“Everybody Loves Raymond” veteran Doris Roberts is starring in the Hallmark Channel original movie “Debbie Macomber’s Call Me Mrs. Miracle,” a sequel to last year’s top-rated “Mrs. Miracle.”

The Christmas-themed movie, based on Macomber’s novel due to be released in September, is in production in Vancouver for a November 27 premiere.

Roberts will reprise her role as Emily Merkle — Mrs. Miracle as she is known by some — who is back to ensure that this Christmas is the most magical and meaningful of all. When Mrs. Miracle appears as a seasonal employee in the toy department at the financially troubled Finley’s Department Store, neither the store’s owners, nor the customers, have any idea of the saintly events that are about to unfold.

Would you lease your Christmas tree? That’s a growing trend on the U.S. West Coast these days. Entrepeneur Joan Grandizio, who lives in Aliso Viejo, California, is hoping to persuade Orange County, California folks to lease their Christmas trees this year rather than buy a cut pine or artificial variety.

Her company, To Go Green Live Christmas Trees, takes care of the trees most of the year, delivers them to leasee home and apartment dwellers around Thanksgiving and picks them up again after New Years. Prices range from $50 to $135 depending on size. The varieties include deodar cedar, Aleppo pine, Leyland cypress and Monterey pine.

If you pre-order before September, Gradizio will include a free tree skirt.

Grandizio isn’t the only one with the Christmas tree leasing idea. Ikea did it back in the late ’80s-early ’90s even here in Southern California. Living Christmas Tree Company in Portland, Ore., claims to be the original, stared in 1992. Christmas Tree Rentals does it in the Bay Area, Rent a Living Christmas Tree LLC is in central California, and The Living Christmas Tree Co. in Torrance delivers from Santa Monica to Long Beach, according to a map on its website.

They all seem to emphasize the eco-friendliness of leasing over buying a Christmas tree. A few mention the convenience.

“I want to keep 30 million trees out of landfills,” Gradizio says. “And once a tree grows too big for the home or office, you can plant it in your yard or we will plant it in one of the burn areas of California.”

Customers can name their own tree and lease the same one every year, but there are obligations to leasing that cut-tree buyers don’t have. Leasees agree to properly water the tree and not put flocking or tinsel on it.

In between Christmases, the trees are kept at a local pinery, Grandizio says.

Production has begun in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the television movie “November Christmas,” CBS announced Monday.

Starring Sarah Paulson, Sam Elliott, John Corbett, Karen Allen and Emily Alyn Lind, the holiday-themed drama is to air as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Nov. 28.

Set in a small Rhode Island community, it is about what happens when neighbors band together to create magical Halloween and Christmas moments — several weeks early — for a young girl named Vanessa, who is facing a serious illness, CBS said in a synopsis.

“Told entirely in flashback from the perspective of a vibrant Vanessa, at age 23, the drama begins in the summer of 1995 when the 8-year-old Vanessa has just returned from several weeks of tests and treatments at a Providence hospital,” the network said. “Though deeply concerned about Vanessa’s serious prognosis, her father, Tom, is committed not only to her full recovery but also to keeping things as happy and normal as possible for her and his 4-year-old son Gordon and his wife Beth.”

Production has begun in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the television movie “November Christmas,” CBS announced Monday.

Starring Sarah Paulson, Sam Elliott, John Corbett, Karen Allen and Emily Alyn Lind, the holiday-themed drama is to air as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Nov. 28.

Set in a small Rhode Island community, it is about what happens when neighbors band together to create magical Halloween and Christmas moments — several weeks early — for a young girl named Vanessa, who is facing a serious illness, CBS said in a synopsis.

“Told entirely in flashback from the perspective of a vibrant Vanessa, at age 23, the drama begins in the summer of 1995 when the 8-year-old Vanessa has just returned from several weeks of tests and treatments at a Providence hospital,” the network said. “Though deeply concerned about Vanessa’s serious prognosis, her father, Tom, is committed not only to her full recovery but also to keeping things as happy and normal as possible for her and his 4-year-old son Gordon and his wife Beth.”

Despite massive flood damage, Gaylord Opryland Resort officials said they will be reopened and ready for a bigger and better holiday season.

On Wednesday, Opryland workers put on Santa hats and started hanging 2 million Christmas lights.

Gaylord held an elaborate news conference complete with dancing elves to get the message across that the resort will reopen on November 15.

Construction crews have been working around the clock. Gaylord is spending close to $223 million to restore the building, renovate rooms and add new restaurants. There was 10 feet of flood water in some parts of the resort.

The company said it will start rehiring employees by August. Employees said they’re just happy Opryland is opening and their laid off co-workers can soon come back.

Opryland’s holiday favorites will be back including ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ ICE attraction, performances by the Radio City Rockettes and a new dinner show with Louise Mandrell.

The 27th annual A Country Christmas begins November 19 and runs through January 2.

Despite massive flood damage, Gaylord Opryland Resort officials said they will be reopened and ready for a bigger and better holiday season.

On Wednesday, Opryland workers put on Santa hats and started hanging 2 million Christmas lights.

Gaylord held an elaborate news conference complete with dancing elves to get the message across that the resort will reopen on November 15.

Construction crews have been working around the clock. Gaylord is spending close to $223 million to restore the building, renovate rooms and add new restaurants. There was 10 feet of flood water in some parts of the resort.

The company said it will start rehiring employees by August. Employees said they’re just happy Opryland is opening and their laid off co-workers can soon come back.

Opryland’s holiday favorites will be back including ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ ICE attraction, performances by the Radio City Rockettes and a new dinner show with Louise Mandrell.

The 27th annual A Country Christmas begins November 19 and runs through January 2.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is a man of many identities. He’s a Super Bowl champion. A New Jersey resident. A delicious Sandwich. Manning will now and forevermore be a Christmas ornament.

Hallmark released the company’s 2010 Keepsake Ornaments “holiday preview” this past weekend (July 10-11). Included are figurines of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard. Manning and Polamalu are part of a yearly NFL Christmas ornaments series that also include Eli’s brother, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

The Eli Manning, sports-related and other available Christmas ornaments are part of a special week-long Christmas/holiday preview from Hallmark. Up until July 18, Hallmark will be offering numerous specials and discounts on ornaments and other Christmas products. The Eli Manning ornament is the only New York Giants and New York sports Christmas ornament to be released by Hallmark in 2010.

A bit early for Christmas, you say? Christmas in July is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate the occasion with the New York Giants fan in your life than getting him/her the Eli Manning ornament? For what it’s worth, Manning has two healthy feet in the ornament.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is a man of many identities. He’s a Super Bowl champion. A New Jersey resident. A delicious Sandwich. Manning will now and forevermore be a Christmas ornament.

Hallmark released the company’s 2010 Keepsake Ornaments “holiday preview” this past weekend (July 10-11). Included are figurines of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard. Manning and Polamalu are part of a yearly NFL Christmas ornaments series that also include Eli’s brother, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

The Eli Manning, sports-related and other available Christmas ornaments are part of a special week-long Christmas/holiday preview from Hallmark. Up until July 18, Hallmark will be offering numerous specials and discounts on ornaments and other Christmas products. The Eli Manning ornament is the only New York Giants and New York sports Christmas ornament to be released by Hallmark in 2010.

A bit early for Christmas, you say? Christmas in July is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate the occasion with the New York Giants fan in your life than getting him/her the Eli Manning ornament? For what it’s worth, Manning has two healthy feet in the ornament.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment came to New York City this week, bringing a sack full of their most anticipated Blu-ray releases for the fourth quarter of 2010. Disney’s A Christmas Carol has been much-vaunted as the studio’s first Blu-ray 3D, and it will take advantage of much of what the format has to offer. In addition to preserving the breathtaking visuals (many of which have absolutely nothing to do with Charles Dickens’ novella, by the way), the disc will offer some truly cutting-edge bonus features.

Not just the movie but the menus will be in 3D, as well what could be the first-ever 3D “making of” bonus feature, “Mr. Scrooge’s Wild Ride,” covering what it took to make the film. The Blu-ray will also offer an amazing Bonus View option that will put the unaltered live-action motion-capture footage of Jim Carrey and others on screen as picture-in-picture while the movie plays. And as an extra on top of the extra, director Robert Zemeckis, who has become more reclusive of late, will be providing a commentary specific to the picture-in-picture content.

In keeping with the theme and timing of the release, the Blu-ray set will include an interactive Advent calendar with a surprise for each day leading up to December 25th. Six deleted scenes, a standard-definition DVD (with two featurettes not on the Blu-ray) and Digital Copy to round out the set. Disney’s A Christmas Carol arrives on Blu-ray 3D November 16, at a suggested price of $49.99 for the four-disc combo pack (Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy.)

Local media in Gatlinburg, Tennessee are reporting that the promised payments by Celebrate Santa to cover costs of two years worth of Claus-related conventions has not been made. WBIR-TV and the Mountain Press both report of the default by Joe and Mary Moore of the promissory note they provided in March as news of the fiasco surfaced. According to those reports, the Moores owe “tens of thousands of dollars” for the events.

In the reports, Joe Moore claims the public complaints by the City of Gatlinburg are the reason why no money has been paid, preventing him from securing new sponsors for future events.

“They basically shot themselves and us in the foot,” Moore said in a phone conversation with The Mountain Press. “They said some pretty bad things about us and made it really difficult for us.” (This being said long after Moore announced in March that he was moving the next convention to another city).

Insiders from Celebrate Santa 2009 and 2010 report the receipt of “hundreds of thousands” of dollars by the Moores from the sales of sponsorships and registrations. Several vendors outside of the City of Gatlinburg have also come forward to report they have not been paid either. There has been no accounting of funds received or costs generated by the events.

Over the course of a year this story has been documented while the Santa community debated how the very public fiasco affects the image of Santa Claus and potential such news has for anyone doing business as a Santa.