Une famille pour Noël

The movie begins with Hannah Dunbar (Lacey Chabert) faced with a decision between her career or her sweetheart Ben Matthews (Tyron Leitso). The movie fast forwards 10 years and she is an award winning news reporter. Out of the blue she gets a friend request through social media from Ben. With a chance encounter with Santa he asks her to wish for something that she wants, and then she wakes up she is married to Ben, with two children, a dog and living in the suburbs. It is a delightful movie that has Hannah trying to figure out which life is most important.

Victor J

A fairly entertaining, mindless movie. But I'm sorry - her husband and kids were horrible. The husband berated her constantly, had no patience or understanding for the fact that she was clearly going through something, and the kids whined and complained the whole time. They got mad at their mom because she didn't pick the fruit out of the cereal for them... really?? So I didn't buy the ending at all - she would never choose to go back there. She would run FAST back to her great single life and growing career!

This is simply a, practically scene by scene, copy of "The Family Man" from 2000. And in that version, it was a MAN that ended up seeing what his life would be like with a family instead of a powerful career. Hallmark has done this with other films and it's pretty standard to swap the genders with the movie they copy.

Lacey Chabert, Hallmark's second darling of Christmas, stars in the fun, well-acted film Family for Christmas. The beginning will probably make the romantics in the audience reach for their hankies: Lacey and her boyfriend Tyron Leitso are parting ways at the airport because she has a six-month internship in San Francisco. They vow to wait for each other, but then a title card displays the dreaded words "ten years later" and Lacey's a famous news anchor with no romantic attachments. So sad!

Then again, the movie's just started, so dry those tears and get ready for some holiday magic. She starts thinking of her old flame, wondering what would have happened if they'd held on a little tighter all those years ago. The next morning, she wakes up married to him, in a suburban house with two children and a dog! Lacey is so funny in this film, letting audiences know she's out of her element without being annoying or unlikable. She tries to cope with her new life as a housewife, and along the way she starts to fall in love with Tyron all over again. He's a particularly likable love interest, a perfect blend of a romantic lead and a dad and husband. Together, Lacey and Tyron have a comfortable yet exciting chemistry together.

Family for Christmas is one of the better films to come out of the Hallmark channel, because not only is the story accessible rather than silly, but the acting is very good. The characters aren't one-dimensional, so the audience can really get invested in the movie, rather than just concentrate on their popcorn. While the ending is bittersweet, the overall film is very enjoyable. Add it to your yearly line-up of Christmas movies; I did!

I typically love a cheesy Christmas film and the first time I watched it I loved it... I'm a Lacey fan... having watched this again this for about the 4th time I have some issues with its message... it basically tells women they can't be happy unless they have a family and they can't have both a career and a family! I loved the lead man until he basically guilted her in to turning her job down to make sure she stays a stay at home bored mother!!