Le festival des pères Noël

This was a fun and lighthearted movie to watch. It was a different twist on most Hallmark movies. The movie takes place over a day at the Santa Summit where 3 friends/coworkers are spending the day. It's basically bar hopping dressed in festive Santa gear. Jordan runs into Liam and they have a brief conversation but they had a connection. They ended up losing one another and spend the movie trying to locate one another. Jordan's 2 friends were a great addition to the cast. Personally, I really like Amy Groening and would like to see her in a lead roll. This movie was fun, the acting was good, and it kept my attention. It wasn't an overworked script.

Is this a real event somewhere? Everyone wears a Santa suit and wanders around bars and nightspots all over a city, but in the middle of the day?

Anyway, after a meet cute where a guy finds a dropped pocketbook and returns it, he and the girl feel like they've made a connection. Then in a crowded dance floor they get separated.

The guy and his brother spend the rest of the movie on a Hero's Journey quest to find her, coming frustratingly close over and over again.

In the meantime, we get cute or meaningful slice of life scenes to build the characters.

It's not one of the cookie cutter plots, which is a must, and it's quite watchable.

This may be my second favorite Hallmark holiday romance of 2023 behind the Heidelberg Christmas. Hunter King, Amy Groening, and Stephanie Sy play the three best friends and grade school teachers Jordin, Ava, and Stella. Each of the three is battling their own demons when Jordin convinces them to go with her to the annual Santa Summit event. (I have always wanted to be a fly on the wall during one of those. It looks like a tremendous amount of fun.) Jordin has seen on social media that her ex is dating again, Ava is afraid to tell someone she loves them, and Stella is uninspired teaching English instead of her beloved music due to budget cuts in their school district. Right away at the summit Jordin looses her wallet and meets Liam...the two have an instant connection but get separated before exchanging names or numbers at an even where everyone is dressed like Santa.

Stella meets the cheerful Freddie played by Rodrigo Beilfuss. Freddie keeps cropping up, much to the disgruntled and grumpy Stella's dismay and he keeps trying to drag the Christmas spirit out of her. Meanwhile, all three girls end up talking to a pedal cab driver dressed like Dasher. Ava talks herself into and out of confessing her love and everyone is looking for Jordin's mystery man as they go through all the Santa Summit events like line-dancing, sledding, karaoke, gingerbread house competitions, etc.

I love Benjamin Hollingsworth and have really enjoyed his reformed? Character on Virgin River. He plays Liam who is trying to find his mystery girl, and spend time with his brother by trying to get him to loosen up and put down work for a break.

I loved the supportive friends through this film and I really enjoyed the crazy fun of the Santa Summit. The combo of those two and the romances make this a recommendation from me to romantics, fans of Christmas, grade-school teachers like my mom and fans of Hallmark holiday romances.

When I heard Hunter King and Stephanie Sy were making a movie together, I was looking forward to it.

I knew there would be an element of zaniness. There was that and more.

The main story of a guy and girl who meet and hit it off, only to lose each other without getting names has been done...recently, but in this case there were so many adventures along the way they almost have to remind you. Everybody is wearing a Santa suit, so identities get mixed up throughout. The girls get together with their pal played by sweet Amy Groening for an evening of dancing and drinking and merriment, and each finds her own misadventure.

It's a little slow to start, but it gets going eventually. It's fullof surprises and builds to a satisfying conclusion.

Grumps probably won't like it, but it's worth a watch.

Jordin and her group of friends are attending "The Santa Summit", an annual celebration in which people go through different venues, celebrating Christmas dressed up as Santa Clause. There she meets a guy (Liam) and they connect immediately, but they end up losing each other in the crowd. So they spend the whole event looking up for the other.

I don't know about you all but I would definitely attend this event with friends and make the most of it. Maybe a bit silly, but such and ingenious idea.

The actors had great chemistry, the whole cast, the secondary storylines were okay too. I wished the main characters had more scenes together but the movie wouldn't have made any sense.

There is a fun cameo halfway through, you blink and you miss it. I would definitely watch a sequel.