The Best & Battiest Moments From This Past Weekend's Holiday Movies

Once again it's the season to be merry and watch every new holiday movie as it debuts! Each Monday, we'll take a look back at the previous weekend's premieres to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year with a new list of superlatives.

OWN's A Season to Remember knew exactly what it was doing having freelance TV cameraman Iggy (Nathan Owens) test out the dunk tank ahead of an adoption meet-and-greet. He impressed more than ambitious sports reporter Symone (Michele Weaver) when he removed his wet tank top and patted himself dry with a towel.

Do we want to put giant red bows on our porch, as Symone's family did in A Season to Remember? Or will they not look as elegant during the daytime?

In Hallmark Channel's Private Princess Christmas, Princess Violet of Wingravia (Ali Skovbye) was sent to an American military academy for a 10-day leadership boot camp after failing to train an honorary knight, that was a goat, to select a proper royal Christmas tree.

We're all for chivalry, which Violet's (ex)boyfriend lacked entirely, but what kind of magician was Captain Ryan Douglas (Derek Klena), pulling that long scarf out of his pant pocket in Private Princess Christmas?

Great American Family's Once Upon a Christmas Wish asked us to believe that, as a fourth grader, future mayor Brian's (Mario Lopez) requests for Santa were bookended with, "Can you make me dance like Fred Astaire? My mom loves him" and "A White Christmas dance scene." Lopez looked so happy doing his solo soft-shoe number around Brian's idyllic town that we can't help but be happy for him.

It was fun to see Brendan Penny pop up as a disgruntled superstore customer in Private Princess Christmas. However, we're gonna go with Fiona Gubelmann and Victor Webster briefly appearing in Hallmark Channel's Sugarplummed as the lodge/Christmas tree farm owner and evil developer about to settle their disagreement with the help of Sugarplum (Janel Parrish), a fictional holiday movie heroine come to life: "Rule 35: When two people can't stand each other, they're destined to fall madly in love before Christmas." Honorable mention: Richard Pryor Jr. portraying his late father's character, Monty Brewster, in pictures and flashbacks in BET+'s Brewster's Millions: Christmas.

In Brewster's Millions: Christmas, Morgan Brewster (executive producer China Anne McClain) and church choir soloist Tanya (Sierra McClain) sang a moving duet, original song "Indebted," that helped them both face their pain and express the gratitude they needed to: a grieving Morgan for her uncle Monty, who'd raised her when her parents died, and Tanya for her grandmother, who was in hospice and the center of her world. When Andrew (Romeo Miller) later revealed that the church ladies had brought Tanya's nana to rehearsal to hear her? Waterworks.

Violet and Ryan argued about whether The Sound of Music and Die Hard are Christmas movies in Private Princess Christmas. Does anyone really consider The Sound of Music one? It never mentions the holiday, even if the film has been shown on ABC every December since 2002. At least the debate, and Violet's late father associating "Edelweiss" with Christmas, led to Ryan (Tony nominee Derek Klena) crooning it at the veterans home for her.

There was an audible "Awww!" in living rooms when Will (Dorian Giordano) held out his arms to fellow neurodivergent teen Jenny (Vanessa Burghardt) in Hallmark Mystery's coming-of-age story A Dance in the Snow. Will knew Jenny was afraid of falling snow after getting lost in it as a child. So when it began to flake as they were leaving for their big dance, he walked outside and started rambling about how snow forms. "I talk a lot when I'm excited about something," he explained. From the porch, Jenny asked if he was excited about snow. "No," he answered. "I'm excited about you." Awww! A close second: Teary Zian (Vincent Rodriguez III) embracing his newly discovered grandfather (Greg Amato) in Hallmark+'s Season's Greetings from Cherry Lane.

Let's be honest, no one stood a chance against Sugarplum at the tech store's Reindeer Games in Sugarplummed. But in Hallmark Channel's Leah's Perfect Gift, it was a worthy battle between Jewish novice Leah (Emily Arlook) and reigning queen Barbara (Barbara Niven), her boyfriend's mother. Arlook, in her Hallmark leading lady debut, took Leah's enthusiasm seriously, stretching beforehand and pulling out a blow torch for a marshmallow-topped street light. Shoutout to whomever in the movie's crew actually built Leah's winner. The Necco-wafer shingle roof and smoking chimney were truly impressive.

Spoiler alert if you haven't yet seen Netflix's animated That Christmas. We need to pause to appreciate the igloo that schoolmarm Ms. Trapper (voiced by Fiona Shaw) and student Danny (Jack Wisniewski) constructed so that Danny could surprise his nurse mother (Jodie Whittaker) with a special meal after she worked on Christmas Day. Ms. Trapper clearly also taught him everything she knows about exterior illumination. (Also, happy holidays to Broadchurch fans who found it slightly upsetting that Whittaker was playing the mum of another Danny.)

We're not sold on his tie choice, but, to our surprise, we approve of the sweater vest that doctor Charlie (Corey Cott) was rockin' on Christmas Eve 1951 in Season's Greetings From Cherry Lane.