L'Atelier de jouets du père Noël

Normally these two are great and believable. There is something amiss with Brooke, she looks so drawn in her face. I don't know what it is but this show had so many wonderful qualities, love love loved the Santa tag with "Santa helper sayings". The idea was super great. Something just didn't connect. I love watching hallmark even if it is a one kiss. "same-o~ same o"

Brooke d'Orsay. She is a real charmer and I don't think I've seen her in anything in which she wasn't the shining star. Everything else was mediocre. The Father and his store got my back up right away with the declaration that if it wasn't made of wood, it wasn't a real toy. Absolutely ridiculous. There are thousands of old-fashioned homey nostalgic toys that are made of plastic and don't plug in or have a battery. Old fashioned board games, water colors, crayons, etch-a sketch, rubber balls, but no. Wood or nothing. And his store maybe had 5 toys in it! Then he kept passively-aggressively pressuring her and trying to guilt her into giving up a successful toy career she loved in New York City to take over his stupid store that couldn't have cleared $20 a day in profit. On top of all that, they gave away for free Brooke's hand carved Santas that could have retailed for for $100.00 each easy. My free enterprise and capitalistic soul was crying out in pain. Obviously most of these Hallmark writers have never had to earn an honest day's wage in a retail environment.

But Brooke d'Orsay has saved more than this unworthy effort.

Lots of sizzle but no steak. There is a lot of whimsy, romantic banter, and excitement about the Garrison and McClain's families Christmas's of the past, but since today is the present, I was expecting to see a resurrection of these so-called nostalgic Christmas's. Instead the storyline is based on a whole lot of wishful thinking and the goodness of the North Bay townsfolk's spirit of Christmas.

I prefer not to give away any spoiler but this is a Christmas based film so it's not hard to figure it out. As I said this family themed Christmas film has lots of sizzle, .....just no steak.

I rate it a 5 out of 10. Worth a watch but just once.

5/10 - a by-the-books Hallmark flick that has little to make it very memorable

The golden haired couple look nice together but the story has nothing to differentiate it from dozens of other Hallmark holiday movies. The same move back to small town and give up the big city thing. The pageant story isn't interesting. Nor is the mill story.

Why bother.