The Santa Summit

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.

Jordin (Hunter King) is feeling the holiday blues and drags her fellow teacher friends to the city's Santa Summit where everybody dresses up as Santa Claus. Jordin encounters appealing home builder Liam (Benjamin Hollingsworth). They are perfect together, but lose each other in the crowd of Santas. The girls follow the Santa tour as they struggle for love.

It's only a Hallmark movie, but the premise is very cute. I like the two friends' love troubles. I would like a bigger effort from Jordin to look for her Santa. She should wear a sign that says Looking for Pine Tree Tattoo. Also I would like a schedule describing the Santa crawl. That would give the movie individual chapters for structure. Mostly, I like all these characters and this feels like a fun time with friends.

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.

This movie reminds me a little of a movie from last year on a rival network called Destined at Christmas. The premise revolves around a man and woman who meet and become attracted to each other but then get separated. The rest of the movie is trying to bring them back together. Meanwhile, Jordin's two friends do a little better connecting with guys.

One of the nice features of this movie is that the activities are not exactly all the usual Christmas activities. They are set around the Santa Summit which basically flows through taverns and restaurants. You know where the story is going but not the exact details. There are no great highs or lows or big surprises.

The acting is decent. The dialogue is good. The central couple spend little time actually together which for me is a drawback. Please don't do a sequel.

Side note regarding Parental Guidance on this site: I don't know what possessed me to look, but someone has voted Severe to every category there. This is Hallmark. I can't imagine there is ever anything Severe in their Christmas movies, although someone trying to be political might do so in one category if there were alphabet themes.

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.