Letters to Santa

When I started to watch this I thought, "this must be a fan-favorite series, since this was number 5". I hadn't seen or heard about it's predecessors, but I would like to assume they continued the saga due to popular choice. It is daring to tackle the subject of marital-strife, and especially, its damaging effects on the security of children, especially centered around a Christmastime theme. This is definitely a more serious tone than a vast majority of Hallmark's holiday movies, and it may have been heartwarming (with better execution) if it didn't devote almost three-fourths of its time to the bickering, misunderstanding, and pettiness between the parents, Rebecca and Enrique. The redemptive moral is the wonderful mother-in-law, Camilla, who Rebecca, somehow, mostly fails to recognize . Of the three of them, Camilla is the only selfless one, who truly exemplifies the spirit of giving. Only when the children (pure of heart) contribute to Rebecca's book, does Rebecca affirm the extra-efforts that Camilla had undergone to lighten the heavy hearts of the children attributable to her and Enrique's separation. Camilla also illuminates Rebecca of Enrique's selfless investment, and personal sacrifice to save their family restaurant business. This is, unfortunately, a fact in many marital disputes - that the spouses are blinded by resentment, and only a bystander can illuminate the problem. Unfortunately, by the time Rebecca and Enrique resolve their differences, it's so late in the movie, that you're deprived of any deep emotion or gratification.

This is a slightly unusual Christmas movie in that the lead couple is already married but experiencing a time of separation. The two kids are freely exchanged between their home where mom is living and grandmother's house where dad is living. This makes for an interesting mix of tone and emotions. There is some serious friction between the couple but they seem to care about each other and neither has reached the point where they really want a divorce. One source of their friction is that each is busy and stressed by their work worlds. We find out fairly deep into the movie the truth about another important source of their friction (although I agree with another reviewer that it doesn't make sense that this was a secret.)

The movie deals with a lot of family issues. The struggle by the kids is an obvious one. Money is another. Enrique's mom is a bit of a meddler. Enrique is helping his mom maintain the family restaurant after the passing of his dad. Rebecca is not used to the tight knit family that Enrique has especially given that he has a strong family loyalty. Opposite sex relationships at work is an issue.

The movie also has some light moments with some humor. The kids get a "magic pen" from Santa. Grandma starts reading their letters to Santa and tries to fulfill some wishes. There are lots of misunderstandings often humorous. Another factor that leads to some of the lighter moments is Rebecca's children's book which she is late delivering and has writer's block. Later in the movie, Rebecca starts to put some of the family's personal experiences into the book and the parallels are interesting.

I like the family tradition where one person can make a statement beginning with "True or False" to confront the true feelings of the other person. Even the kids do it. I would have expected a family with this tradition would resolve many problems before they get serious because of the resulting honesty and openness.

I am an avid Christmas movie fan but I find it easy to get angry at someone or something early or be turned off by a less than jolly tone. Somehow in this movie I avoided both and was able to enjoy a good story.

6.7 stars.

I have mixed feelings about 'Letters to Santa'. It's a nice story about two kids who want their parents back together. Mom and dad are separated due to some unknown circumstances that we are not aware of until much later. She gives us her reasons why she told him to go live with his mother, but those aren't the actual problems. What also happened is he misspent some precious money and she felt somewhat betrayed. He didn't cheat or anything. The whole premise is very weak. If a marriage can break on something as flimsy as this, we are all doomed. But the rest of the film is not too bad. Yes, the parents bicker. Yes, there are slow parts. The children are endearing and the fitness woman is actually likable too, as is the "elf". The mother is a regular Latina seen in many films and she does fine. The lead female grows on you after a while, but she is an acquired taste, and my theory is that she is the reason for many negative reviews. The lead male is charismatic, but his personality is absent. For some reason he's not present and it's disconcerting, because beside his apparent lack of focus, he just doesn't show up for the part. I wonder if that's not the final straw for this movie. Cast two different lead actors and you probably have a winner here. What are the odds that both of them fail to entertain? Oh well, it happens.

Loved this holiday movie. The story was not an easy topic to address but it was handled very well.

The acting was terrific. Each and every character was totally believable. I really felt that the characters struggle. The children were amazing actors. It was so enjoyable to see how They interacted so well with the adults.

I found the entire story to be very heartwarming. As a hallmark movie, you expect a happy ending and that's exactly what you got. Nonetheless isn't that what we all hope for.

I'll definitely watch this movie over again.

I also loved the cultural diversity.

Definitely not a typical hallmark movie but definitely one that everyone can relate to.

This is a movie that can be skipped this season. There is so much anger from Rebecca Letters to Santa. At first I thought the premise of the movie was cute. Until very early on in the movie the secret is revealed. Rebecca and Enrique are separated and going to counseling. There is so much anger with Rebecca that she needs to deal with. She goes from being so angry to having fun like a light switch. I didn't like the anger and then the happiness. There was no chemistry with the leads. The acting isn't very good in this movie. I hadn't heard of any of the actors except Rebecca. I knew her only from the Big Bang. This one can easily be skipped.