Movie Review :: Hallmark Channel’s Tidings for the Season

Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel’s newest ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movie of the 2025 season struggles to find any charm in its male lead, leaving most of the heavy lifting to a ten-year-old.

Tidings for the Season — and this is probably the most generic title of any Hallmark Christmas movie as it really has nothing to do with the plot — centers around single mom Lucy and her adorable 10-year-old Robbie, whose biggest dream in his young life is to be a TV anchorman. Robbie idolizes local Minneapolis anchor Adam Kade so much that he manages to talk his teacher into taking the class on a field trip to the station. Alerted that a group of elementary school students are on their way by producer Todd, Adam goes out of his way to not cross paths with the kids, using the excuse that he has promos to shoot for the night’s broadcast. But once there, Robbie separates from the class and sneaks onto the set where Adam is working … but Todd is amused by Adam’s awkwardness with the kid and does nothing to intervene. Robbie has some hard-hitting remarks for Adam, mainly about his tendency to not smile and he reveals that all of the bad news Adam delivers makes his mom turn the TV off, so maybe he could work on that. Adam is clearly not interested in what the kid has to say, but Todd enjoyed the interaction and suggests to Adam that Robbie could be his intern for the week after school leading up to Christmas. Adam is not really on board but Todd insists, and it just so happens that Robbie accidentally left his notebook under the news desk so what better opportunity to make the offer than in person as Todd tells Adam to return the notebook himself. Robbie is thrilled that Adam Kade is at his house, and Lucy is surprised but she’s taken aback by the offer because she has so much planned for the holidays and Robbie still has his school work to do. But Robbie pleads for her to let him do it and she relents, but Adam may be getting more than he bargained for.

Adam shows Robbie the ropes at the station, but there is always the persistent question as to why all the news has to be bad. Adam is also made aware that there is a major news position opening up in Chicago, and his mentor Jill is going to connect him with the news director before word gets out because every anchor in the country will be wanting it. Adam, however, finds himself warming up to Robbie … and eventually Lucy … and they invite him to come help out at a charity they volunteer for which provides gifts to children of needy families. The experience of wrapping the gifts and speaking with a grateful mother prompts Adam to see that perhaps all the news doesn’t have to be bad, and that there are good things going on in the community that he could highlight. Adam sets up an interview segment with the woman who started the charity, with the help of sponsor Thrivent (one of the many instances of product placement in this year’s collection of Christmas movies), but Todd shoots down the segment as being too soft, fearing that it will cause them to lose viewers. Side note: most local news stations always have some kind of human interest story segment to engage viewers, so Todd’s insistence that they only deliver ‘hard news’ is just a weird plot device. Adam, Robbie and Lucy are disappointed that the segment was killed, but in the middle of a broadcast, Adam goes blank and then goes off script and runs with the segment anyway (leaving us to question who cued up the video and created the graphics knowing that Todd already said it wasn’t going to run). Todd isn’t happy and for his insubordinance Adam is put on a forced vacation (since Adam has no family in the area — although his parents are just a couple of hours away — he does not celebrate Christmas and always works on Christmas day) which gives him plenty of time to spend with Robbie and Lucy. But Todd has some news for Adam — his segment generated more positive calls in a day than the station gets in a month, so he wants it to be a regular part of the newscast. Adam is vindicated. This success finally makes Adam more of a human with feelings rather than a robot who reads the news, and his relationship with Lucy begins to grow to the point he invites her to go to his parents’ house for their annual Christmas party as his date. But when they return home, he gets a call from Chicago asking him to fly in the next day for an interview. Lucy is shocked that he never told her about his plans and now feels that he was using her and Robbie to further his career. Will Adam put his career over the new relationships he’s formed?

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Tidings for the Season is right up there with Christmas on Duty as one of the more lackluster and least engaging holiday films from Hallmark, and that is mainly due to the fact that there is nothing appealing about the Adam Kade character until well after the halfway point of the movie when he really connects with the spirit of the holiday and then takes a stand with his producer. Until then, he seems to just be putting up with Robbie until the week is finally over, and there is no spark between him and Lucy until late in the story, which makes their romance feel rushed (I have to say, though, that at least their kiss at the end feels a bit more earned than the one in Christmas on Duty). Adam is just an unlikable character, and all of the charm comes from the eternally happy and wise-beyond-his-years Robbie. The Lucy character is also handled very well, although she does seem to be over-compensating a bit since Robbie’s father is out of the picture (he’s not dead, though, and Robbie is coincidentally spending the night of the Christmas party with his dad so that gives Lucy and Adam a moment of alone time). The Todd character is a little confusing as well because he seems to enjoy seeing Adam loosening up when Robbie is around, but then he’s also intent on keeping Adam in his trademark gray suits while delivering the news. The story, by Joey Elkins and Blake Silver, just takes a long time to warm up its rigid leading man and takes even longer to show any sign of a relationship warming up between Adam and Lucy. At least Robbie is absolutely adorable. One other thing that was really distracting about the movie — if you watched it on the Hallmark Channel — was the numerous instances of product placement within the story, from Thrivent to Hobby Lobby, almost every commercial break had a ‘sponsored by’ advertisement for things seen in the movie. Each section of the movie almost felt like an infomercial.

As for the cast, young Elijah-Justus Lewis was charming as all get out. He was constantly ebullient, bringing a wonderfully positive energy to the role of Robbie and to the movie. He may have been written a bit over-the-top with his anchorman obsession, but in the moments when it was called for, he was also able to show Robbie’s sadness and disappointment when his mom had to tell him that Adam wasn’t going to be able to help with his school Christmas pageant because of the job offer. He truly is one of the best child actors we’ve seen in a Hallmark movie considering this is only his second acting role, and his first lead role following a guest appearance on the TV series Adults. He brings a natural charm to his performance and director Linda-Lisa Hayter really helped guide him through all of the emotions the role required. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here. He is ably supported by Tamera Mowry-Housley as mom Lucy. She brings such a natural ease to the role that you believe she is Robbie’s mother. She is certainly protective of the boy but she’s not a helicopter parent. She has a salon to run and a child to take care of, and she juggles both authentically. She makes Lucy’s attraction to Adam feel more natural and realistic, trying to keep her emotions in check because she doesn’t want to get hurt and she does not want Robbie to get hurt. It takes a little push from one of her co-workers to accept Adam’s offer to go to the Christmas party, and her hurt is palpable when she feels that Adam has been using them. Mowry-Housley just brings such warmth to the character, which is totally needed to offset the coldness from Adam.

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As Adam, B.J. Britt, who brought a lot of charm and humor to The Groomsmen movies, almost feels miscast as Adam. Rather than being a professional news reader, he just comes off as a real stiff. He never sounds natural while reading the news and it’s hard to understand why anyone would want to tune into his newscast. When he is thrown into the internship thing with Robbie, he is clearly just tolerating the kid and there is no connection between him and Lucy until late in the story. Britt also has a really annoying habit of chuckling after almost every line of dialog for no reason, especially since he’s supposed to be this serious, focused news professional. He finally does thaw out a bit once he sees that there is also some good in the world outside of the newsroom, but even then there is just something about the performance that doesn’t really click, and that does not work in the movie’s favor when he’s supposed to be the romantic lead. Matthew James Dowden’s Todd is also a bit confusing. He seems light-hearted at the beginning, and when Adam asks if he’s too serious or if his suits are too monochromatic, Todd’s responses seem more like he’s just humoring Adam. But then he turns into a real hardcase when it comes to airing the segment about the charity that feel totally unrealistic to anyone who has ever watched a local newscast (of course, that can be chalked up more to the writing than the performance). Todd is likable at first but then he has to become a jerk so he can get some come-uppance when the segment is a hit. Dowden does what is required but the writing sort of lets him down. Mariesa Crouse actually shines in her small role as Skylar, Lucy’s co-worker at the salon, really giving some best friend vibes. It’s a shame we couldn’t have seen more of her and Lucy hanging out outside of the workplace.

Over all, Tidings for the Season is a middling holiday movie that struggles to engage with its initially charmless leading man, really saved by the Lucy and Robbie characters and the actors who portray them, making them feel like real people you’d want to know. At least the story and the Adam character begin to warm up midway through the movie so the audience can begin to root for him and Lucy to find some common ground. The not so subtle product placement also takes you out of the story, particularly the blatant Thrivent commercial during the interview with the gift-giving charity founder. There is a nice moment when one of Adam’s stories actually has a follow-up payoff that warms the heart, but the viewers may have lost interest in the whole affair by that point. Not the best, and certainly not the worst Christmas movie ever (and this is another of those Hallmark movies where it’s snowing in almost every scene yet there is little to no snow on the ground), it just ends up being a little ho-hum.

Tidings for the Season has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.

Preview – Tidings for the Season