Christmas-Reviewer Review Date 1/22/2018PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME REVIEWERS THAT ONLY HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I REVIEW MOVIES & SPECIALS AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN! I HAVE DISCOVERED MANY GEMS IN MY QUEST TO SEE AS MANY " C H R I S T M A S " MOVIES AS I CAN. Now Someone keeps reporting my reviews. I guess they are jealous because I do tell the truth. I want to point out that I never make snide remarks about actors weight or real life sexual orientation. If there acting is terrible or limited "I talk about that". If a story is bad "I will mention that" So why am I being "picked on"? IMDB? When one of my reviews gets deleted IMDB will not even tell me what someone found offensive. Well on to this review.Just as her new romance blossoms romance blossoms, a single mother is dismayed when her boyfriend, a military sergeant, is deployed right before Christmas AGAIN. Determined to not let it ruin the holidays for her and her children they decide to give back to the struggling military families on his base and, as their efforts go viral, they are rewarded in ways they never imagined. This is a very nice story. I am glad how they did almost every scene. There ending is more than perfect. Great Effort From Hallmark

bkornegayh This movie had an interesting storyline--life with an active-duty army ranger. I enjoyed it, and have purchased it.I thought the character of Olivia Young got beat up a bit for having fears about the ranger's safety and questions about being left alone to raise children during his long assignments who-knows-where. I think Olivia's concerns were realistic, especially given some of the scenes depicting the reality of family life with a loved one overseas.I appreciated the references to God in this Christmas movie. That's getting more and more rare.I also want to mention there was some inappropriate touching between the army ranger and the child actress playing his little girl. (It was during a dinner scene.) I hope it was an accident. :-(

EricBrunel I saw this movie in pretty bad conditions: it was airing on French TV, and, as basically all Hallmark movies, it was targeted at middle-aged housewives, who are supposed not to be able to speak English at all and to want everything in French. So no English version available, only dubbed in French, and therefore with rewritten dialog. And for this kind of movie, let's say the writers and the dubbing actors are rarely encouraged to do their best...So it took me a bit of time to get into it, the beginning feeling a bit awkward with the actors speaking in a voice that isn't theirs and having sometimes cheesy lines of rewritten dialog. But from when Olivia and Scott meet for the second time and the "Operation Christmas" actually starts to get prepared, I got hooked. No Santa Claus or so-called "Christmas magic" here: it's a story of real people in quite a difficult situation who are just trying to get their little share of happiness in this supposedly joyful time of the year. This is the kind of movie that relies a lot on the actors, and I guess that for such a film often considered "minor", some would just "do the job" and hurry back home for dinner. Here, the whole cast is great and does an excellent work. But one of them especially shines, and that's Tricia Helfer: she gives everything she's got to her character, and really makes you feel for this woman, torn between the excitement of a starting romance she thought would no more happen, and her high doubts about herself being able to cope with the kind of life you get with a man in the military. And let me be honest: mostly because of her performance and in spite of the awkward French dubbing, I ended up with my eyes not completely dry.So of course, there are probably some factual inaccuracies and the ending is quite cliché. Well now, as someone else has pointed out: this is a Hallmark movie, it has to have a cliché ending. But all in all, this is one of the best Christmas movies I've seen, and if it ever reaches my side of the Atlantic as a DVD, I'll definitely buy it - and probably get another weird look from my wife for getting this kind of "girly" stuff...

gehewe I rate it a good but not great movie. The lead actress and actor were OK in their roles but did not quite make it superb. The story especially at the beginning had some surprise in it, but then faded a little when the "Operation Christmas" got started. The issue of separation of husband and wife for these military Ranger Units was brought out and this brought about the main struggle for the lead actress. The movie did not pull off this struggle in a compelling way, but the ending was well done. The little girl in "A Heavenly Christmas" was also in this movie and pulled an emotional "I love you" which added to the drama. I would say the movie was more of a drama than romance. It passed the doze test (no one fell asleep) and I would probably not watch it again.