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I guess I do not get it. There are different ways to look at Christmas: for some it should feel more like "Silent Night", others go for "Grandma was run over by a reindeer". Obviously they won't agree on many points. This is my view. The movie does have a few sweet and serious moments, is family friendly, and ends with the expected moral conclusion. A poorly developed romantic story between two initially antagonistic personalities, who work together to save a business, is the core of a zillion TV movies and sounds quite trite. Most of the action is devoted to the elements that have characterized most of this year's Hallmark Christmas productions: contests or competitions, crashing parties, and widespread silly farce. Personally, I have not found it elating, nor hilarious. It makes me think of when a person is uneasy with his feelings, or ashamed, and unable do express them. All he/she can verbalize are jokes. Are people at Hallmark at such point in their creative life? Can they still feel, understand and portray the real spirit of the Holiday? Live by farce and die a farce.

As a curiosity, how did Paul Campbell consent to play such a stupid role? So far this year, in my opinion, Hallmark has broadcast no more than two or three Christmas movies that were really worth seeing.

For 2024 Hallmark gives us one more installment in the saga of Mrs. Miracle. The original two, with Doris Roberts, did, indeed, have some magic. The choice of the actress for the role, Rachel Boston, seems well justified. In the 2017 movie "Christmas in Angel Falls", she convincingly played an angel, projecting the feeling of inner mirth and wholesomeness with levity and restraint. I am not sure whether seven years have changed her so much, or the script and movie direction have made the difference. In this movie, her performance appears uneven and somewhat hollow. She wanders between acting frantically silly ( again, the recent Hallmark penchant for making a farce of everything), rather than joyous, and somberly serious. She gets involved in other people's lives almost forcefully, rather than nudging, and talks too much, leading people rather than hinting. She seems in command of the action, rather than in a gentle advisory capacity. In essence, the angel has lost her joy and Mrs. Miracle has lost her magic. The rest of the story is bland, with characters that sound superficial, with no psychological consistency, and predictable outcomes, though not well constructed by the action.. Is it a bad movie? Not really. It is watchable, with some values and Christmas spirit, but it is half-baked and poorly inspired. Once more, I feel that somebody at Hallmark has lost the ability to really feel the Christmas spirit and just goes through the motions, probably pressed by the need to produce volumes of movies, rather than caring for quality and substance.

Overall, this was a watchable movie, that describes a somewhat steamy affair between two attractive stars, which, apparently, leads to real love. Considering the personalities, how durable? At least three aspects of the production make me question it. For one, and this is becoming common in movies, it confers excessive emphasis on the role of a child getting involved in adults love relations. Maybe, I am willing to consider it, children are not the same I remember in my generation. Second, the dramas are overplayed. The need to keep the relationship between the leads a secret, and the way they go about it, seems unnecessary, and ridiculously enacted.

The family strains are also too harsh and feel forced in the contest. Third, why is this a "Christmas movie"? Either than the events occurring at year's end, the story has no real connection with this holiday and its values. It could have happened at Easter, during Ramadan, or any other time of the year, without changing an iota of its spirit.

Lifetime, in the past two years, has markedly pulled out of the frenzy of Christmas movies competition. I believe it has been a wise decision.