Since 2016, I’ve been watching the majority of the new Christmas movies that Hallmark puts out each year. I enjoy the meet cutes, the varying holiday activities, the decorations, and of course the fake (or only semi-fake) snow. One thing I’ve learned, however, is that not all Hallmark holiday films are made alike, and I just watched one that was absolutely cringe – until it turned things around with a cute twist at the end.
I happened to throw on Santa Tell Me last night with my Peacock Plus subscription, and I was stoked. This movie stars two When Calls The Heart actors, reuniting lead Erin Krakow with her former love interest Daniel Lissing. Clearly they have chemistry. This was gonna be great!
Why Santa Tell Me Was Really One Of The Worst Hallmark Christmas Movies
There are two types of bad Hallmark movies. The first are the lower budget movies that Hallmark puts together with relatively unknown leads and the lowest common denominator possible scripts. These are expectedly bad and are often more fun to hate watch than cozily watch. I want to be clear this is not the type of movie Santa Tell Me was.
The second type of bad Hallmark movie is the one that should be good: it has a great cast with Hallmark notables, it clearly spent a little more money budget-wise and may even have a cute conceit, but for whatever reason it just does not come together well. This is the type of bad Hallmark movie Santa Tell Me was.
Before I rip into this film, I want to be clear, re-teaming Erink Krakow and Daniel Lissing was a smart move. The additional casting of Benjamin Ayres, Kurt Szarka and Christopher Russell was solid. The general conceit is cute. A young woman asked Santa to help her find true love as a child and 25 years later Santa helps her with her wish list through a series of notes and some meddling that leads several men named Nick into her life.
My big problem was that I hated how this movie was put together. At least until I got to the movie’s final scenes. Let me explain.
The story really didn’t make sense and the notes kept changing. Obviously, given the plot is about a grown woman opening up 25-year-old notes from Santa there has to be an element of disbelief suspended, but I had a lot of trouble with the way the Olivia storyline was set up with four possible guy options, and the way the notes from Santa kept changing to fit what was going on. This led me to a conclusion that made me feel like the Santa notes didn’t make sense, and while a twist ending does fix this (more on this later), the whole time I was super confused and sort of not into how the plot ultimately played out onscreen.
I had a little bit of trouble rooting for Olivia and her sister. At one point, her sister broke an item in a store and then hid it so she wouldn’t get in trouble or have to pay for the item. I get that people are complex and have both good and bad in them, but this randomly really bothered me. Olivia’s also dating three people at once and she’s not open about it with any of them, and of course they are upset when they find out! She’s not particularly nice to her boss, either, and while that’s supposed to be a reason they bond as romantic interests later on, a lot of these moments mortified me as a viewer.
There’s a montage of dates Olivia goes on that further highlights why this movie wasn’t put together well. We’re expected as viewers to believe Olivia is on a three-week(ish) timeline with the house renovation project being undertaken with her new boss Chris, but we see her going on myriad dates with three different dudes during one montage. Meanwhile, nothing is shown happening with the house in the meantime. Normally a montage is used to show time passing, but the opposite happened here. It just confused me in regards to how much time was passing and when Olivia was fitting in all these dates with all these men.
Let me talk about the wine pours. This one’s kind of funny, as it’s a common trope in Hallmark movies that the wine pours are hysterically large. This was also true in Santa Tell Me, but this movie takes things a step further. Olivia and her sister are drinking together and having a conversation about Olivia’s love life. Her sister Darcy has a pretty full glass of wine already and as Olivia leaves she decides to top it off. This probably bothered no one but me, but it just seemed like another example of this film making a poor editing choice.
On the same note, there was also a scene where Olivia and Chris are drinking wine together to "celebrate" the end of the home renovation and then they decide to leave and go do another activity to “celebrate.” Guys, you were already celebrating! You don’t need a second activity.
Clearly, I had some problems with how this film was setup and cut despite the good acting performances, but the ending did turn things around for me a bit.
The Ending Of Santa Tell Me Wraps Things Up With A Neat Little Bow
So, one of my biggest problems with Santa Tell Me had to do with the fact the original Santa note to Olivia mentioned she would fall in love with a man named Nick. This is why all the men she met-cute with were named Nick. But ultimately this movie kept pushing Olivia toward her boss Chris, which made me feel a little suspect about Santa’s motivations, honestly!
Well, as it turns out –and big movie twist spoilers if you are reading this and haven’t watched yet – Chris is another one of those men whose first name is actually Nick, but he chooses to go by his middle name. When Chris and Olivia meet up at the train station to give their apologies at the end of the movie, the train station announces his name and a realization dawns on Olivia’s face. The moment was a payoff that was unexpected and worked for me on a lot of levels, because I'd gone into the final scene thinking Santa had totally messed with Olivia and hadn't gotten it right. At. All.
Does this great little ending twist forgive everything I watched before? No, but obviously a lot of you Hallmark viewers felt differently about this movie, as it has a high-rated 7.6 audience score on IMDB. It’s hard telling if the premise, the twist, or a combined love of Lissing and Krakow were enough to make people happy when the flick aired on Hallmark this past weekend, but I certainly hope the two actors get a chance at an upcoming Hallmark movie that’s as well put together as something like It Was Always You.