Stream It or Skip It: ‘Christmas on Cherry Lane’ on Hallmark, Where Family is Born and Made on the Same Street Throughout Five Decades

Hallmark loves a good family film for the holidays, and they’re hoping to bring viewers just that with Christmas on Cherry Lane. Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Jonathan Bennett, Vincent Rodriguez III, Catherine Bell, John Brotherton, and Erin Cahill, this title looks to be one of the best hitting Hallmark this Christmas. While many Hallmark holiday movies are about falling in love (and to be fair, there certainly is some romance in this too), the main focus of Christmas on Cherry Lane is family. Keep reading to find out if it fits the bill as a family film worth making time for this Christmas.

CHRISTMAS ON CHERRY LANE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Three different families prepare to celebrate Christmas whilst living on Cherry Lane. There’s mechanic John Hamilton (John Brotherton) and his pregnant wife Lizzie (Erin Cahill) in 1973. Then there’s retiring high school principal Regina Johnston (Catherine Bell), her new fiancé Nelson King, and her young adult kids Conrad (Matthias Falvai) and Winnie (Veronica Long). Lastly, there’s professional chef Mike Harrelson (Jonathan Bennett) and his music manager husband Zian (Vincent Rodriguez III).

As each family prepares for a Christmas Eve dinner, they navigate different pivotal moments in their lives. John and Lizzie just moved onto Cherry Lane the previous day and are trying to juggle getting settled with hosting a big family dinner and preparing for the imminent birth of their first child. Regina reveals to her children that she’s gotten engaged to Nelson and that she’s going to retire from her job, sell the family home on Cherry Lane, and move to Florida after this last Christmas there. Mike and Zian struggle to prepare for their first Christmas at Cherry Lane whilst contractors finish remodeling the kitchen, all while they prepare to meet their new foster daughter who will spend the holidays with them. Through it all, we jump through the various timelines to learn that the different families are connected in surprising ways beyond just living on the same street.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The reveal that these stories are taking place in different timelines that eventually converge might remind you of the 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy Your Name.

Performance Worth Watching: While this is very much an ensemble cast where everyone does their fair share of heavy lifting, Jonathan Bennett and Vincent Rodriguez III do manage to stand out as 2023 couple Mike and Zian Harrelson. They have great chemistry and an easy dynamic, and were a lot of fun to watch (they just seemed like they were having a great time).

Memorable Dialogue: “Because home is about more than a house. Family is more than the sum of its parts. And Christmas is about more than where you celebrate it. It’s about who you celebrate with.” And that’s pretty much the thesis of the movie right there!

A Holiday Tradition: The common tradition through all three of the main Cherry Lane families featured in the film is a home-cooked family dinner on Christmas Eve and an overall spirit of togetherness.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: You bet! It makes sense from the start knowing that all of these families are celebrating the holidays for the first or last time at Cherry Lane, but then the more you watch, the more Christmas on Cherry Lane really feels right as we learn that these families are connected by more than just their street name.

Our Take: Christmas on Cherry Lane began seeming much like any other Hallmark Christmas movie, but when it revealed that the three families are all existing in different timelines in the same home Cherry Lane, a fresh layer of originality and depth was added to help set this movie apart. Following that, it was easy to feel invested in the characters and their respective journeys, especially as you wonder how and when their stories might intersect.

The ways in which the various stories and timelines connect were sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising, but ultimately all added up to create something heartfelt and serve as a wonderful reminder that family can look like anything. Indeed, Christmas on Cherry Lane was especially successful in its efforts at inclusivity, displaying interracial and same-sex couples in happy and healthy relationships, normalizing them in a lovely way that was a pleasant surprise to see in a Hallmark holiday movie (and something we hope to continue to see a lot more of from them in years to come).

While there are certainly cheesy and campy moments, in the end Christmas on Cherry Lane still manages to tug at the heartstrings with reminders of what the holiday season is truly about: togetherness. So no matter if your family is made up of blood relatives or chosen friends, neighbors, and loved ones, they’re the group that will always be your home more so than any one building or street could ever be. Now that’s what I call a quality Christmas lesson!

Our Call: STREAM IT! Christmas on Cherry Lane is a sweet and cute movie that will be wonderful to watch with your nearest and dearest this holiday season.