The Laboratory

Sunday afternoons in December are perfect for watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Next Sunday we'll tell you all about "The Christmas Exchange", one of the best in the genre. But today we celebrate Lacey Chabert, long-time friend of the advent calendar, who has appeared in so many Christmas movies, there's a montage of "If you enjoyed this, you might like..." on the Hallmark page: Yes, that is Mariah Carey co-starring in "A Christmas Melody". Yes, that is Cliff Clavin from Cheers in "Matchmaker Santa". Yes, she does marry a Prince from the European country of Cordinia in "A Royal Christmas". But her greatest moment is as a fledgling tour guide helping an American man to find business success (and love!!) in "Christmas In Rome". And if you recognise Sam Page from somewhere, you have probably been rewatching House of Cards, where he briefly plays Francis Underwood's press secretary. Bonus 2023 trivia: Chabert's n...

We hope you are enjoying your weekend, and maybe you don't have to go back to work on Monday? Sarah doesn't normally get Christmas Eve off, so we are enjoying an extra long break together. With only 2 days to go on the Advent Calendar, we'd like to say thank you for sticking with us, and today's indulgence is the Christmas classic, the Hallmark Movie. Every year, the Hallmark Channel commissions a number of made-for-TV movies on a Christmas theme. They all involve romance, usually for a small-town American woman, with an impossibly attractive man, though naturally the course of true love does not run smooth. Sometimes they are fantasies, taking place inside a snowglobe, or someone has to relive Christmas Eve (Groundhog-style) until they do the right thing. An up and coming star of Hallmark movies is Lacey Chabert, who has starred in two different Mariah Carey-produced Christmas films, as well as the classic dating-site-turned-Christian-movie "Christian Mingl...