The Nine Lives of Christmas has been charming families and felines alike for a decade

It’s that time of year again when the perfect accompaniment to a cold, snowy day – or a perfectly warm, seasonable day if that’s what it’s like in your part of the world! – is a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. Each year, the network releases a vast collection of holiday-themed offerings for its Countdown to Christmas, which begins the last weekend of October and extends into early January. While dozens of new titles are added to the catalog each holiday season, my personal favorite remains a movie titled The Nine Lives of Christmas, officially turned 10 years old in November.

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Sheila Roberts. Starring Kimberley Sustad and Brandon Routh, Nine Lives tells the tale of a veterinary student (Marilee White, played by Sustad) who falls in love one Christmas with a handsome firefighter (Routh’s Zachary Stone) in small-town Oregon. Sounds simple enough, right?

The added bonus with Nine Lives, and what helps set it apart from other Hallmark holiday movies is the inclusion of some delightful feline friends to round out the cast. The true star here is Ambrose, an orange Tabby cat that befriends Zachary and sets him on the path to embracing the concepts of family and commitment. The soon-to-be-veterinarian Marilee also has a cat, a long-haired Torbi (a cat with a tortoiseshell/tabby coat pattern) named Queenie, even though she’s not technically allowed any pets in her apartment complex (yes, that becomes relevant later in the story).

As expected, the cats play a role in Marilee and Zachary’s budding romance. The two humans first meet in the pet food aisle of the grocery store, a ridiculously charming meet-cute that stands the test of time and makes me grin every time I watch it. Marilee can’t help but awkwardly offer up some veterinary insight when Zachary struggles to select an appropriate diet for the newly-acquired Ambrose, which segues into the pair bonding over home renovations and ends with her declaring Zachary a “double hero” for both rescuing a cat and being a firefighter.

Throughout the movie, both Marilee and Zachary have sweet moments of confiding in their respective furry companions, especially Zachary with Ambrose. Plus, later in the story, when the discovery of Queenie gets Marilee evicted and results in Zachary offering up his spare room, their cats immediately hit it off. It even sparks a conversation about love at first sight that amusingly makes commitment-phobe Zachary sweat.

Finally (beware of spoilers!), at the end of the movie, the couple reconciles at a pet adoption event on Christmas Day, which Zachary gets reminded of when Ambrose helpfully paws at the newspaper article that's promoting the event.

Some other highlights of the movie — not cat-related this time, I apologize! — are Zachary and Marilee’s respective friend groups. Nine Lives opens with an introduction to Zachary and his firehouse crew, made up of firehouse chief Sam (Gregory Harrison), and fellow engineers Mark (Dallas Blake) and Ray (Sean Tyson). This group of friends-slash-coworkers is so wholesome, hilarious, and, most importantly, supportive, and they’re truly an all-around positive influence on Zachary and his romantic pursuits.

Marilee’s main confidant is her best friend and fellow veterinary student Sarah (Jennifer Cheon Garcia), who, similarly to the firehouse crew, is wonderfully supportive while still providing sharp, biting moments of levity throughout the movie. Marilee’s well-meaning — if a little overeager and overbearing — younger sister, Jaclyn (Stephanie Bennett), and her brother-in-law, Kyle (Carey Freehan), also crop up from time-to-time in Nine Lives to offer their input on Marilee’s budding romance.

Ten years on, I’ve never wavered in my classification of Nine Lives as my favorite Hallmark Christmas movie (to be honest, it’s one of my all-time favorite movies, full stop). My longstanding affection for this movie stems from how it manages to so perfectly juggle the expectations of light-hearted, festive Hallmark fare — They have innocent misunderstandings! They pick out a Christmas tree together! They kiss under the mistletoe! — with the more grounded relationship and character elements found in classic romantic comedies. Zachary and Marilee are both well-rounded and entertaining leads, their relationship that develops in this movie feels healthy and genuine, and their respective worlds feel properly lived-in. All in all, Nine Lives is a sweet, engaging, well-written, well-acted production, and I’d seriously recommend it to anyone (and I have!).

By the way, if you watch this movie and find yourself yearning for more cat-related Christmas content, you’re in luck! I’m delighted to report that Nine Lives is one of the rare Hallmark movies that actually garnered a sequel, aptly named The Nine Kittens of Christmas, which came out in November 2021. Zachary and Marilee’s romance in this sequel is just as sweet and awkward as ever, the majority of the core cast returns (Jaclyn in particular really shines in this one), and there are, of course, nine adorable kittens added to the mix!

Both The Nine Lives of Christmas and The Nine Kittens of Christmas can be watched on the Hallmark TV App this holiday season.