15 must-watch Hallmark Channel Christmas movies

USS Christmas

Cast: Jen Lilley, Trevor Donovan, Stefanie Butler, Barbara Niven

Year: 2020

Norfolk Register reporter Maddie Johnson (Jen Lilley) grew up in a military family. Her mother Elizabeth and sister Lieutenant Amelia Breslan bring her on a holiday Tiger Cruise, where she runs into Lieutenant Billy Jenkins (Trevor Donovan). Billy is a fighter pilot that Maddie met during the Navy’s Christmas gala prior to the Tiger Cruise. Career-minded Billy doesn’t have a lot of room in his life for anything other than his job, but there’s something special about Maddie.

The Tiger Cruise is an opportunity for families and friends to go on a cruise with their loved ones on a Navy ship. During the cruise, Maddie takes a trip to the ship’s archives, where she finds an old journal belonging to a sailor who met a woman during a Tiger Cruise over five decades ago and fell madly in love. She decides that it would make a fantastic story to find the journal’s owner to see how things turned out for them.

Billy is there to help her on her quest, but what Maddie doesn’t expect is that the journey helps her understand her own feelings about military life, quelling the fears that have been on her mind.

It’s not often that Hallmark fans get to experience the holidays from a Navy ship, which makes USS Christmas even more special. The movie debuted in 2020 as part of the Miracles of Christmas celebration on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.