The Santa Class | 2024 Christmas Movies

One of the newer tropes in Christmas movies is “teaching people how to be Santa Claus.” We had Santa Bootcamp back in 2022 and now we have The Santa Class. That is some big boots to fill.

Kate North (Kimberley Sustad) has recently become the new owner of North Star, a school that teaches how to become Santa Claus. Unfortunately, the school has fallen on hard times. On top of that, San, an instructor for their rival - St. Nicholas School, has recently been laid off and has turned to Kate for a job. As they prepare for their next class session, Kate and Dan come upon Nick (Trevor Lerner), a man with amnesia dressed in a Santa suit who they believe is the real Santa Claus. Can they help Nick regain his memory while defeating St. Nicholas School in The Santa Cup competition and save North Star at the same time?

I’ll admit that this isn’t one of my favorite movies this year. There are a lot of places where the movie seems to drag a little. However, it does have some really funny scenes. Particularly the ones with Paul Campbell, one of Hallmark’s favorite leading men, playing a fictional version of himself preparing for a role as Santa Claus in a Christmas movie. I think I would have liked it better if there were a little more actiony scenes that involved everyone. For example, there’s a scene where they go to a trivia contest. One of the students is studying Santa folklore and they let him answer all of the questions. Scenes like that are much funnier when everyone participates, not just one person. (See Trivia At St. Nick’s.)

The ‘is Nick really Santa’ storyline was also really good. If they weren’t going to focus on the group as a whole, another good idea would have been to focus on him more. I’m not sure what they point they wanted to make with the movie. Santa is really real? A group of misfits can beat the cool kids when they work together? Passion for something is more important than money? These have all been done many, many times before. The Santa Class doesn’t give us a good reason to sit through it again.

Rating: Paul Campbell referencing his entire body of work is the best running joke ever

To All A Good Night | 2023 Christmas Movies

I’m pretty sure that the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel is where they are sticking all of their schmaltzy movies nowadays. I think that Hallmark, as a brand, is trying to be more inclusive and movies like To All A Good Night don’t fit in any more. To be honest, I love that the main Hallmark Channel is getting the better movies. It makes it a little easier on my brain when I know when to expect the saccharine.

Ceci (Kimberley Sustad) is a photographer in a small town. She teaches photography classes for kids, takes pictures for the newspaper, and runs her own portrait studio. When she saves of the life of Sam (Mark Ghanimé) after a motorcycle accident, she has to find out if he has come to down to buy and develop the land she owns with her stepmother or if he has other reasons to come to town.

This movie was so slow. Literally half of the movie was spent with Sam in the hospital while Ceci and intrepid reporter Penny (Luisa d’Oliveira) trying to both hide the fact that Ceci is the one that saved him and figure out why he is there. I really hate when the plots of movies can be solved just by asking a question. If Ceci had just said, from the beginning, “Hey, I’m the one that saved you. What brings you into town?” A lot would have been resolved. Granted, when she did ask him, he dodged the question a little bit but she was never honest with him so why would he be honest with her. Really…the best part of this movie was the dog. I want the dog to have his own movie where he runs around stealing things from the neighbors. It would probably be more interesting.

Rating: I said Good Night!

Lights, Camera, Christmas! | 2022 Christmas Movies

Most of the time, I don’t watch these Christmas movies with my husband. He’s not particularly fond of them. (Gee, I wonder why.) He happened to catch a bit of Lights, Camera, Christmas! and he raised an eyebrow at a Christmas movie about making a Christmas movie. Yep, that’s Hallmark for you!

Kerry (Kimberley Sustad) is a fashion designer with her own shop. A Christmas movie starring Brad (John Brotherton) and Mariah (Veronica Long) comes to film in her hometown. When they lose their costume designer, Kerry gets hired to step in. During the shoot, Kerry rediscovers her love of fashion and Brad learns how to get out of his comfort zone.

There isn’t a lot to say about Lights, Camera, Christmas! There is this corny joke about Brad winking at the camera at the end of every one of his romcom movies. Then, at the end of this corny romcom movie, Kerry winks at the camera. That is the overall vibe of the movie. Kerry not only seems uncomfortable in her own skin most of the time, she doesn’t seem to know how to say no to people. I guess this is somehow attractive to Brad. Or maybe it’s that she has no idea who he is, even though he’s supposed to be a giant movie star. I honestly don’t understand a lot of the motivations in this movie.

Of course, I should note that this entire movie is played as a flashback. Everyone is on a panel of a Q&A at the movie premiere and all of the scenes are answers to questions the audience asked. I think it takes away from the plot a bit. There are a few scenes where things go wrong but we know they finish the movie because they are at the premiere. It would have played a little bit better if we didn’t have the Q&A and just had the making of the movie.

Should you watch it? Lights, Camera, Christmas! is a fine movie to watch. I wish they took the Christmas movie parody to the next level but I guess you can’t have everything. At least we get decent acting and an OK plot. Maybe you’ll enjoy a bit more after a glass or two of wine.

The Nine Kittens of Christmas | 2021 Christmas Movies

In 2014, the Hallmark Channel showed The Nine Lives of Christmas. Here it is 2021 and we’re getting a sequel - The Nine Kittens of Christmas. Do you think we’ll get another movie in 2028?

Zachary (Brandon Routh) is a captain at the fire station in Bend, Oregon. A box containing nine kittens was left on the doorstep of the fire station. Thankfully, his veterinarian ex-girlfriend, Marilee (Kimberley Sustad), is back from Miami for the holidays. Together, they need to find appropriate homes for all nine kittens.

No, I didn’t watch the original 2014 movie. I’m sure that means there are inside jokes and references that I missed. Ah well. That is what they get for waiting seven years for a sequel.

While most of the movie was fine, the cat thing was a little annoying. Both Zachary and Marilee let their cats, Ambrose and Duchess, respectively, make decisions in their lives. That is weird. It would have been fine if they just held their cats a lot (which they do) or talk to their cats (which they do) but the movie seriously wants us to believe the cats were tossing cell phones around or answering phone calls. It’s a bit much. Not to mention that they had homes for almost all of the kittens pretty quickly. A side character had to back out of adopting three kittens in order to make the movie last longer. I get that the movie is about cats but the writers didn’t have to shove it down our throats.

I guess if you really, really like cats, you’ll enjoy The Nine Kittens of Christmas. For the rest of us, it’s fairly skippable. There isn’t a lot that goes on that doesn’t involve cats. Put it on in the background and peek in every few minutes to aww over the cute kittens. That is about what the movie is worth.

Christmas by Starlight | 2020 Christmas Movies

This movie might actually break a few Christmas movie rules. It at least makes the ‘rules’ interesting.

Annie (Kimberley Sustad) is a family lawyer whose parents own a local cafe. William (Paul Campbell) works at his father’s development company that is planning on demolishing the cafe. She needs him to save her family’s business. He needs her to get his father off his back.

Surprisingly, Sustad and Campbell actually wrote this movie. Usually the actors don’t have such a close relationship with their characters. I think that having the writers (who are legitimate actors on their own) play the main characters was kinda brilliant. They bring a life to Annie and William that most Christmas movies lack.

Christmas by Starlight is quite adorable. Annie has this sort of childlike spark in her while William is the “my parents were distant” businessman. Normally, movies make this ‘childlike spark’ more childish than childlike. Here, Annie does things like wearing Christmas sweaters to a casual business Christmas party, dancing around her living room with her dog, and sneaking off to the coat room to eat a granola bar when William takes her to a fancy French restaurant for a client lunch. Things that a normal human being would do. (Well, maybe not ‘normal’…) Her actions offset William’s lack of Christmas spirit well. Instead of him thinking she acts like a kid, he just thinks she doesn’t know high society stuff.

I would recommend checking out Christmas by Starlight. It’s a cute change of pace from the usual fare.