We’re within touching distance of December now, so why not settle in to some good Christmas movies this weekend?  The UK movie channel Movies 24 has already rebranded to Christmas 24 for the festive season, as has become a tradition, and here are its highlights this weekend.

Saturday sees the screening of The Christmas Apprentice in the middle of the afternoon at 3pm, and it’s also a UK premiere for this TV movie.  It tells the story of a rising star within a large company who is sent to Vermont by her boss to close-down a small outwear store.  Her boss, by the way, is played by the Christmas movie legend, Chevy Chase.

Obsessed with making a healthy profit, the company wants to close the store down as it continues to under-perform, and it is the job of executive Riley, played by Abigail Hawk, to go and deliver the news. To make things worse, Christmas is just around the corner.

As you may expect, all doesn’t go as planned when Riley arrives in Vermont.  Instead, she learns of the significant value the store has to the local community, and to complicate matters further, she falls in love while in town.

This is a lovely film if you’re after some easy watching on a Saturday afternoon, and it’s really quite Christmassy.  It will be repeated throughout December on Christmas 24, so if you forget to watch or record, don’t fear.

If you’re reading this in the US, the movie will also debut in November in the States but goes under the title of A Christmas in Vermont. We understand it goes out around November 27th on the other side of the pond.

Your premiere on Sunday is A Perfect Christmas, starring Dillon Casey, and is also to be screen at 3pm.  This one is about a pair of newlyweds who have invited both sides of the family over for Christmas, and as the movie’s title suggests, they have planned out a perfect Christmas.

Things get complicated, though.  Steve (Casey) is laid-off from his job right before Christmas while his wife Cynthia (Susie Abromeit) discovers she is pregnant.  Not wanting to spoil their carefully planned Christmas, both Steve and Cynthia keep their bits of news to themselves, however, pressure mounts as family members begin to ask lots of questions.

Again, for our friends in America, this one is going to go out on Hallmark Channel today on Friday 18th November.  We have it down as 8pm, but please check local listings. UK fans, check out Christmas 24 to catch the film.

Both movies sound great to us.  Please interact with us on Facebook and Twitter to let us know what you think about both films, and if you fancy reviewing either, we’d be happy to publish it right here.