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

Three Wiser Men And A Boy | 2024 Christmas Movies

In 2022, Hallmark gave us Three Wise Men And A Baby. It was such a hit that they released a sequel this year - Three Wiser Men And A Boy. Can lightning strike twice?

The brothers - Luke (Andrew W Walker), Stephan (Paul Campbell), and Taylor (Tyler Hynes) - are back to spend Christmas at their mother, Barbara’s (Margaret Colin), house with her new boyfriend, Roy (Christopher Shyer), and former-baby-now-kindergartener Thomas (Miles Marthaller). When the director of Thomas’ school Christmas play steps down after some brotherly shenanigans, the three are forced to direct the play themselves. Each of them will have to overcome their own personal issues before they can bring success to their favorite boy.

Surprisingly, this is a sequel that works very well. While most of the issues the brothers had before were “how do we take care of a baby” type of problems, this time their issues are more personal. Taylor’s video game company isn’t doing well financially, Stephan has a girlfriend that wants him to propose but he is having anxiety around everything, and Luke is having trouble handling being older with more responsibility. It was nice to see the boys grow as people. A lot of movies don’t let their characters actually mature. That isn’t to say the boys are “mature.” They still spend plenty of time playing games and being goofballs. But they do acknowledge that their lives have changed and they need to accept the change. I kinda want another movie in the series but I’m not sure where they would go from here.

Rating: I’m ready for Three Wisest Men!

The Cases Of Mystery Lane: Death Is Listening (2024)

I can’t get away from Hallmark. As I was scrolling through Peacock to find something interesting to watch, I came across The Cases of Mystery Lane: Death is Listening. I liked Aimee Garcia in Lucifer so I turned it on. Immediately, I was met with a Hallmark Media production logo. Goddammit.

Birdie (Garcia) and Alden Case (Paul Campbell) are a married couple who love true crime. They have just completed classes in order to become private investigators. When their favorite true crime writer/podcaster, Laurel St. James (Samantha Ferris), gets murdered, officer Ted Newton (Matt Hamilton) brings them in to help find the culprit.

Yeah, this is definitely a Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel movie. Unfortunately, when I turned it on, I didn’t realize that this is the second movie in a series. As a result, I was a little confused about some things. Birdie is a lawyer that works for her mom…but she doesn’t seem to actually do any lawyering work. I have no idea what Alden does for a job. We only see him work on robots, which I think they called a hobby? They also seem to talk about relationship problems a lot but we never actually see any relationship problems. It makes no sense.

As for the story…it’s fine. Like a lot of Hallmark movies, things magically fall into place and there are no consequences when they accuse the wrong person of the murder. But it’s kitschy and cute, right? Eh, sorta. The acting is fine but the characters are weird. Alden finds a mouse in the house, which freaks him out A LOT. But instead of letting the exterminator that Birdie hired in to take care of the problem, he elects to try to build robots to take care of it? Birdie goes into her lawyer office and talks to her lawyer mother but then spends all of her time learning how to pick locks? I really don’t understand what world these two live in.

I think I am going to try to track down the first movie in the series to see if it explains anything. It was only released last year so I’m not sure how successful I will be in finding it. Sometimes Hallmark likes to hide their older movies. Until then, I can only recommend this movie as a decent turn-your-brain-off movie. Garcia is cute as Birdie and Campbell is…well…slightly annoying as Alden. But together they somehow manage to get the job done.

Rating: C

Magic In Mistletoe | 2023 Christmas Movies

Magic In Mistletoe, eh? How much magic do we think will be in this movie? I’m betting none.

Harrington (Paul Campbell) writes a series of books titled “Magic In Mistletoe.” When he goes on social media to say Christmas is only about money, his fans start to revolt. It’s up to April (Lyndie Greenwood), a publicist for his publisher, to save his reputation and get his fans to buy his newest book.

Most of the time, this was a pretty cute movie. I liked the way they integrated events involving the book - a costume dance, a lot of Q&As, etc. I wish the movie focused on that more than Harrington being an idiot. The movie goes with the usual trope of dead parents but, if I understood the timeline correctly, his parents have been dead for 9 years (his father) and 5 years (his mother). Yet the movie acts like they died recently. He literally throws a fit because April gets him a (decorated!) Christmas tree. This movie really should have been just about the book.

Rating: I wish this movie was more magical

Three Wise Men and a Baby | 2022 Christmas Movies

Hallmark took three of their Christmas leading men and cast them all in one movie as brothers. Three Wise Men and a Baby is the updated Christmas version of 1987’s Three Men and a Baby. Does it live up to the awesomeness of the original? Maaaybe…

Luke (Andrew Walker) is a firefighter. A few days before Christmas, a baby is left at the firehouse with a note asking Luke to look after him. So Luke brings the baby home to his mother, Barbara (Margaret Colin), and brothers, Stephan (Paul Campbell) and Taylor (Tyler Hynes). When their mother has to leave town to care for her sister for a few days, the brothers are left home alone to take care of the baby and prepare the house for Christmas. Chaos!

I was pleasantly surprised about how much I liked this movie. It was written by Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad (who makes a cameo appearance as an ER doctor), who also wrote 2020’s Christmas By Starlight. They were able to make each of the brothers completely different people while still allowing them the room to be brothers and have an emotional connection. I loved how the brothers interacted, especially with the baby. Oh, and their Nutcracker dance is to die for.

Yes, I think you should watch Three Wise Men and a Baby. The romance is kinda tacked on at the end but I think that makes this movie even more special. It isn’t about romantic relationships. It’s about repairing past family traumas and reconnecting with brothers. These are things that the holidays really should be about. Not finding your True Love.

The Santa Stakeout | 2021 Christmas Movies

Before I even start talking about The Santa Stakeout, can we address how dirty someone did Tamera Mowry-Housley in this pic? Her face does not look like that. She is a very pretty woman. She does not need to be photoshopped like this.

Tanya (Mowry-Housley) is a police detective that recently moved to Denver. After a string of thefts from high-profile holiday parties, she goes undercover with her new partner, Ryan (Paul Campbell), to catch the crook.

I don’t think that I have seen a police-themed Christmas movie recently. I can understand why it isn’t done more often. There isn’t a lot of police work going on here. As a matter of fact, when the partners go to set up their stakeout house, Tanya begins decorating it for Christmas the minute she sets foot in the door. It makes sense when they are forced to play the parts of a newlywed couple but before that? They were supposed to be hidden. Christmas decorations aren’t exactly what you use when you want to hide.

Stakeout isn’t a particularly interesting movie, to be honest. It felt like Campbell wanted to portray his character like a discount Joel McHale but the snark that is in every McHale character just wasn’t there with Ryan. It just made him look like a jerk.

Eh, this is another one of those movies that is fine. Just fine. It’s not boring per se but I found myself playing games on my phone a lot. Everything felt very forced. Even the big romance at the end. There wasn’t anything in the rest of the movie that showed me these two were about to fall in love. There wasn’t a lot that showed me they even liked each other! Sure, they came to an understanding but that isn’t the same as enjoying someone’s company. Give it a watch if you are a fan of Tamera. Otherwise, it’s probably best as background noise as you do chores.

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.