Hallmark Channel
Hallmark reunites two of its popular When Calls the Heart series stars, Erin Krakow and Daniel Lissing, for the new holiday romance movie, Santa Tell Me, one of their most delightful films of the 2024 holiday season.
Krakow stars as Olivia, a designer for a TV network that specializes in home and garden series, who is about to embark on a major holiday project — making over a home for the holidays, culminating in a live reveal on Christmas Eve. If the show is a success, Olivia will get what she’s dreamed of … her own home design series. With just days before production is to begin on the pre-recorded portions of the show, the head of the network drops a bomb on Olivia — the whole show is going to be overseen by a new producer, Chris (I swear these people have last names but Hallmark never lists them), who is in charge of the hit series Model Home, which is not about an actual model home, but a reality series about models living together in a home. Olivia is less than thrilled and unloads her frustrations on her rideshare driver … who happens to be Chris (Lissing). He’s not her driver, he was just parking when she got in his car thinking he was her driver. Oops. Realizing her mistake much too late in the ride, Chris takes Olivia home … but to her dilapidated childhood home because, surprise, she’s going to make over this house instead of the one that had been planned. The house was in foreclosure and Chris talked the network into buying it so the audience could feel Olivia’s deep connection to the home and the project.
Olivia is resistant to the idea but finally sees how she could make it work. Except with the cost of the house, the budget is really tight and she can’t go in on any custom-made pieces, like a new dining room table. Everything has to be from the network sponsors or found items, and they all have to be approved by Chris. Olivia’s dream project is becoming a nightmare. Sharing all of these frustrations with her sister Darcy (Jess Brown), they reminisce about their childhood in the house (it seems like Chris just left Olivia there to fend for herself), and Olivia remembers a letter she wrote to Santa asking as her gift to know the name of her true love so that when she meets him, she will know it’s him. That ‘gift’ never came, but the sisters keep hearing a bell ring somewhere in the house, and see one of the heating ducts glowing. Removing the vent cover, Olivia finds a letter sealed with wax. Opening it, she finds her letter to Santa and a blank card … which magically begins to reveal writing — the answer to her question. The man who is her true love is named Nick. It seems she was meant to find the letter when she was ready for love but … she doesn’t know any Nicks. Yet.
Through one comical ‘meet cute’ after another, she ends up meeting three Nicks in short order, each with a last name that begins with A, B, and C. What are the chances. Nick A. is a doctor. B happens to be a woodworker who is more than happy to donate his items to the show. C is a firefighter/calendar model. Each of them has something that clicks with Olivia, but which one is Mr. Right? Encouraged by her sister, Olivia begins to date all three, hoping to find a spark, but she also begins to see that Chris is not the tyrant she thought he would be, and there could also be a spark with him. But if she doesn’t choose her true love before the last bells toll on Christmas Eve, she never will. Is she willing to let the Nicks go for Chris, or will everything come tumbling down in the most awkward way — on live TV?
Hallmark Channel
Santa Tell Me is one of Hallmark’s most enjoyable holiday romances yet — and we still have a month-plus to go till Christmas! Fans of When Calls the Heart are sure to get a thrill from seeing stars Krakow and Lissing reunited in this holiday tale, and the two are absolute perfection, with obvious chemistry that jumps off the screen. Krakow is totally believable as a home design TV host — if you’ve watched enough HGTV, you’ll agree — and her performance is so real, so authentic, so warm, that even when she’s butting heads with Chris you are rooting for her to succeed professionally and personally. Lissing is also fantastic as Chris, passionate about the show, a bit rankled by Olivia’s initial reaction to him, but slowly warming to her, wanting her to succeed as much as him (mainly because it will get him away from his other show, which he later reveals to her is not what he set it out to be but network meddling changed the concept, which is why he’s so passionate about making her show perfect). Having a previous working relationship certainly doesn’t hurt the chemistry Krakow and Lissing share, but they are both so good at being at odds at first and slowly easing into their ‘he/she might not be as bad as I thought’ phase as the story progresses. When they each do something terribly thoughtful for the other, you can’t help but root for them to realize they actually do have feelings for each other, even if there are three Nicks in the way. Of all the Hallmark movies broadcast so far this year, these two are the most natural and engaging couple yet.
Jess Brown is also wonderful as Darcy, adding a bit of comic relief to Olivia’s situation while also on hand to offer words of wisdom when needed, urging Olivia not to take that magical note from Santa lightly, and not to give up when the clock begins to tick down. As for the Nicks, each one has their own charm. Benjamin Ayres is Nick A, and even when his date with Olivia goes horribly wrong — in a hilarious way — he sticks with her but can she compete with the heroics of his career? Christopher Russell, last seen on Hallmark’s Operation Nutcracker, is the most down-to-earth of the Nicks and has a natural chemistry with Krakow, but can the adventurous Olivia find common ground with the homebody Nick B? Kurt Szarka is the most humorous of the Nicks, devoted to his career as a firefighter but even more devoted to his work as a firefighter calendar model, with his sights set on being next year’s Mr. December. Can he love Olivia more than he loves himself? Each of the actors give really wonderful performances, and it seems like Nick B would be Olivia’s ‘true love’ since they have the most in common, and the actors seem to have the most chemistry. But is he the Nick Santa prescribed?
Written and directed by Ryan Landels, Santa Tell Me leans more on romance and humor than heavy drama. He gets some truly wonderful performances from the cast, the production design exudes Christmas, and in the end you can’t help but feel more joyful and in the spirit. Santa Tell Me is undeniably romantic, and it works so well because of the natural humor that is infused into the story. The cast pulls off the comedy very well, nothing ever seems forced or artificial, and even with the whole fantasy element of the story — the text of Santa’s note keeps changing to help guide Olivia — you truly believe that all of this could really happen. Now that is some true Christmas magic.
Santa Tell Me has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is available On Demand and is streaming on Peacock.
Preview – Santa Tell Me
Hallmark Channel
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