Craig Anderson Productions, Edgewood Studios
Candace Cameron Bure, Tom Arnold, Christpher Wiehl, Barbara Niven
What is it with Christmas Stories. Tom Arnold is starring (or co-starring) in this film and that ought to chase me away screaming, but like Billy Ray Cyrus (see Christmas in Canaan), he’s actually not very annoying, and does a great job. The story is about one of those 365 a year Christmas villages (a la the many Santa’s Villages throughout the country) called Santaville. Tom Cruz is Nick (no not St. Nicholas, just a guy named Nick) who owns the little tourist attraction. His wife is gone, and his daughter Holly (Candace Cameron Bure) has moved away. She works for a large corporation and takes a short vacation to visit Dad. She has no attention of staying through Christmas, but her boss insists she’s been working way to hard and is required to take some time off. (If my boss is reading this, then maybe you ought to watch this!). But as the days go by, Holly remembers the past and how fun it was to grow up where it’s Christmas every day. She meets two guys and begins to see how bad things are for her Dad. They’re about to lose Santaville.
Well Holly thinks maybe it’s time to let it go, but as time goes by, she has some hard decisions to make before determining if Santaville is really worth saving.
This is a cute film, and the characters are well developed. It’s a similar story, as all Christmas films are, but unique in a way. Nick is NOT Santa and he does not live at the North Pole. The location is interesting, and the operation of the place is interesting. Trying to make something out of an old outdated roadside attraction is tough. Especially, as the banker says, traffic flies by on the way to the resorts and don’t even stop to buy gas.
You’ll cheer for the heroes and boo the villains. It’s not very deep or thought provoking as some Christmas stories are, but this film is just plain fun. Enjoy it again his year!
** Moonlight and Mistletoe (2008),
