A Make or Break Holiday

Had high hopes for this movie, but it was just ok. The storyline was weak, the writing was over the top, and the delivery didn't land. However, Craig from Finding Mr Christmas did a good job for his first movie role. With so many other quality Hallmark movies out there, I would give this one a pass.

Liv (Hunter King) and Daniel (Evan Roderick) have a tiff and decide to separate and try to cancel their families who are coming to visit. However, the families guilt them into hosting Christmas anyway. So they decide to pretend to still be together. If the couple weren't already on the outs, their families would be enough to split them up!!! Can we have a more obnoxious, intrusive, manipulative bunch of relatives ever?? Oh wait, we've had that plot in many other Hallmark Christmas movies. Seriously, this trope is getting REALLY OLD!!

So say GOODBYE to a Merry Christmas with this bunch! The family (8) invade this couple's house for Christmas after their hotel floods. Then they demand, command and guilt the pair into compliance with their every whim. YUK!!

On the up side, the new "Mr. Christmas," Craig Geoghan, has a small part playing a brother (instead of playing the lead as in last year's movie). He is actually pretty good.

The parents are insistent on having and doing what they traditionally always have and do for their Christmases, to the extent that Liv's dad gets into Daniel's face to insist on playing a game that Liv doesn't want to play and on having a turkey that isn't available. Honestly, if you have no ability to adapt to your host's way of doing things, just STAY HOME!

Only the siblings are intuitive enough to notice that there is something "off" about the couple. So Kim, Daniel's sister, persuades Reid, Liv's brother, to help her get Liv and Daniel back together. Meanwhile, grandma makes demands on Reid.

Liv describes things with this one sentence, "A fruitcake that must be finished otherwise my parents will get offended, throw a fit, and make passive aggressive digs all night."

And what on earth is Jonathan Bennett doing a cameo in this movie? Do we really need him in every single Hallmark movie??

7.1 stars.

I didn't find this to be difficult to watch, but this is an oft done trope (at least once a Holiday) about a couple that are on a break and must fake being together for their families. On the other side of the coin are the stories about people who are faking a relationship in order to appease someone, or pretending to be in a relationship in order to avoid being single in front of their peers. There are so many ways to skin a cat with this generic idea, but it's been done a lot and 'A Make or Break Holiday' did not improve upon it.

This movie has the best of the best actors. These are the people they choose to showcase their very best stories, yet this one is only average at best. It's not BAD, per se, just not GOOD.

Just a ballpark estimate, there are at least twenty Hallmark movies with the same plot, and I'd venture to guess that more than half of them are better than 'A Make or Break Holiday'. It's lacking the feeling and the energy. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but now that I'm done with Christmas 2025, I can safely say that Hallmark must have lost a few of their best writers, because this is about the worst year for Holiday films ever.

I really wanted to like this one. Love the leading couple but Liv's parents and "Grandma" were annoying to the point of cring. Ditto for Daniel's mom. This is not "typical"family. I've seen most of these actors in other movies and I know they're capable so I can only surmise that the direction and editing are to blame. Choppy sequences, screeching and whining family members. Just not an uplifting , happy, or even tolerable story. Frenetic might be a good description.

I felt sorry for Liv's brother getting stuck with weird and manipulative granny.

The whole first half was train wreck. Then the last quarter of the movie became a completely different situation. A surprising conciliatory -and wise - speech towards the end by granny only proves that there is talent here, just underutilized . Both siblings stepped up with a maturity and wisdom that was completely hidden for most of the movie and helped steer the couple in a healthy direction and lo and behold, a happy ending. Thank you for that. That last part seemed pretty truncated but better than the first half for sure.

I still get a gold star for watching the whole thing.

Hunter King is a natural. There are good, and great actors in this movie. Craig did a good job.

Some characters seem over the top rigid. Parts of the movie are too cringy to be fun. Liv and Daniel have known each other for a year, their communication is difficult. Are they ready to buy a house together? With discovery, their relationship works out in the end.