CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES

CHRISTMAS LAND (2015)

Nikki DeLoach is a high-powered PR person planning to marry her high-powered attorney boyfriend (Jason Shane-Scott) and move into an expensive condo in Manhattan. Just before Christmas, she finds out that she has inherited Christmas Land, a Christmas tree farm and tourist attraction. She takes a quick trip to the snowy property intending to sell it, but handsome lawyer Luke Macfarlane has mistakenly led villagers to think that she might be interested in reviving Christmas Land herself. Jason finds a potential buyer, but he wants to chop the land up, gutting the village. Torn between her high-powered fiancé and the handsome small town lawyer, what's a high-powered city gal to do? I found this worth watching for the hot and handsome Macfarlane and the chemistry that he works up with DeLoach. The location shooting at Pioneer Village in Utah is a plus—I've read that the snow was fake but there are several night scenes in which you can see the actors' breath, indicating actual cold conditions. But the rest is kind of a mess, especially the deus ex machina ending. Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch has what amounts to a cameo as Nikki's grandmother, but she’s creepily intense in her few minutes on screen. Shane-Scott is OK as the Hallmark standard issue bad boyfriend. I emptied my brain and wallowed in Luke Macfarlane. [Hallmark]

THE SANTA CLASS (2024)

Kimbely Susted has inherited (sound familiar yet?) a struggling Santa Claus training school that is in constant competition with another nearby Santa school. She needs help with her latest class and, coincidentally, Benjamin Ayres (pictured), who works for the competition, is fired because of budget problems and asks her for a job. Reluctantly (because of his cockiness) she hires him. Just before the class convenes, the two of them run into a man dressed as Santa, lost in the woods and suffering from amnesia. They see his sleigh and reindeer take off into the sky and realize he's the real Santa Claus, so they enroll him in their class, hoping something will jog his memory before Christmas Eve. Among the other students are a woman, a puppeteer who only communicates through his puppet, and the Hallmark Christmas actor Paul Campbell (playing himself). Oddly, I don't usually take to the Hallmark movies that involve real Santas; for me, folkloric magic and modern romance don't mix well. But this is cute, and as with Christmas Land, the two leads are reasons to watch. As I noted in a review of one of his earlier movies, Ayres occasionally has an intense, almost sinister look in his eyes which makes him a bit spicier than the typical Hallmark vanilla leading man. Campbell is delightful, making fun of himself and his career, at one point winning a trivia question about Christmas movies ("I’ve made 35 of these!"). Trevor Lerner is a nicely low-key St. Nick, and Graeme McComb is a standout as a shy and nerdy student who eventually blossoms. A fun continuation of Hallmark’s recent movement towards meta-movie material. [Hallmark]