Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa

White painted staircases in the finished shop, and then ....... they're not !!!

Story is good, BUT oh my goodness does Jill Wagner go OTT with her acting - everything is SO exaggerated from the wide eyes, to the arms waving and shrieking. Then there was the stuttering conversation when bewildered. I've seen her in better films, but in this she was annoying. Is she any better than Ashley Williams ? Well, take your pick..... Williams shouts her lines (like we're all deaf !) and Wagner overacts like her life depends on it. So, not much between them.

She thinks she needs to get a childhood dream out of her system but could this be the place she could finally settle down. When she starts an ambitious task, she might just need a Christmas miracle, or a hansom stranger! A great follow on movie. Normally I think they go down hill but their is no fear of that with this movie.

This was a sweet and heart warming Christmas movie. However, I had to stop thinking of it as a companion movie to Christmas in Evergreen because there were to many things that didn't make sense. For example, the store Lisa was trying to help didn't seem to exist in the first movie nor its owner. Also said owner was said to have taken over the Christmas celebration from Henry's mom but in the first movie they said it was the first year Allie wasn't doing it and it was a different character that took over. Despite that, Jill Wagner was excellent and I'm greatful this was a movie where it made genuine sense as to why she was returning to Evergreen after so many years away.

Practically indistinguishable from the original, which I guess is a plus for a made-for-TV sequel.

'Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa', like the 2017 film, is lacking something. There's again nothing particularly negative about it, it's just missing a thing to turn things up a notch to create a fun festive film. The plot change-up is solid, it doesn't improve upon the first's but it's just as OK.

Jill Wagner is a step up from Ashley Williams, though the latter was good too. Mark Deklin, however, is a step down from Teddy Sears. I didn't buy into the relationship of Lisa (Wagner) and Kevin (Deklin), I didn't sense enough chemistry - same with the secondary love story, featuring Holly Robinson Peete (Michelle). I do like how they did the continuity, at least on the surface, despite the cast changes.

Overall though, like its predessceor, it's too bland.

This follow up was so much better than last year's Christmas in Evergreen. Jill Wagner was very good in the lead female role, and I love that she looks so natural and doesn't plaster on that awful dark eye makeup and wear the huge false eyelashes that so many other Hallmark ladies do. She lets her natural beauty show through; too bad others don't do the same. Instead, the makeup seems to get thicker and thicker every year. The plot of this follow up was more interesting and the supporting actors that were also in the last movie were better and played a larger part in the movie. The rating I gave was rather high for what this was, but when rating Hallmark movies I only compare with other Hallmark movies as they are in a class of their own. This one didn't make me angry like so many others do, and I didn't cringe once, so I'm happy.