Christmas Bedtime Stories (2022 TV Movie) User Reviews (64)

Just hit me wrong

[Jackbv123 · 5/10 · 30 October 2022]

All week I'd been waiting for this movie for two reasons. 1 - I've come to expect that network showing it, HMM, has Christmas movies that are not just romance, but some of the best Christmas movies I love because the stories are heartwarming. 2 - Erin Cahill is one of my all-time favorite actors in this genre.

Real spoilers ahead.

I'm having a hard time working through why this movie left me completely disappointed. For one thing, well into the movie I started thinking "this story can't end happily". Someone is going to lose out. Pierce is a really great guy. While he said the right things to Danielle, you know he couldn't let go of everything that easily. He was bowing out for her sake. I wish they would have made Pierce a jerk at least on some level. Then I think I could have see things exclusively from Danielle's level.

Then as the story tells it Colby has been a POW for years. You can say that memories of your family see you through those tough times, but those times aren't tough. They are brutal to the point of impossible. I can't help but think of Homeland. That POW came back deeply scarred and that has to be the norm. Colby is not the same man Danielle loved. Yet in the last few scenes he acts so nonchalant like he had only been gone a few weeks.

Even ignoring Colby's unrealistically good physical and mental health (notice how vigorous he looks), the ending is way too good to be true. It's not just sappy. It's cheesy.

Extremely Disappointed

[haa4 · 4/10 · 31 October 2022]

This was good for 1 hour 45 min. Then it morphed into the strangest ending I've ever seen in a Christmas movie. Steve Lund was wasted in this. Love Erin Cahill but this wasn't for me. For a better moving on story, watch Christmas Homecoming instead.

Seriously, the character played by Erin Cahill just wasn't rootable at all and exhibited no character growth whatsoever throughout the movie. She started and ended the movie in the exact same place emotionally. This seems to be an ongoing pattern at Hallmark since new leadership came in. They seem to think viewers want shock value instead of predictability and usual tropes. The reason the network is successful is because people watch for predictability and tropes.

Not believable

[mizkj · 4/10 · 6 November 2022]

The movie's ending was preposterous and ruined it for me. Hallmark needs to hire some new writers - puleez! I don't want to see formulaic storylines or tropes - I'm sick of the same old, same old from Hallmark. The same story over and over with different actors in different towns. While this movie was a departure from the usual ending, it was completely unbelievable. I want to see really great stories about people finding (or in this case, losing) love. Many people have commented on the inaccuracies with military procedures, etc. This is classic for Hallmark no matter what the story is about. Continuity errors, technical errors abound on most of their movies. It's just lazy writing. They take their audience for granted and it shows.

What the What?! Bad Tidings.

[rebekahrox · 1/10 · 4 November 2022]

Even though his body was never recovered, Danielle's husband has been declared dead by the military. His jet was shot down in the middle of a large sea. Even if he survived the crash, there is no way he could have reached land. It was fully investigated by military intelligence and it was determined that there is no hope he survived. A young mother of an 8 year old, she has turned the corner of her grief, and has gotten engaged to her husbands best friend who has been an unfailing support and a second father to her daughter. Her daughter wants her to tell stories about her dead father to help her remember him. As Danielle starts to recount her history with Colby, She starts to see things (another soldier who resembles him, something he said repeated, a lost ornament found, etc.) in real life. Danielle sees this as signs that the universe is telling her to slow down with Pierce. She thinks that Colby might still be alive. She goes to the base commander, the father of a good friend, to get a better grip on the situation. He lays out all of the whys and wherefores of why he couldn't possibly survive. She is convinced, but the "signs" keep coming. She just can't shake her doubts off. This negatively impacts her relationship with Pierce and they finally break it off, breaking the wonderful wonderful Pierce's heart who is played by the wonderful Steve Lund whom we never hear from again. The night before the dance she sees breaking news that 4 POWs have been found and will soon be coming home. She goes to the base commander for more info, but he tells her that he has already checked and the POWs were all "foreigners." There is no chance. She goes to the dance, and there is her husband bathed in misty light, fit as a fiddle, looking for her there. What the What?! Is it a dream? No. It's not. Is it a psychotic break? No, the daughter sees him too. The family is reunited.

Is there any military-related entity or person that this movie didn't hurt or offend. It makes The base commander and military intelligence look like incompetent fools. Not necessarily for declaring him dead when he wasn't, although that certainly didn't help, but for the misinformation about the POWs being foreigners, killing Danielle's hopes yet again. An apparently when a POW has been recovered, they are given new camouflages and just plopped on a plane and sent back to where his family used to live. No warning or communication to the next of kin, no protocol, no medical or psychological evaluation, no support, no nothing.

For a soldier who was a POW after surviving a horrific plane crash, he looked mighty healthy. More like he'd been spending the 3 years at Club Med of Yemen.

Any military wife who has suffered the tragic loss of their husband and no body was recovered needs to stay far far away from this one.

It is insulting that Hallmark thought they could just conjure up a happy miracle out of absolutely nothing in the last 5 minutes of the movie and think their viewer's hearts would be moved. Hey Hallmark, your viewers have brains too.

And one more thing. Do not cast the wonderful Steve Lund in a movie where he does not get the girl. I venture to guess that that is not going to fly with 95% of your viewership.

Shocker ending ruins the film.

[brittonwayne-287-425268 · 2/10 · 31 October 2022]

This film starts out like the traditional Hallmark Christmas drama. A military widow and daughter are struggling at Christmas time with haunting memories of the lost husband/father. The widow is having a hard time taking the next step because so many events keep bringing back the memory of her husband. The circumstances of his death and his being the only body not recovered from the fatal mission has left a glimmer of hope in her but by all explanation given there is zero percent chance of his still being alive. She is struggling because she has become engaged to his wonderful best friend but her memories are ruining this relationship. She breaks off engagement suddenly and decides to take her daughter to the father daughter dance herself. While the daughter is enjoying the dance she wishes for one more Christmas with her dead husband. This is where it goes bad. From what appeared to be a dream sequence the dead husband appears at the dance in fatigues. Explains how he survived and now he is reunited with the mother and daughter. I keep waiting for the dream sequence to end and lo and behold he really is alive.

You would think the soldier actually being alive would be a good thing however it ruined the film. The way they had him return with no real warning was a shocking twist that you don't want to see in a Hallmark movie I end up feeling bad for her fiancé in the film. The real tragedy is that there are many people who have to accept the death of a loved one when a body isn't recovered and this will just increase their pain. I believe this is the only Hallmark movie I've ever watched that I wish I had not.

This should be called "friend zoned for Christmas"

[dahotnessk · 1/10 · 6 November 2022]

Starring Steve Lund, getting shafted six ways from Tuesday from his so called girlfriend who can't come to terms with the past enough to move on with her life! The poor guy! I see what they were going for but they missed the mark horribly!

Really made the main character look wishy washy, manipulative and down right insulting! Pierce deserved better! This was not whimsical, it was not touching, and it definitely DID NOT pull at my heart strings! Nothing but a mother who refuses to address trauma and allows it to impact her and her child's life!

Maybe If it was their first Christmas where he was presumed missing, Pierce tries to express his feelings all while being there for her, then hubby shows up. That woulda worked for me. Or better yet, he's not in the movie at all and it's just her trying to deal with missing her husband at Christmas time etc. Not this mess!

Was he at a 5 star resort while in captivity?! He looked like he was well fed and stress free! And shouldn't there be some sort of fanfare for the return of a soldier that was released from being a P. O. W!? I honestly don't know what was the point behind this movie.

I am adding this movie to my "never watch, ever ever again" list!

Rank

[renegade-20370 · 2 November 2022]

First, did not care for ending. Second, during the first part of movie it showed husband with a rank of Major. Later when they showed him online talking to to his wife, they showed him with captain bars on. That's right before he was supposed to be killed. WHAT, did he get a demotion? If your going to have some sort of Military movie, then it should be acurate. I'm x-military, and it hurts to think Hallmark would not check facts. We are watching the end now, and he has captain bars on. It's sad to think that Hallmark would let this happen, and that the good actors and actresses had to be in it.

I Wanted so Much to Give this Movie a Higher Rating

[wayfind · 6/10 · 15 December 2022]

I agree with so many people here about the absurdly quick turnaround and wrap up at the ending, and also about the faux pas anyone who had been in the military would notice. The first thing that shocked me early in the movie was a photo of the missing hero/husband in uniform giving a totally unacceptable salute with his wrist bent. Hallmark, if you're going to do military movies, please, please at the very least teach your actors how to salute!

I'm different from a lot of the other reviewers in that, early on, I began to see that the movie might well end with the husband, Colby, returning. After all, it HAS happened that military personnel who were missing and thought dead have been located and returned, alive, to their families. Yes, that's an extraordinary situation, but I don't see why Hallmark should be denied the right to make a film about an extraodinary, but sometimes realistic, occurence.

Since I have had "mystical," weird and confusing experiences myself, I had no trouble believing that Danielle, played by Erin Cahill, was receiving "signs," and that those signs were from her husband's Higher Self, signalling that he was still alive.

However, I had a HUGE problem with the way the movie was wrapped up. You don't take a presumably dead Marine husband and have him suddenly show up in a hallway at his kid's school on "Daddy Daughter Dance Night." You don't have a General who knows absolutely nothing about one of the Marines under his command who has escaped from an enemy compound in the Middle East and made it all the way to the U. S. Embassy! You don't have a wife who, suddenly - with no preparation and in an unexpected place - seeing the husband she has been told was dead for the past three years, just looks surprised and kisses him and does not PASS OUT.

This movie devotes only about a minute and a half (if that!) to the husband, Colby, explaining how he got from an enemy compound in Yemen to a dance at his daughter's school in Virginia, USA - which he apparently accomplished in about three hours time. (At least, that's how it felt to the viewer.) Come on, People!

Hallmark has made wonderful movies about miracles before: an unknown grandfather who shows up in spirit to help his grown granddaughter, etc. This COULD have been one of them. Heck, you wouldn't even have to believe in miracles, since such wonderous returns from captivity have actually happened before in real life, not just in "movie life."

As it turned out, my "6" rating is pretty generous due to errors that should have been caught and fixed before silly Hallmark foisted this "could have been great" movie with its preposterous ending on a trusting, hopeful viewership.

All the actors were absolutely great. They deserved better than this.

Unbelievable ending

[lil-01126 · 3/10 · 3 November 2022]

I really wanted to like this movie. Erin Cahill and Steve Lund were good, but the script was awful. The attention to military detail was lacking. Was Colby a Major or a Captain? The General was not even aware of the most important detail. How he didn't know one of his men was alive was beyond me. I felt so bad for Pierce. He loved her and her daughter so much. The flashback scenes were probably the best part of the movie. The ending happened so quickly and was not believable at all. How you wrap up a movie in the last five minutes is just silly. Will not be rewatching this. I gave it 3 stars for just Erin and Steve.

That was different.

[adamjohns-42575 · 7/10 · 26 January 2023]

Christmas Bedtime Stories (2022) -

Finally! An ending that was not so predictable, I really liked that things were a little bit different instead of what Hallmark and the rest of them have been churning out for years.

Okay, so it was a tad twee and a slight stretch of the imagination, but the heart and soul was still there and it will be nice to watch these films going forward without believing that I know what is going to happen right from the start, because I might be surprised as I was by this one. I just hope that they don't disappoint.

The story was sweet and not too over the top with the whole "War Heroes" trope that some of them have had. It was there, but not hammered at me with a corn fed, ham and cheese stick.

I've always liked Steve Lund, he's not exactly hard to look at and in the role of Pierce he was a very charming and loveable character.

Erin Cahill has always generally been fine in these films too and I could appreciate her characters emotional state as she portrayed Danielle. Her worries for her daughter and the uncertainty of her past was easy to understand and I think too often swept away for the sake of the blossoming romances in films and that's where they have come across as hard to believe sometimes. People shouldn't have to get over relationships so quickly, whether through separation, divorce or death. It was nice that they had considered that a bit more in this film.

I personally liked the soppy ending, which did bring a little bit of water to my optical organs if I'm honest, but I could see why others might have found it to be too saccharine.

I'll watch it again for sure though, even if none of the soldiers or Mr Lund got even topless.

7/10.

Not what I expected

[Ekm828511 · 1/10 · 30 October 2022]

I was looking forward to this movie but it wasn't what I expected it to be. I was hoping for a well-written story about honoring the love of your past and embracing your future after loss. The ending was very far fetched and makes you wonder why Steve Lund and his talent were in this movie? So he could be the stand-in fiancé for two hours and then dumped right before his friend comes back from the dead? Hey, friend-while you were gone for three years, oh yea, I was with your wife? The way it was written took away from the love story with her missing husband and made you feel bad for Lund's character dealing with on and off treatment after Cahill's character happily accepted his proposal. I adore Erin Cahill's work, she's very talented and one of my favorite leading ladies in Christmas movies but this movie's storyline recipe wasn't my cup of tea.

So good!! I disagree with the low ratings, it's a Must See!

[Abettysdesk · 10/10 · 2 November 2022]

My hubs and I REALLY LIKED it! Sometimes little signs happen to us, and I believe it's to let us know we're on the right track. All the characters were so believable and realistic. It felt like a reality show.

You gotta watch this one! I loved it! 10 out of 10!!

Signs: The stories that she was telling her daughter about her husband and then what happened each time after she would tell one.

It wasn't your typical Hallmark movie. We loved that! Thanks for venturing out! They gave us a new interesting plot and helped us to feel what it would really be like if "this" happened to us. At least that's how I felt about it.

Life isn't all unicorns and rainbows. There are a lot of tough things that happen in life that you have to work through and walk through and hopefully be better for after you go through them.

OH! And there were great songs! Tyrone Wells and The Sugar Sisters come to mind!

Thank you Hallmark for a high quality film!!

A maternal story

[terraishtar · 6/10 · 1 November 2022]

I like the movie even with the sappy the maudlin, she is a good mother is a very good actress, but that is all the problem here, she is an actress no for romantic movies any more, not because her, it is because Hallmark has labeled very bad. Today there are very good designers that can stylize for her a great personality as an mature woman, but she insist in not modify her hair, she is traditional in her way, she insist in this style maternal, realistic, and she needs to be take care more of the original clothes, can be served as an example the care that hallmark has now with another actress very beautiful, so that's all the problem for me, because i like design, and Erin Cahill please somebody takes care of her, please the eyes is so much make up on her eyes, she is a beautiful woman if you do original things with hes clothes, not necessary to be more classical, I don't like classics clothes in her, she needs another thing, more like middle of elegance middle of transformation in a modern woman and a little wild and she deserved to be treated better.

All was fine for a Hallmark romantic movie, until the end then...

[JS-416 · 2/10 · 6 November 2022]

It wasn't even a swing and a miss, it seemed like a stick in the eye.

Maybe my frame of reference is wrong as I am not in the military and don't know anyone who has experienced anything like this, but I could relate to this movie up until the very end, when I felt it did a huge disservice to anyone who has lost someone in the military.

The acting was fine and the characters were relatable. The emotions that Erin Cahill's character goes through, from loss to acceptance to looking for 'signs' was all understandable. Steve Lund was good as a supporting suitor. Alice Comer was cute as the daughter.

As I wrote, all was fine, until the end of the movie, where it felt condescending and patronizing to the emotions that people who experience this tragedy go through. It was to the point that I ( and my family) felt bad for anyone else watching.

Small Spoiler -- even if the husband did make it home, the ending scenario was the most unrealistic conclusion to the story to the point you might think it was a dream, right up until it's real and you don't even feel happy for the family. How do you actually make a family reunion less relatable?

Content grossly false, ending - just dumb

[macvguy-51829 · 4/10 · 4 November 2022]

Presume there were NO military advisers employed on this movie's script. Spouses of deceased military are promptly moved to their "home of record" or to their off-base choice. Common to keep ties if living in the local town and connect to wives groups, services, facilities, even social activities, but no one can keep living on base. No one. Having retired from the military, I know of no USMC "Camps" that have a 3-star general heading the forces there. There's only 62 in all the Marines and they are in the pentagon or overseas major commands. A one star or Colonel would be the highest commander on a 'camp'. With millions of veterans potentially watching military themed movies, this is a slap in the face.

Ending ruined this Hallmark movie

[Jessica169 · 1/10 · 12 November 2022]

We're two women who love the fluffy predictable Hallmark Christmas movies normally, as a break from the stressful real world and even the other kind of shows we watch and also love with plenty of action, violence, sex, etc. But this one ends in a ridiculous out of the blue way that destroys the whole story of the movie. It also makes no sense for how things work in the world. It's a complete fantasy ending far in excess of the bit of romantic fantasy we allow for in a Hallmark movie. It left us frustrated and wishing we had watched something else. Skip this one. Plenty of other Hallmark movies this year, (and Lifetime, Netflix, UpTV!)

Too much

[allisonjoys · 3/10 · 12 November 2022]

I'll echo what everyone else is saying- the ending was ridiculous. I did not shed a tear. I sat and watched in disbelief as the writers managed to destroy a love story about loss and moving on. Every single feel good moment of the movie suddenly meant nothing.

The 3 stars are for the actors. Despite the weird storyline they gave quality performances.

Hallmark usually delivers on the happy ending by following a formula where we all see the one guy is not good for the leading lady so that when the break-up happens we are happy about it. This one was out of the blue. It was sad and I felt bad for Pierce.

Not really sure what happened??

[BA-9964 · 1/10 · 3 December 2022]

I enjoyed the movie until the last 15 minutes. What the heck is to fill children and families with the thought that the United States Service got it all wrong? What a way to put the thought of anyone that has passed can somehow come home, or if you are having difficulties excepting someones has passed the more signs you see the more chances of him walking in all fine, healthy and alive it will be? Terrible choice of story line and upset that Hallmark has done this to give false hope. I usually will watch hallmark movies a few times but this one will not be the case. Sad because I like Steve Lund.

Wasted time

[homesunlimited · 1/10 · 31 October 2022]

One of the worst movies ever made. I understand that anything is possible in movies but this is unbelievably impossible. The military is apparently inept, unable to determine if a soldier has perished or not. An incredible slap in the face of Gold Star Families.

I feel sorry for Erin Cahill and Steve Lund. Their names will be forever linked to literally one of the worst Hallmark movies.

I found it difficult to watch, the movie never found a groove. I contemplated switching to GAC after the first 30 minutes but I figured it would come around. Wrong.

I probably would've enjoyed washing the dog or cleaning the refrigerator more.

Wonderful, sensitive, heart warming story

[bmiller59 · 10/10 · 28 November 2022]

For all the reviews that ripped and criticized Christmas Bedtime Stories...really? Really?

I understand everyone has different optics in watching movies, I get it. But, I cannot believe there were so many negative and poor reviews. I guess I should take it at face value that with so many poor reviews that it must be true. I don't even know where to begin refuting the less than complimentary comments, so I'm not even going to try.

When I watch HM movies I do my very best to NOT read the reviews or glance at the overall rating. I succeed most times with the rating and almost always with not reading reviews.

This was a wonderful story, and except for it ending abruptly and it was kinda a far fetched ending the story was beautiful. I first thought Danielle, played by Erin Cahill was either dreaming or fantasizing at the end. I'm glad it was neither. Pierce, played by Steve Lund was also in tune with Danielle.

If you read my review and the less than positive reviews before watching Christmas Bedtime Stories, give it a chance. Hopefully you'll be left enjoying it.

Horrible Ending

[jboles-21211 · 1/10 · 2 November 2022]

Stunned that these writers would do such a poor job of changing the direction of this story so radically in the last 4 min of the movie. Just stunned. Up until that point it was an awesome movie. The awesomeness was totally lost in the last few minutes. I'll never watch it again. You would think that the writers would continue to build on the story they had been telling, but rather than do that they decided to add a "surprise" ending that was actually unexpected and not hoped for by the viewer. They failed miserably. The ending was very poorly "set up," and actually the writers missed an excellent opportunity to tell finish a story centered in reality that would have been heart warming, to say the least.

Missed Opportunity

[nicoleromerodesign · 4/10 · 2 November 2022]

This could have been a beautiful story of how a woman, a mother, who had survived her grief and come out the other side. It could have helped those who have suffered similar losses by giving them hope of finding love again and showing the beauty of a blended family. Instead they have set up a dangerous story that will keep those grieving clinging to the past. If I had seen this shortly after my fiancé died, I would have watched it over and over again because it would have kept me in a state of tears and wishful thinking. I am a big believer of signs, but those signs could have been used in a Hello Dolly way to give this woman permission to move on. The story was just not set up for this type of ending and it seems like two different people wrote it with very little collaboration. Even if the ending had been acceptable, it was so inaccurate in terms of how this man's return would have gone - from his looks to the protocol. It almost makes you wonder if the woman is dreaming at the end. I was just shocked by the decisions that went into this film and I hope these reviews will be taken to heart. I feel sorry for the actors who did a fantastic job with the content they were given. Thankfully I watched Kismet Christmas after this which actually gave me the satisfaction I was hoping to gain from this film.

Missed the mark

[claudiab-87584 · 2/10 · 2 November 2022]

The premise was ok - widow can't accept that her missing husband is lost forever. But the execution did not prepare me for the lead balloon finale. (Not to mention the missing hubbie portrayed a murderous tough guy for years on "how to get away with Murder.") My sympathies were totally with Pierce. The Bedtime stories gave the history of her prior relationship and marriage, and there was the missing gold bell to remind her of those days. But if she were going to have doubts, surely she'd have had them before accepting a new engagement. Sorry! I just found the whole movie to be incongruous. The ending removed all enjoyment, so this will not be one of those that I'll watch again.

Good acting and actors who are let down by an unrealistic story.

[cgvsluis · 5/10 · 4 December 2022]

I won't pile on with all of the haters who have disparaged the ending. I will just say that I agree that this film should have ended in a very different way and this was a missed opportunity to let people know it is ok to move on (especially since Hallmark seems to be insisting on traveling down this very morose road where parents and spouses are dying left and right...I disagree with this change on Hallmark as the only reason I watch Hallmark is to escape reality aka for the fantasy.). I do want to say that if you see a prisoner of war who has been held captive for three years...they do not look like they just went to work. No attempt was made to make the prisoner look like a survivor. So, I am very disappointed in the lack of commitment to the ending that they chose.

The film is about a single mom, Danielle, whose husband went missing three years ago on a U. S. Marine mission outside of Yemen. She has been dating a friend of her husband's, Pierce, for the last nine months and he is most women's fantasy loving her and her daughter Audrey. Even more important Audrey loves Pierce...including asking him to attend her father daughter dance. (Which where in the military do they have a father daughter dance when so many men/dads are deployed? That seems cruel.) Audrey begins asking for stories of her father for bedtime instead of a book and as her mom starts to tell stories odd coincidences keep happening.

This story was horribly predictable and missed an opportunity to be about healing and moving on in a healthy way. I really wanted Steve Lund to get the girl, his character deserved it and it would have made for a more interesting film. Not a film I can recommend to those fellow romantics out there...I think they should give this a pass.

Also, what marine promises to be home every Christmas? They have no control of their orders!

Worst Hallmark Christmas Movie

[rfoxone-17906 · 1/10 · 31 October 2022]

At first I liked where this movie was heading, but in the final few minutes it did a complete 180 and had the worst ending ever. Don't have enough room or time in this forum to explain why there's no way the ending could happen the way that it did without the military knowing ahead of time. What about the debriefing, medical evaluation, etc. For someone who has been missing for three years? And how did he know to show up at the Father/Daughter dance? And how did he get there with no one else knowing he was still alive? Don't waste your time on this one folks. You'll be as disappointed as we were.