We made it! Merry Christmas to you all, and happy last day of Blogmas. Thank you for reading the posts I have created for the past 25 days. It has been a pleasure to participate in this challenge for the past three years. Today I leave you with something wonderful and full of joy. My last post for this Blogmas, and most likely the last post on this website forever, is a review and thoughts on the new Disney film out this month, Mary Poppins Returns.

Mary Poppins Returns is the long waited sequel, not a reboot, to the classic Disney film, Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins came out back in 1964. So why on Earth did Disney make a sequel in 2018, 54 years later? Well the truth is, after the success of the original film Walt Disney wanted a sequel. But the author of the Mary Poppins series, P.L. Travers rejected the idea. She was approached multiple times about a sequel but never gave her consent. If you've seen Saving Mr. Banks, you know that P.L. Travers and Walt Disney disagreed frequently about the original film. But in 2015, the Walt Disney Studios President at the time reached out to Travers' estate to see if they would approve a sequel. And voila they did! And thus, Mary Poppins has returned!

The premise for this sequel has the Banks children all grown up, Michael Banks has his own children and recently lost his wife. Michael is on the verge of losing his childhood home where he and his children live. Michael and his sister, Jane, search for a bank certificate so they may keep their house. Meanwhile Mary Poppins returns to look after the Banks children. Since Michael and Jane have grown up, they do not remember all the adventures they had with Mary being real, instead they think it was all just their imagination and dreams.

Since the movie takes place when the original children are grown up, it makes sense that no one in the original cast reprised their roles. Ben Whishaw plays adult Michael Banks, Emily Mortimer plays adult Jane Banks, and the marvelous Emily Blunt plays the iconic Mary Poppins.

When it was announced that Emily Blunt would be playing this classic character, there were many reservations. How could anyone live up to Julie Andrews? Well, somehow Emily Blunt managed to do so. She's stern, proper and charming all at once. Emily Blunt actually read the Mary Poppins book series and gathered her inspiration and take from there. While it is impossible to outshine Julie Andrews, Emily Blunt shines in her own way, and has become another lovable version of this character.

Also starring in the film is the talented Lin Manuel Miranda as Jack, a lamp lighter who was Bert's protege. Even though I may be slightly biased, I truly think Lin Manuel Miranda is the star of this film. He's charming and a wonder to watch. No one can sing and dance so enthusiastically as Lin Manuel Miranda does in this film.

While it is sad not to see Julie Andrews in the film, we get a surprising cameo from Mr. Dick Van Dyke himself! Sadly Dick Van Dyke doesn't reprise his original role as Bert the chimney sweep. However, he does kind of reprise another role. In the original film, Dick Van Dyke also plays Mr. Dawes Sr., a banker. For the record, I had no idea he even did this, and I grew up watching Mary Poppins religiously. In Mary Poppins Returns he plays the older version of Mr. Dawes Jr. the son of Mr. Dawes Sr.! This cameo is short but absolutely wonderful. At the age of 93, Dick Van Dyke can still dance like he did in the original.

For the adults who love Mary Poppins as a child, Mary Poppins Returns is full of charm and nostalgia. The songs are great, not as good or iconic as the original, but good nonetheless. The movie itself honors the original and introduces this classic character to the new generation so they can love her as much as current adults did when they were kids. If you need a feel good film to watch this holiday season with your family, go see Mary Poppins Returns!

When the holiday season rolls around all the popular Christmas movies play constantly on loop. But how often do movie theaters play some of these popular holiday films? Not since the year they came out right? That's what I thought until I found out my local movie theater, Harkins, shows some throwback movies rather frequently.

Harkins plays throwback movies every Tuesday at 7 PM throughout the entire year! Tickets to see these older movies are only $5, what a deal! Throughout this month Harkins has shown its' festive spirit by showing popular holiday movies such as: The Polar Express, Jim Henson's Holiday Special, Schindler's List, Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, Elf, and The Holiday.

So on this past Tuesday, one of my best friends and I went to go see Christmas Vacation. Why this one you ask? Well it is one of her absolute favorite Christmas movies and the truth is, I have never seen it before. Shocker right? This movie is basically a Christmas classic. So how did I go 26 years without seeing it? Easy, I don't watch a lot of these older holiday movies. In fact, I just saw Home Alone for the first time last year, but I digress.

To be able to see this Christmas classic on the big screen made the whole experience so much better. Instead of watching it from my couch with my phone in my hand, I got to unwind, relax and truly watch this movie. By seeing it this way, I now see why some people absolutely love it.

But what did I think of this movie? Well...it was alright. I find Chevy Chase just unlikable, and he was that in the movie. Let's face it Clark Griswold is a jerk. He's rude to his neighbors who do absolutely nothing to him and the stunts he pulls ends up damaging their property and almost killing them! But I did enjoy seeing the slapstick humor Clark had to endure. But you have to think, how is that man still alive after all those dangerous things that happens to him throughout the movie? But that's just my opinion!

There's nothing like spending an evening at the movie theater. I just love the idea of going to see old movies, especially ones I have never seen before, on the big screen. It makes the whole movie watching experience so much better, and more theaters should do this! There was a really good size crowd at the movies that night, so it could be a great revenue raiser for struggling theaters. What do you think? Would you go see a classic at a movie theater? Until tomorrow.

One of the best things about this time of the year is watching all of the holiday movies and specials. Every major TV network is wrapping up their fall seasons to transition to the winter TV programming block. But during this lull it can be hard to find something festive to watch.

Luckily, streaming services have jumped on this opportunity. Netflix has scored some holiday content and even created some of their own original holiday movies. Here is my little guide on what to watch on Netflix this holiday season!

Classics

White Christmas — Sadly this is the only holiday classic that is currently streaming on Netflix.

Romance

Love Actually — This classic holiday rom com is iconic and a must watch.

Christmas with a View — A failed restauranteur and a celebrity chef work together at a ski resort and fall in love along the way.

Christmas Wedding Planner — A wedding planner's big break comes crashing down when a handsome private investigator is hired to disrupt the upcoming nuptials she has worked so hard to plan.

You Can't Fight Christmas — A decorator who loves Christmas meets a Scrooge-like businessman, her task is to make him love Christmas.

The Spirit of Christmas — An attorney falls in love with a ghost that haunts an inn in Vermont that is for sale. Seriously? Where do they come up with these ideas?

Family

How the Grinch Stole Christmas — The iconic Jim Carrey version of this Dr. Seuss classic is currently available to stream. If you haven't seen it before, it is definitely a must watch this holiday season!

Mickey's Once upon a Christmas — Mickey Mouse's take on holiday classics is one of the best things to watch during the holidays. If you want more Christmas Disney magic check out Mickey's Magical Christmas and Mickey's Twice upon a Christmas.

48 Christmas Wishes — The letters to Santa from a small town accidentally catch on fire and it is up to two elves to retrieve all the missing wishes.

Get Santa — Santa mistakenly gets arrested and it is up to a father and his son to set Santa free and save Christmas.

Beethoven's Christmas Adventure — The classic Saint Bernard is at it again, but this time with some festive antics.

Dreamwork's Holiday Classics — This collection is filled with the Dreamwork's holiday specials that feature characters from your favorite movies like Shrek, Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon.

Christmas in the Smokies — Taking place in the Smoky Mountains, a woman is tasked with saving her family's historic farm.

Santa Buddies — You'd be surprised how many holiday movies involving animals are currently on Netflix. If Christmas and dogs are your thing check out this movie along with the other installments.

The Christmas Project — Four brothers who get bullied end up showing some holiday charity to their bully and learn a lesson about kindness.

Comedies

Bad Santa — This raunchy comedy involves two criminals that disguise themselves as Santa Claus and an elf in order to work at a department store to achieve their plan of robbing the store. Bad Santa 2 is also available to stream.

Netflix Originals

The Princess Switch — A baker and a soon to be princess discover they look identical and trade places during Christmastime. Vanessa Hudgens stars in this holiday version of The Prince and the Pauper.

The Christmas Chronicles — A brother and sister accidentally crash Santa's sleigh and team up with Santa to save Christmas. This Netflix original is perfect to watch with your family this holiday season.

The Holiday Calendar — Kat Graham plays a photographer who inherits an antique Advent Calendar that predicts the future and points her to love.

Christmas Inheritance — In order to collect her inheritance, a socialite must visit her father's hometown and learn the value of hard work and helping others. This Netflix original premiered last Christmas but didn't get too much buzz.

A Christmas Prince — This was Netflix's breakout hit last holiday season, in fact a sequel for this movie came out just recently. Spoiler alert: it's called A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding.

There you have it! Now you have a variety of holiday movies to binge watch all season long. I honestly can't wait to watch the Netflix Originals along with How the Grinch Stole Christmas. What movies are you excited to watch this holiday season? Until tomorrow!

During this time of the year, holiday movies are the most popular. Every channel and streaming service is taking complete advantage of how much people love holiday movies. You can find classic and even new movies and specials made specifically for the holidays. However there is one movie on Netflix that people can't stop talking about, A Christmas Prince.

To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?

— Netflix "Mariah Carey's Merriest Christmas" US (@netflix) December 11, 2017

Social media has been going on nonstop about A Christmas Prince for the past couple weeks, all thanks to a tweet Netflix put out roasting their own movie and the viewers who watched it. As you can see Netflix doesn’t really think so highly of the movie. In fact, most people don’t think so highly of it. I decided to watch the movie myself, and this is what I learned. Here is everything you need to know about A Christmas Prince.

Now, I won’t go into much detail about the full plot of the movie, in case you want to watch it. But here are some good facts to start with. A Christmas Prince starts off like any typical cheesy romantic Christmas movie. Our main character, Amber, played by the amazing Rose McIver, is a junior editor who is an aspiring journalist. She ends up getting her first big break, covering the Prince of Aldovia, an alleged playboy. This story falls into her lap because all the other reporters are out on other stories. Her goal is to find out what’s going to happen with the line of succession, since the king died almost a year ago and a replacement needs to be named, by you guessed it, Christmas.

When Amber arrives in Aldovia, which by the way is a ridiculous name. Does every fake obscure country that involves a prince or princess have to end in “ovia”? Is that some sort of requirement? I’m honestly really curious about that. But anyways the paparazzi are waiting for the Prince to arrive as well. On her way out she gets her cab taken by a scruffy man who she labels as a selfish jerk. Is it a coincidence the Prince was supposed to arrive around the time? Methinks not.

So Amber heads to the press conference, and believe it or not it starts with a royal official actually canceling the press conference. Why you ask? Well the Prince is MIA yet again! Amber is down on her luck, she doesn’t have any answers or a story. Being the clever girl she is, she decides to take a look around the castle. She ends up getting mistaken for the Princess' new American tutor who isn’t set to arrive for two weeks.

The staff somehow believes her, like really? They didn’t even bother to check her ID or ask for any paperwork at all. Aldovia must be a country of trusting people. Anyways, she goes to meet the Queen and the Prince, who as you could guess was the scruffy guy who stole her cab. We then meet the Princess who we learn is a troublemaker, and also handicapped. This all happens within the first 15 minutes of the movie, that's a lot to throw at a viewer Netflix.

Amber, now going by her new identity Martha, makes a great first impression on the Princess and within one day they are already becoming close. The Princess likes that Amber just treats her like a person, rather than a royal. So she ends up bringing Amber to a royal family cocktail party as her guest. At the party Amber meets a lot of pretentious members of the royal family.

While working on getting the inside scoop on the royal family, especially on the Prince, Amber is drawn closer to him. She gets to see that the Prince is nothing like the media makes him out to be, he cares for his family deeply and has some unique and sweet talents, like being able to play Christmas carols on the piano. Cliche much?

The Princess catches on and learns Amber isn’t her tutor, but a reporter. Which goes to show the kid is the smartest person in this movie. How does no one pick up on the fact that the tutor does not understand factorials or any kind of advanced algebra. She promises to keep Amber’s identity a secret as long as she writes the truth about her brother.

Now what’s a movie without any sort of conflict. Well let me introduce you to the villains of this movie: the cousin and the Prince’s ex-girlfriend. Those two are up to no good. Since the cousin is next in line for the throne, you know he’s got to be plotting some sort of coup. Besides the obvious villain conflict, you know there has to be some sort of struggle with Amber. Well it turns out while she’s snooping she finds some life changing information for the royal family. Now Amber has a hard choice to make, does she release what she knows and air the royal family’s dirty laundry? Or does she find a way to tell the Prince herself? Or does she just leave it all alone?

Now that's all I'm going to tell you spoiler-wise. If you want to know what else that happens, you're going to have to watch A Christmas Prince yourself. Just know all cliche holiday movies do end with a happy ending. And it's already been established A Christmas Prince takes the cake with all the cliches.

I have my own opinion on the movie but it’s up to you to form your own. If this sounds like the type of movie you want to watch this holiday season check it out. If not, you’re not missing much.

Until tomorrow.

The best part of this time of the year is getting to indulge in all of the holiday movies out there. Whether that is watching the classics movies or specials or even watching original movies made specifically for this time of the year. One TV station is known for their holidays movies, the Hallmark channel.

A Hallmark Christmas Movie is not critically acclaimed in any way whatsoever. Instead, it's more of a feel good romantic comedy with a holiday theme. If you've never seen a Hallmark Christmas Movie, don't worry each movie is pretty much the same. They all follow the same generic plot line. I'm going to break down the plot of what (almost) every Hallmark movie follows. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Hallmark Christmas Movie Formula.

Now the first thing you need to know about what makes a Hallmark Christmas Movie a Hallmark Christmas Movie is the casting. The casting is crucial! Now you won't find an A List actor to star in the film. Normally it's a D List star or someone you've never heard of before. Think of people you've either seen on Dancing With The Stars or who you expect to make an appearance in the near future. Hallmark always has a go to star for each movie, I refer to them as their ringers. Stars like Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Lori Laughlin and Danica McKellar are basically Hallmark royalty. There are other actors and actress but those four are the faces of Hallmark and have starred in a majority of the movies. Now for the rest of the cast, you have the love interest, the family members, friends, co-workers, and towns people. Now most of these are played by nobodies as well. But sometimes, the love interest may be notable but most of the time he's just a pretty face.

Now that we have the cast all picked out, let's get to the basics of the plot. The story always takes place during, you guessed it, Christmas time. Literally the week of or the week before. The main character is typically a big city girl with some sort of cut throat career, sometimes you'll have a writer, a business woman, a doctor or veterinarian, or some other cliche profession. But what the real takeaway from her profession is that she's typically in line for a big promotion. But first, she has to relocate to a small town to help the struggling town and prove she's worthy of the promotion.

Now while she's struggling to get adjusted to small town life she meets her love interest by some chance of fate. Whether that's by bumping into them accidentally or having some sort of argument, she has no idea this is who she's supposed to fall in love with. Things will typically start off rocky, since they're so different. Small town boy and big city girl never works right? WRONG! They end up spending more and more time together, because (you guessed it) he's the person she's supposed to help while she's in the small town.

Things start to look up after that chance encounter, he helps her get adjusted and she helps him with the business. While they're working together, they also start to form a friendship and do things together outside of work, You'll find them participating in cliche Christmas activities, like baking cookies, building a snowman, ice skating, decorating the Christmas tree, etc, etc, etc. You get the point right?

Their connection starts to grow and slowly but surely they're falling in love. The main character is finally used to small town life and slowly starts to forget about her old life. But wait! Her boss calls, and offers her the promotion, she's headed back to her old life. She tells her love interest and they're both sad realizing things would have never worked anyways. When she's finally back in the city and has everything she thought she wanted, she has an epiphany. She leaves her promotion to go back to the small town realizing all she ever needed was true love. So she makes it back to the small town just in time to celebrate Christmas and participate in some local tradition. She runs back to her love interest tells him everything she just realized, they kiss, then it starts snowing. BAM the movie is over and the credits roll.

There you have it, now you know the plot of every Hallmark Christmas Movie ever made and every movie to come. That's two hours of your life you just got back, and yes they are all two hours long including commercials. Now not to trash Hallmark, their movies are really enjoyable. Predicabale and cliched? Yes. But still enjoyable! Sometimes all you want to do is watch a cheesy holiday movie during this time of the year.

In fact, someone actually created a Hallmark Christmas Movie drinking game. The game itself follows the Hallmark Christmas Movie Formula, which goes to show just how predictable they are. I know I'll be participating in this game this year! Adding fun elements like the drinking game or trying to predict the plot based on the title really shows what a Hallmark Christmas Movie is supposed to be about, fun times and celebrating with your friends and family.

This year, I've already watched a fair share of Hallmark movies and I'm not ashamed at all. In fact, I can't wait to catch some of the new ones I've missed out on this year like The Christmas Train and Christmas in Evergreen. Also be on the lookout for some other new Hallmark Christmas movies that will premiere this month, there are still seven new ones left to air!

There are just about two weeks left until Christmas, so what are you waiting for? Let's get to watching!

Until tomorrow.

One of the best parts of the holiday season is when all the tv channels start playing all their Christmas themed movies, tv show specials, and who could forget the holiday classics that always air around this time of the year. In fact, Freeform (formerly known as ABC Family #NeverForget) has one of the best lineups during this month. Every year starting on December 1, Freeform begins their 25 Days of Christmas programming. Every day until Christmas Day you will find nothing but holiday movies and specials on this channel. Sometimes they play other movies during this time like Pixar or Harry Potter movies, but the majority of the content is Christmas/Holiday related.

This banner shows what the main attractions are for each night. But have no fear, you don't have to wait for the evening to catch the movies. In fact, Freeform starts playing Christmas movies and specials around 7AM each day and continues to play them until midnight every day. You can check Freeform's daily schedule and even their upcoming daily schedules online. If you do not have access to Freeform on your television, they do offer an app you can download or you can go to their website and watch live from there. However you do need to have a TV provider login or an account with an online streaming cable service to be able to access it.

Throughout the holiday season you can watch classic movies like The Santa Clause, Elf, Christmas Vacation, The Polar Express and many more on Freeform. But Freeform also shows their own holiday specials and movies. You can watch previous ones like The Mistle-Tones, Holiday in Handcuffs, Holidaze, Snow, Christmas Cupid and many more. Are these movies the best? No. But if you need a laugh and are in the mood to watch a cheesy holiday themed movie that has a little romance to it, these will get the job done. This year, Freeform introduced a new original holiday movie called Angry Angel starring Brenda Song and Jason Biggs. I for one am really excited to watch this movie, it looks funny and sassy!

Speaking of new movies and premieres on Freeform, this year there is a new addition to the movie lineup for the 25 Days of Christmas. This year, you'll be able to watch the holiday comedy Christmas with the Kranks. It will debut two weeks from today on Saturday, December 16 in the evening after Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Freeform will also show some Disney Parks holiday specials. The first one to air will be the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings reality show that will be all about winter and holiday weddings. So if that's something you're into, check that out on Monday, December 11. For me, weddings are the last thing on my mind during this time of the year. The second special to air is something for all the Disney and Disneyland lovers out there. This one is called Decorating Disney: Holiday Magic, if you ever wondered what goes on when decorating the parks during the holiday season this is going to be the special you want to watch, and this will air on Monday, December 18.

This is Freeform's 21st year putting on the 25 Days of Christmas, so if you haven't tuned in yet, what are you waiting for?! Turn on your TV right now and put it on Freeform and catch a movie to get you in the holiday spirit!

So tell me, what movie are you looking forward to watching this holiday season? For me, it definitely has to be Elf. Until tomorrow