Sadly Over-hyped

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Brooke Nevin & Robin Dunne star as Maggie and Mitch, who once upon a time were in college together and find themselves back in their hometown and begin to reacquaint their friendship. Maggie has only fond memories of Mitch, who helped her get home for Christmas when she was a freshman. Maggie always wondered what happened and why Mitch never came back to college... He also has no Christmas spirit whatsoever, so Maggie sets out to rekindle his spirit and hopefully some romance as well. She begins sending him anonymous packages full of Christmas cheer. To complicate matters the packages become a media frenzy and she is assigned to write a story on them for the local paper. Will Maggie tell Mitch before someone else takes credit for the cheer? Cute romantic Christmas flick.

So predictable, yet so good. This is a creative twist to the twelve days of Christmas theme.Brooke Nevin and Robin Dunne are great on screen together. You can see the chemistry all the way back in the college scenes, and it never lessens. And this movie puts them together a lot. So many other movies have the future lovers together for such small parts of the movie, but in this movie their relationship is almost always on screen, even if one of them is momentarily off the screen. This factor is a major part of my enjoyment of the movie.And the story is so heartwarming and good. True it is corny. True, Mitch should have figured it out early in the game, probably after Briana confessed it wasn't her. And Mitch should have jumped on the relationship long before the secret was out. They were clearly already in love. Also Mitch and Rita's outrage are totally hypocritical, thus making their outrage a little unbelievable.In a day where journalism has sunk to new lows and no longer presents honest or unbiased news, Maggie's crimes against journalistic integrity are so forgivable. Still her confessions on the front page are yet another sparkling ornament to the story, like the angel on top of the tree.The Twelve Gifts not only helped Mitch to renew his love for Christmas, but bolstered mine as well.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THAT PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE ABOUT THESE FILMS.Maggie Dunlop is thrilled when her long time crush, Mitch, moves to her little town of Harrison. Once Maggie discovers Mitch and his love for Christmas has drastically changed, she vows to bring the holiday spirit back in his life. Determined to show him the magic of Christmas, she decides to create 12 Christmas gifts that ask him to do fun Christmas tasks in order to renew his love for the season and explore his feelings towards Maggie. The plot if this film is hard to believe. Anybody with a 3rd grade education could figure out who there "Secret Santa" is long before the character in this film does. What does work however is that the main plot is sweet and kind. In a nutshell a woman is trying to make someone happy who once lifted her spirits when she needed it the most. This film has the typical "Hallmark Christmas Movie Ending" and that's "They open the door and there they are" Listen the film is good its just not great. Family safe however most boys (and men) will hate this. If you are a romantic at heart then this is a movie for you.

Of all the general plots of the Hallmark movies, Christmas and otherwise, my favorite is the quiet, reserved, crushing female lead doing battle with the aggressive, flashy, or sometimes even a little bit evil, hussy for the heart of a tenderhearted prince. This movie has that plot and a Christmas theme as well.The three key factors that make a movie like this one are, is there a real romantic story, are the supporting characters or story lines funny and/or interesting, and is the plot relatively believable and the Christmas theme well done.This movie has all three. While not laugh out loud funny the supporting characters do provide laughs and a base for the movie. The story is told in a subtle way allowing the characters to have a little dimension. It has a nice believable backstory that adds to its charm. It ties Christmas into its plot very well.Needless to say the result is predictable but if you were looking for suspense you will not be watching the last ten minutes of this kind of movie. However, for a nice two hours of Christmas diversion while you are wrapping some presents, this will work.