A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is a fun, sweet holiday movie that checks all the boxes. Of COURSE you see the end coming, I mean, Hallmark isn't going to pull a 6th Sense surprise on us, but the last 5 minutes are ridiculously concise... it's like they were suddenly told the theater was about to close and they had to wrap up a 30 min conclusion into 4 minutes like a cancelled tv series.All of the characters were believable, the townspeople were charming and the heroine FINALLY wasn't acting like a spoiled victim. Lacy is a perfectly suited Christmas movie actress and I'm glad to see her in a role that doesn't demean her into being helpless. A worth-while watch.

Good points: It stayed nicely focused on Christmas...with Christmas décor and scenes, and with Santa, Christmas cookies and all. The plot flowed nicely. The lines were good. The acting...*except for mentioned below... was OK at best. (I've seen worst.)Bad points: 1. Even though it had "snow"...and was supposed to be cold...somehow it gave the impression that it really was filmed in the Spring or Summer. The deciduous trees where they picked up Santa, were green and lush. The deciduous trees in the forest still had their leaves...there was even an outdoor tropical plant in front of the porch at the home. The male star had his coat open, wearing it over a t-shirt. He looked as if the coat made him too warm to bundle up. All the players looked too warm when they were outside.There was just too much conflict between the time of year and the profound abundance of over-looked details that suggested it really was NOT that COLD time of year. And I think that really, really distracted from the movie.2. *Florence Henderson and her *friend were constantly over-the-top obnoxious!........ Florence with her over-bearing, nasal cheerfulness, was too silly....and the friend was just plain, over-bearing in every way. I've seen this movie a few times, and I hate to sit through it when they are featured.

It is obvious from the title what this movie is going to be about. Some how I don't really think Santa would have the time to match make so close to Christmas, do you? Lacy Chabert plays (Melanie) the female lead and if not for her I would have not finished the movie. She is dating an uptight, job oriented butt head. Santa shows up around her all the time trying to hook her up with another guy, Dean, instead of her boyfriend. So Santa keeps interfering in events, causing a business exec to get in to some poison ivy. This results him sending his VP, Blair, who is an old acquaintance, to the house where boyfriend has called a meeting of the companies board. They talk till to late and Blair spends the night, upstairs, alone. His mom shows up and assumes Blair is the girlfriend. Not true at this time. I just couldn't buy the lack of chemistry between Lacy and Dean. There was just no really believable connection, even for actors. Turns out Dean is really a woodworker and not a paper pusher. Melanie has her own bakery and pitches in to help make the cookies that are sold to help the poor get presents and stuff. So anyway the inevitable happens and Melanie and Dean end up together and so do the boyfriend and Blair. As a side light Florence Henderson is a hoot in her roll.

I am an avid Christmas movie watcher and like just about every Christmas movie that I have ever seen, but unfortunately this was not one of them. The acting was terrible and the plot was weak. The Santa character was very creepy and most of the other characters made it difficult to feel any sympathy or empathy for them. The ending was too pat, with people changing partners with no real lead up to one of the couples ending up together, (except for some shared memories of dating in high school), and no reaction from the boyfriend of his employee and girlfriend ending up together. All in all, I say save your time and spend it on much better Christmas movies like '12 Dates of Christmas', 'A Christmas Kiss', 'Desperately Seeking Santa', 'Eve's Christmas', 'Holiday In Handcuffs' and 'Very Merry Daughter of the Bride'.