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Hallmark does a good job of coding religious-focused movies with the Dayspring label, so you can stay away if you want to. Despite knowing this, I was taken out of the story with the awkward monologue prayers and discussions of God guiding the lead characters' love choices. It seemed like it was painted on after or the additions were simply pandering to an audience that may have rather watched such films on Great American Family where one man and one woman still leaves room for the Holy Ghost routinely.

Abby (the great Brooke D'Orsay) is a famous actor, who goes to Vermont to flee a scandal brewing in LA. I'll pause here to say this movie is a rather similar plot line to my 2023 novel, Big Sky Lake, where a similar inciting incident brings a famous actress back home to Montana, where she too finds love and helps direct a children's play in a small town. I'm not saying it's similar, but you could make that argument.

Anyhoo . . . Abby meets handsome inn owner Tom (John Brotherton) with a young daughter. Yep, this happens in Big Sky Lake, too. They speak to God . . . No, that doesn't happen in my novel, so I guess that's where we differ the most.

This small Vermont town is jammed packed with extras in every scene. As our actors walk down main street in one scene, you would be forgiven thinking they were navigating the Miracle Mile in Chicago with the amount of people packed around them. Regardless, the town looks beautiful and not the standard stand-in Canadian town. I'm not sure where they filmed it, but it looks unique.

The movie may have the season's record for the most interrupted kiss attempts in one scene.

Our leads attempt their first smooch, but are interrupted by a nosy inn guest, a phone call and a child, all in about 25 seconds. We never see if they give it a go after we cut away. I imagine they would have, but maybe that kiss would be one too many for Dayspring.

Cast Kudos: Isla Verot as Lucy, the young daughter. She's just about perfect in this role and actually carries a lot of the movie on her shoulders.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Despite being a Christmas play on Christmas vacation and constant mentions of Christ, I just didn't feel the magic. It was all a bit too sincere. Where's the fun of the season?

Alternative Movie Titles: A star comes to Vermont; Abby, Tom and the Holy Ghost find love.

The Santa Class is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, which opens up the possibility for laughs in unexpected places. It's a fun watch with the family and one I'd recommend you take.

Kate (Kimberly Sustad) runs a Santa school, training the future santa's of the mall world how to handle the demanding job of being the big guy and keeping the dream alive for young people. Kate's school is an old campground. Dan (Benjamin Ayres) is the lead santa trainer at a rival santa school (why not), until he gets the boot and finds his way to Kate.

All of this is background to the real magic of the movie - when the real Santa shows up wandering the backroads near Kate's school. He has no idea who he is, but they certainly do. They enroll him in the school in the hopes that it might help him recover his lost memories and, you guessed it, save Christmas.

The Santa Class goes heavy on the laughs, and save for a few scenes (party crashing), it hits the mark. In a world where the real Santa is in your class, anything is possible. The movie focuses on acceptance, too. The perfect Christmas and the perfect Santa don't exist. All are welcome.

Sustand and Ayres complement each other well and their enemies-to-lovers romance is a welcome change of pace.

One weird note. We have no idea what the Christmas Cup is until the third act of the movie. So we really want to win it . . . But the audience doesn't know what that made-up competition entails. A bit of a miss in the editing room I think.

It's fun. I recommend you enroll in The Santa Class.

Cast Kudos: Paul Campbell as himself. The Hallmark actor really puts himself out there as himself, researching a role. He references his past rolls in many Christmas movies and is just plain funny.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Santa is real and he's in your class.

Alternative Movie titles: Santa Bootcamp; Santa School is in Session; The forgetful Santa.

When hard-working attorney Tory (Stacey Farber) loses her job, she is given the opportunity to reevaluate her priorities through a local bar, which she helps turn into Hanukkah On The Rocks for the eight days of Hanukkah. Hanging out with her along the way is Jay (Daren Kagasoff), a radiologist who is in Chicago for a few weeks to see his grandpa. The grandpa, Sam, is none other than Double Dare host Marc Summers. It was great to see him on screen.

The main element of this movie that works is family and community. We don't have any zany parents or unrelatable family members trying to be funny. Just regular people who want the best for their family and friends.

The love story was a little paint-by-numbers for me. Honestly, Jay was a little stiff. Like he was too cool for school, or something like that. Our leads bond over going through the motions at work, but I never felt like we got anything else between them, except proximity to each other, which was light. Sam brings the emotional elements when discussing his wife.

When the sister is decorating cookies, she has every finger of her hands covered in blue frosting, like a glove of blue frosting. This is not how anyone in the history of the world has frosted cookies. Nobody has a butter knife to spread the stuff? It's a joke that doesn't land.

Writing your novel on two years of cocktail napkins is a dumb idea. So is typing it on an old-timey typewriter whilst inside a bar. For two years of effort, I would have expected a little more.

Measuring Christmas Magic: It's a Hanakkah movie. No magical elements apparent.

Cast Kudos: Marc Summers as Grandpa Sam. He was really great in this on camera role. Looking through his profile, it seems like he's been a busy executive producer for sometime, so it was nice to see him on screen again. He definitely steals some scenes and interrupts some kisses..

Alternative movie titles: No suggestions. This title fits perfectly.