’Tis the season! For twinkle lights and gingerbread cookies, but especially for made-for-TV movies about small-town girls and boys who meet and fall in love at Christmastime, encounter slight obstacles that teach them the meaning of family, and then kiss! I am speaking, of course, of the dozens of holiday movies produced by Hallmark, Lifetime, and multiple streaming networks each year.
These movies are known for following simple formulas. Basically all of them are about Christmas. A New York Times study from 2023 found that 73 percent of the Hallmark and Lifetime movies released since 2017 have the word “Christmas” in the title—from A Christmas Love Story, to Christmas on Wheels, to Christmas on Ice, to, of course, The Nine Kittens of Christmas. Meow! They often feature high-strung women who leave their city jobs as doctors or lawyers to come home for the holidays, inevitably running into an ex or falling for the local maple syrup farmer and his big, syrup-farming biceps (and then they kiss). About a quarter of the films have plots that center on a town or small business that’s in trouble, forcing the leads to hatch a plan and work together to save the local inn or children’s theater or fruitcake company (in the case of 2021’s Baking Spirits Bright). And then they kiss!
This year, though, heartland holiday cinema has a new favorite trope: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. In the past couple of weeks, two different movies have been released that feature some elements of the love story between the pop star and the Chiefs tight end. First, there was Lifetime’s Christmas in the Spotlight, in which Grammy-winning superstar Bowyn Sykes (LOL) has a chance meeting with star wide receiver Drew “Gonzo” Gonville (HELP!), who then asks her out via social media, kick-starting a relationship that forces them to navigate love, if you’ll believe it, in the spotlight.
Then there was Hallmark’s offering, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story. While less directly inspired by the Swift-Kelce affair, it feels safe to say that the couple is the reason the Kansas City–based network felt that now was the time to release this tale of an unlikely romance between a Chiefs marketing department employee and a would-be “Fan of the Year.” It will probably not shock you that this movie was made in partnership with the Chiefs and is centered on the team. It also features a magical Christmas hat!
I am thrilled to say that I have giddily consumed both of these movies. I’m not much of a Hallmark or Lifetime consumer generally—my taste in bad Christmas movies tends to run more toward the Lindsay Lohan, Netflix variety—but obviously, I had to see what was happening here and which network would do the subject matter justice.
Christmas in the Spotlight and Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story aren’t really in competition with each other, per se—Hallmark and Lifetime are in the volume business, churning out content rather than worrying about how individual pieces of content perform. Still, as they say, if I had a nickel every time a cable network based a Christmas movie on Taylor and Travis, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot—but it’s kind of weird it happened twice! And while the meaning of Christmas may be love and togetherness, these movies also enter the world of sports—and the meaning of sports is that there are winners and losers!
I have, therefore, evaluated both of these movies using highly objective metrics, gauging their fluency with the Taylorverse and the NFL world and, of course, their overall cinematic merits. (Read: How much do they kiss?!?!) My findings are presented below, in what I’m calling: THE HALLMARK-LIFETIME CHRISTMAS WITH THE CHIEFS IN THE SPOTLIGHT MOVIE SHOWDOWN (TAYLOR’S VERSION). Let us begin!
General Premise
Both films hew to a basic arc—a couple encounters obstacles during their budding romance. In Christmas in the Spotlight, Drew (a.k.a. Gonzo) struggles with being overshadowed by Bowyn’s fame. Early in their relationship, she takes him to a music industry event and chats up the crowd, while he stands in the corner acting surly and eventually leaves. He is possibly feeling some career-related inadequacy; there is a lot of talk that Drew’s “numbers are down” despite the fact that he is also a nine-time MVP. Bowyn also has a mean ex who tries to come between them by “secretly” recording her talking about Drew, then editing the tape to make it sound like she’s saying she isn’t into him. I put “secretly” in quotation marks because in the scene in which he does this, the ex’s assistant points a ring light and a phone in the direction of Bowyn and her ex the entire time. Bowyn and Gonzo vaguely break up after he hears the tape, and she makes no attempt to explain what happened. But then she performs at a benefit concert for the local children’s hospital—she would do anything for this hospital because a doctor who works there once treated her dead father—and wouldn’t you know, she sings a new original song dedicated to the Gonz!
The important thing to know about Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story is that this movie is very much about the Kansas City Chiefs. The main character, Alana, helps run her family business, which is a Chiefs merch store, and she credits the team for her entire existence because her grandparents met at a game. Her case for wanting to be Fan of the Year is that her family has a magical Christmas hat that helps the Chiefs win the Super Bowl—as long as someone wears it on Christmas. The hat was presented to her grandfather when he was a young man by a Salvation Army Santa as a thank-you for making a donation—and you won’t believe the de-aging they do on Ed Begley Jr.’s face in this scene. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl that year, but then it was lost and they didn’t win again for 50 years—until a customer by chance brings it into the store as a vintage item!
Alana’s Chiefs liaison is Derrick, whose title, “fan engagement director,” is so silly that I’m sure it does, in fact, exist. Derrick cares about his job but is not from Kansas City and doesn’t fully understand the Chiefs community. And he does not believe in the magical Christmas hat—he sort of implies that it’s an insult to Patrick Mahomes! But he does catch a vibe with Alana and likes her family, so he becomes invested in Alana’s campaign for Fan of the Year, which pits her family against “Catrick Mahomes,” the cat who looks like Patrick Mahomes. (It’s a real cat!)
The central tension comes when Alana wins the competition but loses the hat! She is terrified that her family will be run out of town if they’re blamed for a Chiefs loss and thinks it’s a sign that her relationship with Derrick is cursed. She’s supposed to accept her Fan of the Year award at the Christmas Day game but says she can’t go without the hat. But just when she’s about to no-show, she has a change of heart and comes clean in front of the entire stadium—where, it turns out, Derrick has made a grand gesture and put a Christmas hat under every seat!
It is then strongly implied that the same (?) Santa Claus from the ’70s who gave Grandpa the hat (and who keeps showing up randomly throughout the movie) stole the hat, but no one worries about that because then Derrick and Alana kiss!
Narratively, the plot of Holiday Touchdown is actually stronger. All the obstacles in Christmas in the Spotlight are frustratingly self-made. Alana is contending with a mischievous Santa Claus and her own ideas of fate and destiny! Whereas Gonzo just can’t hang at a party and then takes it out on his girlfriend. That said, these movies exist because people can’t get enough of Taylor and Travis. But only one of these movies is actually about a Taylor-and-Travis-type relationship, and the other has the audacity to make itself, essentially, about a marketing department. Emily in Paris has emboldened too many people!
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Christmas Spirit
Here’s my main issue with Christmas in the Spotlight: The movie shows only one holiday, and it’s Thanksgiving! The benefit at the hospital is maybe a Christmas event? And at one point Bowyn asks Gonzo to dress up in a Santa suit to travel incognito to her private jet hangar, which is a really good bit, but not nearly enough to make this a Christmas movie. Holiday Touchdown is the clear winner here.
Winner: Holiday Touchdown
Do They Know Ball?
Holiday Touchdown has the benefit of a partnership with the Chiefs, which means that there’s actual NFL footage shown in the movie. As far as I can tell, the football in Christmas in the Spotlight is mostly played by characters from The Sims. You can tell that they shot it in Canada because the end zones are extra long. There are also a lot of references to “the big game,” which made me giggle.
A Ringer Crash Course on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce In case you somehow weren’t familiar
But what I really need to talk about here is this nine-time MVP situation. Even though Gonzo’s numbers are “down” and he seemingly lives in the shadow of his quarterback big brother, he has been the most valuable player in the league nine times, which would suggest to me that he is the best football player who has ever lived? Only one player in NFL history has won MVP even five times, and it’s PEYTON FREAKING MANNING. Not to mention, winning MVP even twice as a non-quarterback would already require Gonzo to be one of the consensus best players in league history. A wide receiver has never won MVP! Jerry Rice never won! I’m supposed to believe that this bozo who isn’t even the best player in his own family has won it NINE TIMES?
Winner: Holiday Touchdown
Plot Holes
Aside from the whole MVP debacle and the fact that most of Bowyn and Gonzo’s relationship issues could be solved by a three-sentence conversation, Bowyn spends a fair amount of Christmas in the Spotlight having lunch meetings with her manager, Mira Vu, in broad daylight in the middle of very public restaurants where they are completely unbothered and openly discuss the specifics of her professional and romantic life.
This made no sense to me, although it wasn’t as confusing as the way puzzles are presented in this film. On one of their early dates, Bowyn and Gonzo do a puzzle together—only they treat it as though it is a highly competitive sport. They present puzzle doing like a high-speed exercise in which the sole aim is to be the first person who places the final piece. Even though they’ve only recently met, both Bowyn and Gonzo have this exact same puzzle philosophy.
The puzzle becomes a sort of symbol of their togetherness—at the end of the movie, Gonzo gives Bowyn a gift that looks like a jewelry box, only it actually contains the last puzzle piece, because she’s the final piece of his happiness. But this doesn’t change the fact that these two are completely weird about puzzles! I don’t know whether that’s really a plot hole, but it made me yell!
Still, Holiday Touchdown is the worse offender. First of all, the fact that Santa Claus clearly stole the Christmas hat, causing chaos and destruction and nearly ruining Derrick and Alana’s relationship is just never addressed! Alana loses the hat at an event for all the Fan of the Year finalists; it disappears just after Santa has made an appearance at her booth. Then, after Derrick has outfitted 70,000 Chiefs fans in new Christmas hats to save the day, Santa pops up again and returns the OG hat! And no one asks where he got it!
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Celebrity Cameos
Christmas in the Spotlight doesn’t feature any real celebrity cameos; it barely takes place in reality. Holiday Touchdown, meanwhile, includes appearances from a lot of famous Chiefs, including Andy Reid, Mecole Hardman, members of the Hunt family (the team owners), and, of course, Catrick Mahomes, the cat who looks like Patrick Mahomes. Donna Kelce makes an appearance—she’s one of the people who runs the BBQ spot that’s supposedly the best in Kansas City. Most randomly, at the end of Holiday Touchdown, Jenna Bush shows up as the emcee of the Fan of the Year award presentation ceremony. Today Show fourth hour forever.
Winner: Holiday Touchdown
Casting
Most of the roles in both movies are played by Hallmark and Lifetime veterans like Tyler Hynes and Hunter King, who play Derrick and Alana, respectively, in Holiday Touchdown. The most notable casting choice, however, is the selection of Laith Wallschleger to play Gonzo in Christmas in the Spotlight. Wallschleger is carving out a real niche for himself—he already played Rob Gronkowski in Ryan Murphy’s FX show about Aaron Hernandez. He does a decent job playing Gonzo! My one note is that he plays Gonzo as big and boisterous, which suggests to me that he still sees the character as a tight end, not a wide receiver. Wide receivers are moody diva types.
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Easter Eggs (Er, Candy Canes?)
There are obviously more Taylor Swift references in Christmas in the Spotlight. There are things like a nod to Bowyn’s history of dating mostly moody artist types. Her fans wear friendship bracelets. But mostly, there are a few dozen Taylor Swift lyrics shoehorned into the dialogue of this movie, in jarringly aggressive fashion.
At one point Bowyn describes herself as “never really a cheerleader type, more of a bleachers girl.” AHHHHH!
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Best (Read: Worst) CGI
This is a tough one. You’ll never convince me that a single person who played football on-screen in Christmas in the Spotlight wasn’t created by AI. And Hallmark has no excuse for the fake snowflakes that fall all over the place in Holiday Touchdown—winter is your thing, guys; give us some real snow!
But what takes the cake, and what made me absolutely shriek when I first saw it on-screen, was how “National Corners Stadium,” the home of Gonzo’s team the Bombers in Christmas in the Spotlight, is depicted. WE ALL KNOW THAT’S YANKEE STADIUM, YOU GOONS! THAT’S THE 4 TRAIN!
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Strongest Moral of the Story
We’re supposed to learn lessons at Christmastime, and any Hallmark movie worth its snuff should come with a neat and tidy takeaway. Christmas in the Spotlight struggled in this regard, though. Gonzo spends half the movie hyping Bowyn up for all she has accomplished—she sometimes regrets that it’s not all about the music anymore now that she’s such a huge star, but he tells her to be proud of how she’s managed her own career. This mirrors how a lot of Swifties feel about the real Taylor-Travis relationship—that he’s not intimidated by her immense fame. But there’s also a through line in Christmas in the Spotlight implying that Bowyn wants to give it all up and be “normal.” And at the end of the movie, Gonzo stays with the Bombers instead of taking a big contract with the Los Angeles Stars, who offered to double his salary! For a movie with the word “spotlight” in the title, Christmas in the Spotlight can’t really decide whether its protagonists really want peak fame..
Holiday Touchdown, on the other hand, knows what it’s about. Most of Alana’s fears about the stolen Christmas hat stem from her overreliance on ideas about fate and destiny. But by the end of the movie, she takes charge of her own life and stops letting superstition guide her—even after Santa returns the stolen (stolen!) hat, she doesn’t put it on. Because she knows she doesn’t need it! [Bursts into tears.]
Winner: Holiday Touchdown
Soundtrack
Christmas in the Spotlight includes multiple original songs, and they’re reasonably good! They do not sound like Taylor Swift songs, but they could pass for late-career Katy Perry. There’s no notable original music in Hallmark’s movie.
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Was This Movie Any Good?
I had more fun watching Christmas in the Spotlight, although I don’t necessarily think that’s because it’s inherently better done—I just think it’s more fun to watch a fake Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce than it is to watch a movie about someone who works in marketing. Sorry!
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
And … and … Did They Kiss?
Obviously, yes. Both movies end with a kiss. That said, in Holiday Touchdown, that kiss—which happens in the stands at Arrowhead Stadium after Derrick has taught Alana the true meaning of Christmas—is the most physical demonstration of affection in the entire movie. Christmas in the Spotlight, on the other hand, is downright horny. There is lifting onto countertops. There is stroking of abdominal muscles. (Bowyn remains very covered up through the whole film, but Gonzo is almost always shirtless, and at one point she looks at his abs and says: “Can I touch them?” Which is roughly as upsetting as the lyric “touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto,” so I guess it tracks.)
Winner: Christmas in the Spotlight
Final Tally: 8-4, Christmas in the Spotlight
Congratulations to Christmas in the Spotlight! I hereby pronounce you the winner of THE HALLMARK-LIFETIME CHRISTMAS WITH THE CHIEFS IN THE SPOTLIGHT MOVIE SHOWDOWN (TAYLOR’S VERSION)! May all your days be merry and bright and full of CGI snowflakes!
