The Laboratory

It's Friday! and if you're looking forward to the weekend, you might be looking for a nice Christmas movie to watch. You're saving up Muppet Christmas Carol for Christmas Eve, but may I recommend a great selection of RED AND GREEN Christmas movies: Yes, Christmas romance is back, and so is the queen of Hallmark Christmas and its rival Netflix Christmas, Lacey Chabert! Yes, she's playing a character called Holly, no sorry, Emily (missed a trick there), and it also stars John Travolta's sister. So successful, Haul Out The Holly went on to have two sequels, Haul Out The Holly 2: Lit Up, and a less seasonal Halloween episode. Hope you enjoy it!

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...

 Today's advent calendar window has this picture: Yes, it's Lacey Chabert, the queen of Hallmark Christmas movies. She made her name in big-budget Hollywood films such as Lost In Space (with William Hurt and Gary Oldman) and Mean Girls (wth Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey), but then gave it all up to appear in fluff such as...  Christian Mingle - a non-Christian girl joins a Christian dating site to find a man, but ends up with a faith AND a fancy bloke to boot A Christmas Melody - a single mom moves back to her small hometown with her young daughter. Having a hard time adjusting, the daughter seeks help from her music teacher (who's a FIT BLOKE) to write a song for the Christmas variety show. Also starring Mariah Carey as a DIVA. A Royal Christmas The Tree That Saved Christmas Family for Christmas A Wish for Christmas The Sweetest Christmas Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe Christmas Waltz Christmas at Castle Hart Christmas In Rome - a particular favourite: Angela de Luca is an Am...

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...