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Chase Bridges, YouTube sensation, joins us to review the UPtv Christmas mystery A Christmas Murder Mystery — a holiday whodunit filled with secrets, suspense, and snow.

The editor of the Metropolitan Ledger's puzzle section, who also works part-time as a consultant for the local sheriff, is invited to spend the holidays with a family harboring secrets. Soon, she finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation — all during the most festive time of the year.

December 7 2025 | UPtv

• Vivica A. Fox as Cynthia Marshall
• Morgan Bradley as Vera Vexley
• Rob Mayes as Troy Sterling

Vera Vexley is the puzzle editor for a newspaper and a part-time consulting detective for the sheriff’s department. So imagine her surprise when, while staying with some family friends on Christmas Eve — the rich and powerful Sterling family — she is swept into a murder mystery. The father of the Sterling family, Harold Sterling, has been killed!

Vera is on the case. It has to be someone in the house, but who? Was it Harold’s wife? One of his two sons, Troy or Michael? His daughter, Katherine? His daughter-in-law Jan? Or the family lawyer, Darren, who was invited for Christmas?

Everyone has a motive. Michael had his father invest in his nightclub but then involved the mafia, which upset Harold. Harold gave him until Christmas to buy him out, or he would go public with the mess.

Katherine hated her father’s business, even telling him, “someone needed to protect the public from people like him.”

And Darren, the lawyer, was the last person to see Harold and had argued with him that night over business.

As Vera digs deeper, she uncovers all sorts of family secrets: Michael and Jan are getting divorced; Troy was adopted because his mother had an affair with an employee, meaning Troy isn’t actually Harold’s son; and Darren was secretly having an affair with Michael’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Jan.

Things get even more dangerous. Someone pushes Jan down the stairs in an apparent attempt on her life. Not long after, someone tries to kill Michael by bashing him over the head!

Vera carefully pieces it all together while developing feelings for Troy. In a classic big reveal, she gathers everyone and announces that Darren, the lawyer, did it. He was furious about being left out of Harold’s will and, feeling betrayed, killed Harold. He then tried to kill Michael, blaming him for the will fiasco, and pushed Jan because of jealousy.

But just when everyone thinks the case is closed… it isn’t! After Jan believes Darren has been arrested, she sneaks into Harold’s office to destroy evidence — proving she’s actually the killer. Vera, of course, is waiting. Jan tries to attack her with a letter opener, but fails.

Vera explains the truth: Jan killed Harold because she feared that, after divorcing Michael, she would be cut out of the will. She staged her fall down the stairs to avoid suspicion and then tried to kill Michael so she could inherit his estate — still legally hers since they’re technically married.

Vera saves the day, kisses Troy, submits her new puzzle to her editor just in time for the deadline, and the Sterlings… live happily ever after.

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We’re finally caught up on Hallmark Christmas movies, so it’s time to head back to UPtv with Ryan. Today, we’re reviewing Christmas in Amish Country.

A faltering chef returns to her Amish roots in Pennsylvania, finds solace in slow-cooking, and rekindles a friendship with a sweet farmer from her past.

November 30 2025 | UPtv

• Ella Cannon as Claire
• Jason Tobias as Jack

It’s December 20th and we’re at a fancy new restaurant. Chef Claire is making very fancy food — we’re talking liquid nitrogen levels of fancy. But it’s too fancy. The reviews are awful, and her manager encourages her to sell ASAP. There’s no saving this sucker. Reporters love a downfall story, so they’re outside her apartment. She mistakes one of the reporters for her rideshare driver.

With her flight canceled, she asks him to drive her to Missouri — a 7-hour trip. Looking for the scoop, he says yes and doesn’t tell her who he really is. His name is Jack, and they actually kind of hit it off. She even moves to the passenger seat.

They arrive in Versailles, Missouri. Jack is stunned to find out it’s an Amish town! Her mom? Amish. Her sister-in-law? Amish. The queen of modern molecular gastronomy… is Amish!

Jack even saves her mom from an oncoming truck. Hero moment unlocked.

This whole time, she thought his name was Chad — her “driver.” He corrects her: he’s Jack, and he finally comes clean. Claire is not thrilled, but since he saved her mom’s life, he gets to stay with the family.

Her family doesn’t know what kind of food she really cooks… or about the bad reviews. Jack agrees to keep that quiet.

Since he didn’t plan on this trip, he has no spare clothes. So naturally, he ends up rocking Amish garb.

Jack volunteers to help a guy named Eli, who absolutely hates him. Who does Eli not hate? Claire. He’s very into her.

When Jack tastes her family’s apple butter and pie crust, he’s like, “Why aren’t you serving this?!” She insists the outside world doesn’t want this kind of food.

She opens up about her journey, and Jack seems genuinely interested — though that might just be because he’s churning butter and can’t escape. His back starts hurting, so she gives him an old Amish back rub, and the sparks definitely fly.

Jack keeps helping around the farm and loving all the food. He tells her that incorporating her family’s cooking could really bring her restaurant to life. Sparks continue… until she finds his initial story draft, which basically calls her a fraud. The family tells him to get lost first thing in the morning.

Here’s something important about Claire: she’s terrified of riding in a horse and buggy because of a past accident. So she’s walking to Christmas dinner when she finds her pregnant friend on the path — her water has broken. Claire has to conquer her fear, take the buggy, and get her to the hospital.

On Jack’s way out of town, he sees Claire walking into the hospital. He offers to help, and she tells him to go pick up the woman’s husband — which he does. When he gets back, he tells her he was never going to turn in that hurtful article. He has a new story ready and wants her to read it before he submits it.

He brings her back to the farm and gives the whole family a copy of the new article. They all forgive him, and he and Claire kiss.

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We’re wrapping up the week with one final Hallmark Christmas movie from Thanksgiving Week — The Christmas Cup.

Staff Sergeant Kelly Brandt, recovering from a knee injury, leads her hometown team in the annual Christmas Cup, despite her heart aching for her career. She discovers there are multiple ways to serve a community.

November 30th 2025 | Hallmark Channel

• Rhiannon Fish as Kelly Brandt
• Ben Rosenbaum as Quinn Stokley

The movie kicks off with Fish returning from the army — her name is Aunt Kelly. Her brother and daughter pick her up from the bus, and when they get home, there’s a surprise party waiting for her!

Apparently, it’s the 50th Christmas Cup! We don’t know what that means yet. It turns out there’s a friendly rivalry between two neighboring towns, Bridgeport and Longleaf. To make things more complicated, the towns now share a school board, police, and fire department. When the mayor of Longleaf shows up with a hot firefighter, she has alternative motives: she wants to shut down the troops’ welcome-back party. The firefighter, Quinn, is clearly smitten with Kelly, but it seems like it could never work.

Kelly reluctantly agrees to lead her town in the Christmas Cup this year — and ropes Quinn into helping. The Christmas Cup is a friendly competition between the towns, consisting of challenges like a snowball fight, eggnog chug, and more.

Kelly soon learns she has to leave town again soon, which makes her sad. Luckily, Quinn is there to lift her spirits. He invites her on a romantic date wrapping presents for kids, and the night goes beautifully.

But then she gets a call — the Marines need her to leave on Christmas Day. She tells her friend the news: she won’t be there for the Christmas Cup. But what about Quinn? Kelly insists, he’s a stranger, who cares! Unfortunately for her, Quinn is right around the corner and overhears everything — and he’s not happy.

Kelly starts to rethink leaving and goes to talk to Quinn, but he’s upset: he heard what you said. She realizes she doesn’t want to leave, so she announces to her family, after blowing out the going-away cake candle, that she’s not leaving! The military can wait.

Christmas Cup time arrives, and Kelly is initially sad to see Quinn has joined the other team. Longleaf falls behind early after losing the singing and eggnog chug challenges. But then they make a comeback, winning the light untangle and trivia challenges. Bridgeport takes the spice contest, so it all comes down to the snowball fight, worth 20 points.

Longleaf is about to win, but a little girl decides to be kind and not throw a snowball at her bully. The teams agree it should be a tie, but the bully concedes: Longleaf won fair and square.

Kelly and Quinn make up — and share a big, romantic kiss.

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