies started in October too. Granted most were reruns of older movies, but I was slow to Christmas movies bandwagon and many have been new-to-me. But I’m getting kinda sick of Christmas movies too.

I sense others may share my feelings and be on the verge of Christmas overload with three weeks still to go.

For December blogs, I’m not doing tradition Christmas topics. I’m going to talk blog statistics for 2019 instead.

I’m a cynic about statistics because numbers can be manipulated. Think about it margins of error are rarely disclosed and those margins can change the stated statistical results.

So why am I talking about statistics? WordPress.com offers statistical data about our blogs and looking at that data helps me determine the course of my blog for the next year.

I learn some interesting things. July and August had the most blog views and March was a close third. November doubled the views for all three months.

Curious, I checked to see which November blogs received the most views in those months. Overwhelmingly, Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day received the most views.

The topic: “Irish Blessing for Thanksgiving.” I offer that Thanksgiving blessing every year. I guess this year more folks wanted an Irish blessing for their turkey.

Did you miss the blog? You can check it out here: https://judythewriter.com/irish-blessing-for-thanksgiving/

Next week I’ll be sharing how many views come from countries outside the United States. That was a true eye-opener. Can you guess which countries the blog viewers came from?

ARE YOU A PIDDLER?

By judythemorgan|2012-03-07T08:15:29-06:00March 7th, 2012|one word Wednesday, Uncategorized|7 Comments

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY and today’s word is PIDDLE. No not what puppies and kittens and small children do. Piddling is spending time in a trifling, or ineffective way according to Dictionary.com

Some call it dawdling. The dictionary defines it as wasteful. I’m not so sure about that wasteful part. I think we all need piddle time.

Southerners are said to have fine-tuned the act of passing time, without waste or regret into a fine art. The whole idea of piddling is to kill time, but without any great effort or much meaning, according to Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. He claims it’s a cause worthy of lifelong study in his February 2012 Southern Living essay column, The Fine Art of Piddling.

Piddling is not a necessity. In fact in most circles, it’s frowned upon. In Western pragmatism, we have to do most of the time. I’m a diehard multi-tasker. I loathe just sitting and doing nothing. Though you will find me stopping to smell the roses, not for long! The one exception–I can easily lose myself in a good book for hours until I come to THE END. Much like Rick Bragg described his wife, I piddle with purpose.

But sometimes, piddling’s a forced condition. My latest piddling was neither planned nor welcomed, an unfortunate necessity. A torn rotator cuff took me down. I’ve had no choice but to kill time waiting to regain full use of my repaired shoulder muscles. Weeks in an immobilizing sling, now Attila the Hun physical therapy.

I’ve whittled away the hours sleeping with my guard dogs at my side.Or we watched movies. Turner and Hallmark movie channels mostly. I learned a lot about plotting and story development from those so I guess technically it wasn’t wasted time.

We also found some fascinating History channel offerings like Pawn Stars and American Restoration. Toby, Buster and I learned a lot! I really missed my daytime soap operas. Made me mad all over again that CBS canceled Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

Timing was the pits too. Two weeks into Kristen Lamb’s Social Media class. Wore me out typing one handed to get in my tweets, FB, and blog out there.I’ll be out of the sling soon and up to speed on the keyboard. But I’m thinking I’m gonna miss the piddling. Ironically, it’s been relaxing, refreshing and renewing. I’m thinking I’ll keep at least some piddling a part of every day.

Sentence Game Time: Dictionary.com suggests He wasted the day piddling around.

YOUR TURN: Have a sentence to share? Or a comment about your piddle habits or a time you were forced into piddling?