The 12 Days of Christmas Eve

IN A NUTSHELL: When Brian Conway, a successful businessman whose family relationships have suffered, gets in a car accident on Christmas Eve, Santa gives him twelve chances to redo the day and repair the relationships in his life, including with his daughter Michelle.

The film was directed by Dustin Rikert, and written by Eirene Donohue.

THINGS I LIKED: I adore Kelsey Grammer. He tends to play the same character in every movie, but it suits his personality. We even get to hear him sing a little bit. He sang the opening song in his popular TV show Frasier. I loved that show.

Spencer Grammar plays Kelsey Grammer's daughter in the movie, and she really IS his daughter in real life!

I love movies that loop, giving the protagonist time to redo his/her choices to become a better person. One of the characters actually talks about that kind of movie and explains that the time loop stops "when they stop being selfish and start helping other people." Kelsey Grammar played a Starship captain in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where his character had been stuck in a time loop for over 90 years.

There are plenty of positive messages about life and the true meaning of Christmas.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: It's super cheesy and predictable.

There are quite a few bad green-screen moments.

The scenarios are ridiculous.

A surgeon who can't figure out how to get a babysitter?

Spencer Grammer's character is cranky, impossible to please, and demanding during most of the movie.

Some bad editing and transition moments.

Some bad acting moments.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Lots of alcohol Talk of death Adults will probably get more out of the lessons in the movie than their kids.

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So we've all become familiar with the standard Hallmark/Lifetime holiday movie season. Most of the movies follow very familiar formulas, and that can be great, but they do tend to run together after a while.

This one, though, stands out a bit. Part of that is Grammer's performance, he's a perfect moodern Scrooge analog. It's hard to imagine this working as well without him. Another thing that really works here is the somewhat darker take on Santa. Not too dark, don't worry, but I do think there's a bit of a mythic trickster quality to him here that I quite like.

There are a few things that still fall a bit flat. For example, some of the protaginist's arguments with his daughter seem rushed and out of nowhere, and their relationship particularly gets a tad repetitive. But overall this is one of the better tv holiday movies I've seen.

This movie had a good idea, and some mid to good acting, but it fails multiple times

The original premise is good, it goes on a route(Redemption or death) none of the movies I have seen of the type touches(Except maybe groundhog but that is not "learn or die" that is more like "Die to reset the day" kind of thing)

The whole point of the Groundhog day situations is that they learn by failing You got Murray's situation where he fails a ton and like 10 years go by in the movie(Really, google it) You got Pete's christmas(Which I prefer over "Christmas every day" to be honest, where he learns little by little, always finding new things to learn about himself and those surrounding him and the growth, as in Groundhog, is slow and steady You even have Happy Death day where she also learns little by little all that was wrong with her life and outlook

And that is where this fails abysmally, you have Santa guiding him, or even outright telling him what is wrong, that rests importance to the learning curve and makes it feel rushed by the end.

And then there is the lessons learned thing, when he realizes what is wrong, he still gets it wrong a few times.

The end goes on a high note and it is refreshing to see a character outright speaking about christ, which I find sad, but in this day and age seems to be taboo(Like speaking about christianity as a religion and talking about the nativity in that context, not in Jingle Bells context)

So that ending(and the good acting from several of the actors) saved this movie... will I see it again? Only in the holidays(Yeah, I am a christmashead, I sometimes see xmas movies outside of the season), but it could have been much better.

Mawkish Starts off ok but gets tedious in the middle.

Then just irritating.

After a while I just fast forwarded it.

Lacks any of the the Dickensian charm and lessons that are so wonderful in most of the Christmas Scrooge movies.

Not a good groundhog movie either.

Off putting with Kelsey Grammars feet too.

Supporting actors not great so must have been low budget.

How lunch more of a review do I need to write to submit this. Ridiculous that I have to have so many characters that I am just filling the space to get this submitted.

Halve the number please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite being somewhat off-putting early on, because of some characters being over-drawn, this movie is well worth watching. But be sure to stick with it until the very end. After watching it for a second time I needed to come back and increase my rating from 8 to 10.

After the opening sequences that establish the characters and the situations they face, and after the essential nature of the movie has been revealed, the plot really finds its footing and gets rolling. It begins pulling together different plot elements from earlier in the movie into a well-orchestrated, meaningful, engaging, and highly satisfying closing sequence of scenes. The acting was simultaneously both quirky *and* good.

There is a lot of subtle humor, and you'll want to pay close attention to pick up some of it. I missed a number of little throwaways the first time through. On the second time through I laughed when I realized how well they set up, in advance, some little bit of humor that I had not quite "gotten" on my first viewing. Without giving away anything about the actual plot, when you watch the movie, be sure to take a close look at the candle at the end of the opening scene, and also take note of the news story about the escaped reindeer not long thereafter.

There were also some good, solid comedic lines and events that were anything but subtle! My second viewing was even more entertaining than my first viewing had been, which is a rare thing for a movie to be able to pull off. Someone who had not previously seen the movie was watching it with me -- they had quite a number of break-out-laughing moments.

But this movie is more than just its humor. It also contains a number of deeper insights, and it presents some life lessons that we could all take to heart.

Overall, this is a well-crafted movie. As of Dec 4th, 2022, as I write this, "The 12 Days of Christmas Eve" is my favorite 2022 Christmas movie to date.

You can see all of my other favorite 2022 Christmas movies by clicking on my profile link above; then look for "2022 FAVORITE CHRISTMAS ROM-COMs" under "Lists".