Whether it’s Alastair Sim in “A Christmas Carol,” Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” or the sacred Jewish tradition of Chinese food and a double feature, the holidays and the cinema are inseparable. Director Robert Vaughn acknowledges such in “Christmas Movie Magic,” which may not be fated to become another “It’s a Wonderful Life” but does acknowledge the link between Christmas movies and Christmas spirits—of the past, the present and, if the romance works out, yuletides to come.

Lifetime, whose recent titles have been of the more...

Whether it’s Alastair Sim in “A Christmas Carol,” Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” or the sacred Jewish tradition of Chinese food and a double feature, the holidays and the cinema are inseparable. Director Robert Vaughn acknowledges such in “Christmas Movie Magic,” which may not be fated to become another “It’s a Wonderful Life” but does acknowledge the link between Christmas movies and Christmas spirits—of the past, the present and, if the romance works out, yuletides to come.

Christmas Movie Magic

Tuesday, 8 p.m., Lifetime

Lifetime, whose recent titles have been of the more macabre-sounding variety (“Switched Before Birth,” “Torn From Her Arms”), joins Hallmark Channel every post-Halloween season in producing a blizzard of holiday romances, although “Christmas Movie Magic” does separate itself from the pack—partly because it looks so convincing in its evocation of styles and periods (the costumes are by Sarah Lake, the cinematography by Justin Yaroski ), but mostly because of the performance of Holly Deveaux. As the ambitious, slightly cynical, unromantically inclined newspaperwoman Alli Blakeman, she is dispatched to fictional White Falls, N.Y., to cover the 65th anniversary of “Christmas With You,” a classic Christmas film that was filmed in the town, had its premiere in the town and has more or less kept the town on the map, at least among cinephiles and reporters looking for holiday-edition feature stories.

Ms. Deveaux executes a nifty balancing act as Alli, who really wants to get out of the travel/entertainment section at the Sentinel and work news-side and has been promised a transfer, as long as she can produce a first-rate feature from White Falls by Christmas Eve. (The capable scriptwriters, Rickie Castaneda and Megan Hocking, have obviously never worked under holiday newspaper deadlines.) What Alli discovers is a handsome young man named Brad Westdale (Drew Seeley), whose family-run movie theater was the site of the “Christmas With You” premiere. Also, an unusual number of locals old enough to provide firsthand recollections of the movie’s 1955 filming, including Brad’s grandmother (the veteran British-Canadian actress Jill Frappier ). And a note on the back of a piece of sheet music that hints at a clandestine romance between the movie’s male star and a woman—whose identity Alli is determined to uncover. It’ll make a great story.

Will she get to tell it? Ms. Deveaux wins one’s sympathy, thanks in no small part to Mr. Vaughn’s delicate direction. When Brad the smalltown movie buff announces that “Fame is a double-edged sword,” Alli gives him a look—it isn’t derisive, it isn’t judgmental, but if she didn’t react it would be out of character. And what her look says is, “What do you think you’re talking about?” Brad’s OK, though; you know he’ll eventually melt Alli’s soft-boiled Scroogey-ness. He’s just caught up in the moment.

Mystery, movies and journalistic ethics are the ingredients in “Christmas Movie Magic,” which contains a movie within a movie—we begin watching as if in a theater and one story segues into the next and ends with a musical number that’s a little bit “Nutcracker” and a little bit “La La Land.” Mr. Vaughn can get away with it, because he’s weaved a little magic of his own.