Charming Christmas

I am not sure the film title Charming Christmas does the story justice. Charming Christmas is more deserving of a title such as "Do Not Open Until Christmas", or "Santa, Is That Really You?" Regardless though of the actual film title this nifty little Christmas film bakes up the right Christmas ingredients that will leave a good taste in most Christmas connoisseur's mouths.

David Sutcliffe who plays Nick Claus has a most mischievous wide smile that says "I have many secrets". Nick is hired by the original store owners of Rossman's department store to play Santa Claus and apparently he comes highly recommended. Against the Rossman owners decision to hire Nick to play Santa without vetting him first through their Human Resources department, their daughter Meredith Rossman (Julie Benz) who holds a degree in Business tries to pooh-pooh her mothers' decision. But you know what they say....."mother knows best" so Nick gets a chance to work his magic as the Rossman department store Santa.

Mrs. Shullivan and I enjoyed how Nick seemed to have something positive to share with all the Rossman store employees and he saved his best michievious grins and wisdom for Meredith who was too focussed on expanding the single Rossman store into a franchise industry, and she certainly clashed with the new Santa hire, Nick.

Gradually Nick works his Santa magic with the children who sit on his lap and the Rossman store employees all believe that Nick has lots to offer as their lives seem to be changing for the better after receiving personal letters of wisdom from Nick.. Even Meredith (Julie Benz) agrees to wear the Mrs. Santa Claus and she begins to have mixed feelings for her mysterious store Santa.

Charming Christmas gives the viewers insight into family dynamics at Christmas that many of us can relate to such as single parents raising young children, friends that complain about their current status and worklife balance, and of course what would a Christmas film be without a little romance, tears and laughter?

Charming Christmas has all of the above as well as many fine performances and the screen presence between David Sutcliffe and Julie Benz is fun to watch. I give the film 7 out of 10 stars.

Well didn't Julie Benz age well? I hope it's not all plastic? I did wish that Paul Hopkins had been as lucky, he was adorable in "Tales Of The City" as the second of three 'Mice' but in this he looked like he had been covered in oil to go with his greasy character. I still have love for David Sutcliffe, who makes an excellent Claus, but he's definitely better with a beard, despite his similarities to Scott Bakula without it.

However, none of that really has anything to do with the film itself.

I liked this story. Generally where a shop is concerned I can appreciate the story from my years as a retail slave, so it was always going to interest me and I love it when there's a Santa's Grotto.

I did feel that they had perhaps one story too many going on and that detracted from the main romance itself. It wouldn't have been so noticeable if they just made some of these films fifteen minutes longer, so that they could develop all of the characters. You are still rooting for them both all the way through it though.

The question we are left with in the end is, could he possibly have been the real Father Christmas? I'd like to believe he was.

Update 13/10/22 -

The first time I watched this film,I really liked it, so I was probably not in the right mood this time, because it just seemed a bit twee and some of the acting was quite poor, or I probably just fancied David Sutcliffe as Nick a bit more back then.

He was still cute and I liked the idea of him potentially being the real "Saint" Nick, but I prefer to think that there really are good people out there that do nice things for the benefit of others.

Julie Benz was okay as Meredith, but personally I think that the idea of Mrs Claus is cute, but not essential, so I don't see the need for her to be at Santa's village. I certainly don't believe that many people turn up to see her at any point in December, it's all about the man with the bulging sack really. That element of the story didn't hurt anything though.

As much as I loved him as Michael Mouse in 'More/Further Tales Of The City' (1998-2001), I didn't like Paul Hopkins as the creepy Daniel in this one. He had none of that charm from before and seemed ugly for his behaviour.

Not all of the cast were actually even that capable of acting. As usual the child actor was awful, but mostly because the character of Tyler was a brat, which was no wonder when his Mother, Jessie wasn't particularly nice either. Along with Olivia, the characters were not delivered with any nuance or apparent ability, which was a shame, because the film clearly had a fairly good budget to afford stronger supporting artists and the production team seemed to know what they were doing, but I believe that the whole thing could have been far more "Charming".

With that said, I'm not sure I could get excited about the lighting of such an awful looking Christmas tree, which is always where these films let themselves down. It looked like they had seen it fallen down on the side of the road and decided it would do and its decoration was poor at best.

The retail part of Christmas can be magic or awful. When you take the magic out of providing the perfect thing for the perfect person and turn it in to how much money you can make from selling tat, that's when it becomes awful. This film tries to show that here. I believe that Father Christmas had the right idea in 'A Miracle On 34th Street' (1947/1994). It's all about the child and the family of course, being happy on Christmas Day and not about profits and margins. When the world realises this in a more general way, we could start to live in a utopia instead of the dystopia we are already stuck in.

It was easy to watch, but seemed to have lost a spark somewhere.

5.5/10.

Rossman's is a family store. Meredith Rossman (Julie Benz) is a driven business woman looking to take over from her parents who are concerned about her lack of personal life. Her mother hires Nick (David Sutcliffe) as the new Santa. The old Mrs. Claus costume is discovered and her mother pushes her to play the role. Window designer Jessie wants her son Tyler to spend more time with his father in the custody negotiation. With no daycare, Meredith reluctantly allows Tyler to be an elf. Her assistant Olivia is pushing everything aside to hold onto her dancing dreams.

This is a Hallmark movie and has that level of realism. It's fluff and Christmas fluff at that. This is not a real store and these are not real people. I do like Benz as an ice queen and Sutcliffe is perfectly nice to melt her heart. These are two veteran actors who can act the hell out of the longing stares. That is this movie's only essential need. The chemistry is fine and the side characters have something to do. The story does ramble around with no apparent destination. Even at a lower bar, this does struggle to clear it.

I am not unfamiliar to Hallmark Christmas Movies. I actually enjoy the silliness, playfulness and often 'come-on-ness I don't believe-ness'. And as I started this movie I first thought Julie Benz was miscast. I'm sorry but I thought 'she's too old' or 'not warm enough'. But I kept watching and yes it is formulamatic Hallmark. Yes it tugs at your heartstrings as should! But early on Julie Benz won me over and the schmultz won me over and I'll be, an occasional tear did flow... ehem, Family friendly, great characters all over the place and the ending I'll leave to your imagination. One thing that bugs me is when you type in full cast, you don't even get the child star and unfortunately I can't find out his name. Full cast does not bring up the full cast! I will say he acted up there with the best of them and that counts a lot in any venue. Thank you for an entertaining way-pre-Christmas evening.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM HONEST

If you don't like Hallmark Christmas Films then avoid this. I know their films are not ground breaking and they have a "Cookie cutter" "Color by numbers" quality about them. I want to however inform you that there is plenty of people like me who enjoy these films on cold Winters night. They are enjoyable because they do bring a smile to my heart. This film however is a little far fetched but the leads are cast well and you are rooting for them to fall in love.

In this film a woman Meredith Rossman an uptight heiress of Rossman's Department store. She has made the business her entire life. She has no life outside of her job. But when she is roped into donning the store's antique Mrs. Claus outfit to play Mrs. Claus at Rossman's famous Santaville, her life takes some unexpected turns.

I will watch this one again