Single mom Cadence (Sarah Drew) has her own business as an event planner and as the holidays approach, she has a big event on deck: staging a Christmas Eve wedding for a friend's family. Meanwhile, single dad Henry (Ryan McPartlin), normally a house painter, has his own seasonal decorating business with his mother Twinkle and his brother Lex and as the holidays approach, they have a big event on deck: a Christmas Eve party for the town's richest lady. But back at the elementary school where both Cadence and Henry have their adorable kids enrolled, the two are thrown together by chance to design the sets for the upcoming Christmas pageant. She's all about planning and scheduling every little detail, but Henry takes a much looser improvisational approach to his work, leading to some friction in the beginning, but after sparks of irritation fly, sparks of attraction fly, and it looks like the two might couple up. But the various traumas in their pasts lead to hesitation. On Christmas Eve, a blizzard threatens to put the kibosh on both of their outside projects, potentially cancelling both the wedding and the party, but when most of the town loses power and everyone winds up sheltering at the elementary school, a little scheduling and a little improvisation might save the day—and their budding relationship.
This is a Lifetime Christmas movie rather than a Hallmark movie. As you can see by the plot description, it seems like it could have as easily been at home on Hallmark with its vanilla lead characters (pictured above) stumbling into a holiday romance, and no kissing until the last minute of the movie. But there are some differences. First, no one here has to give up a big-city career—they both already live in the same small town. Second, there are two small children rather than just one. The customers of both the lead characters are African-American, which is slightly more representation than at Hallmark. But most importantly for moving these romances into the 21st century, there is an out gay couple: Henry's brother Lex (Brian Sills) and his husband Danny (Mark Ghanimé), and they (pictured at right) even get the final fadeout kiss rather than Cadence and Henry. There is no big deal made about the secondary roles being black or gay (nothing about the roles would necessarily indicate minority actors), but that itself is part of the point. Otherwise, however, this is about par for the course for TV Christmas movies. Drew and McPartlin are fine, the kid actors are fine. Lesley Ann Warren plays Henry's mom Twinkle and though she is also fine, she is mostly wasted in a role that any older actress could have played—she doesn't get to shine in a Lesley Ann Warren way. A minor quibble: the blizzard that shuts down the town looks like about 2 inches of snow and a moderately stiff breeze which never comes off as dangerous. But this film gets extra points for representation bravery. [Lifetime]
Single mom Cadence (Sarah Drew) has her own business as an event planner and as the holidays approach, she has a big event on deck: staging a Christmas Eve wedding for a friend's family. Meanwhile, single dad Henry (Ryan McPartlin), normally a house painter, has his own seasonal decorating business with his mother Twinkle and his brother Lex and as the holidays approach, they have a big event on deck: a Christmas Eve party for the town's richest lady. But back at the elementary school where both Cadence and Henry have their adorable kids enrolled, the two are thrown together by chance to design the sets for the upcoming Christmas pageant. She's all about planning and scheduling every little detail, but Henry takes a much looser improvisational approach to his work, leading to some friction in the beginning, but after sparks of irritation fly, sparks of attraction fly, and it looks like the two might couple up. But the various traumas in their pasts lead to hesitation. On Christmas Eve, a blizzard threatens to put the kibosh on both of their outside projects, potentially cancelling both the wedding and the party, but when most of the town loses power and everyone winds up sheltering at the elementary school, a little scheduling and a little improvisation might save the day—and their budding relationship.
This is a Lifetime Christmas movie rather than a Hallmark movie. As you can see by the plot description, it seems like it could have as easily been at home on Hallmark with its vanilla lead characters (pictured above) stumbling into a holiday romance, and no kissing until the last minute of the movie. But there are some differences. First, no one here has to give up a big-city career—they both already live in the same small town. Second, there are two small children rather than just one. The customers of both the lead characters are African-American, which is slightly more representation than at Hallmark. But most importantly for moving these romances into the 21st century, there is an out gay couple: Henry's brother Lex (Brian Sills) and his husband Danny (Mark Ghanimé), and they (pictured at right) even get the final fadeout kiss rather than Cadence and Henry. There is no big deal made about the secondary roles being black or gay (nothing about the roles would necessarily indicate minority actors), but that itself is part of the point. Otherwise, however, this is about par for the course for TV Christmas movies. Drew and McPartlin are fine, the kid actors are fine. Lesley Ann Warren plays Henry's mom Twinkle and though she is also fine, she is mostly wasted in a role that any older actress could have played—she doesn't get to shine in a Lesley Ann Warren way. A minor quibble: the blizzard that shuts down the town looks like about 2 inches of snow and a moderately stiff breeze which never comes off as dangerous. But this film gets extra points for representation bravery. [Lifetime]
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