On Monday, April 11th, CBS announced that it ordered three new Christmas movies for their 2022 holiday season. With some pretty big names attached to each film, it looks like the broadcasting giant is hoping to compete with established holiday favorites from Hallmark Channel and Lifetime.
When Christmas Was Young
When Christmas Was Young will be written by screenwriter and novelist Robert Tate Miller with singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow serving as executive producer. Miller has created numerous TV films for ABC Family, NBC, and the Hallmark Channel for over 20 years. He’s also written several holiday-themed novels, including 2014’s Forever Christmas. Crow’s music career has spanned across four decades and earned her numerous awards, including nine Grammys. While she has acted and performed on soundtracks before, this marks her first Christmas movie.
CBS released this official logline in their announcement:
“The story follows a headstrong music manager in desperate need of a hit song for his last remaining client, who finds himself falling for a gifted singer-songwriter with abandoned dreams of making it big, as he attempts to secure the rights to a Christmas song she wrote years ago.”
In addition to producing, Crow will also write the title song for When Christmas Was Young. No word yet on whether or not she’ll perform it herself, but it would certainly make us happy if she did. Other executive producers include Everywhere Studios’ Tom Mazza, David Calvert Jones, and Karen Glass, along with Lighthouse Pictures’ Shawn Williamson and Jamie Goehring.
Fit For Christmas
The second project CBS announced is Fit For Christmas starring Amanda Kloots, who co-executive produces with screenwriter Anna White. Kloots is a fitness influencer, Broadway dancer, and former Rockette who has co-hosted The Talk since January 2021. Though this may be her first made-for-TV Christmas film, she’s in good hands with White, who has written a number of holiday TV movies over the past five years. These include Christmas Wonderland with Emily Osment (Hannah Montana) and A Picture Perfect Holiday with Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air).
According to CBS:
“It follows Audrey, an enthusiastic Christmas-obsessed fitness instructor at a beloved, financially beleaguered community center in quaint Mistletoe, Mont., who begins a holiday romance with a charming, mysterious businessman, complicating his plans to turn the center into a more financially profitable resort property,”
Must Love Christmas
Must Love Christmas is written by Mark Amato, the screenwriter of many popular holiday TV films. You might remember his previous CBS hit, A Christmas Proposal, from last year’s holiday slate. As for his newest work, CBS announced:
“A renowned romance novelist famous for her Christmas-themed books finds herself snowbound in the charming town of Cranberry Falls, where she unexpectedly becomes involved in a love triangle between her childhood crush and a reporter determined to interview her to save his dying magazine,”
Fit For Christmas and Must Love Christmas will both be produced by Brad Krevoy’s Motion Picture Corporation of America. Krevoy is a prolific producer of holiday content, with over 40 Christmas titles under his belt for numerous networks and streaming platforms.
Known primarily for airing classic animated and claymation titles during the festive season, this is CBS’ second year back with original holiday movies after a nine-year hiatus. They returned last year with just two pictures, Christmas Takes Flight and Amato’s A Christmas Proposal. If the success of those films is any indication of what’s to come, then we’re all in for a real treat come December.
The Elf Squad can’t wait to see what CBS has in store for us this Christmas!