La liste du père Noël

Krissy Kringle is having an awful Christmas season. She is cursed with a stupid name; she has just been fired from her job and has had to take a job as an elf in a gift-wrapping department; she lives on Candy Cane Lane and gets all of Santa Claus' mail; and worst of all, she has been mailed Santa's naughty or nice list and discovered that her boyfriend has cheated on her in this well-written and executed Hallmark Channel TV movie.

Hilarie Burton plays Krissy and she does a very nice job with a well written role. She moves easily from comedy to small-scale tragedy as the power from the naughty list first improves her life and then makes the world collapse around her. I have only noticed Ms. Burton in an episode of "Castle" before this, but she certainly is pretty and knows how to give a performance. She is aided by a good cast, with Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter (the parents of the 1980s show "Family Ties") as her mother and father.

An entertaining, Christmas comedy drama involving a single professional woman who has a terrible day and mysteriously ends up with Santa's "Naughty or Nice" book. In this pleasant and somewhat different and balanced movie, Naughty or Nice is a worthwhile, if not classic addition to the Christmas Holiday movie genre.

This was not what I expected from the title. Actually, I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. This is not your typical Hallmark Christmas movie. The story is different, at least to me.

In this movie, there are not all the usual holiday traditions ticked off in the story as in so many of the movies. (Not that I don't like them.)

For much of the movie, Krissy Kringle is petty and vindictive and often mean.

The story is excellent. The production is decent. (The house decorations are spectacular.) And the acting is good. There is some humor. I'm not sure the movie would have been nearly as good without Gabriel Tigerman who adds a lot of humorous spice to the story. Burton and Tigerman play well off each other.

The first time I saw this movie, I didn't care for it. It just didn't have anything outstanding about it...yet it really wasn't boring and didn't have any annoying characters. So it didn't deserve an immediate "thumbs down."..........After seeing it the second time, it started to grow on me. And the third time, even more so........I attribute its increasing appeal is due to the increasing number of lousy Christmas movies that Hallmark has been presenting last year and this year. So in comparison, this movie became better.........I can't say it's really one of my top favorites, but I like that it stays focused on Christmas with a magical theme. All the players were well-casted, and they did well..........I would certainly prefer to watch it again, rather than watch the movies a second time that deserve an immediate "thumbs down."

Naughty or Nice features a great cast, entertaining story, and the typical charms that are often evident in Hallmark's excellent Holiday offerings.

I especially thought the casting in this one was terrific. I was not familiar with Hilarie Burton's previous work, but she won me over as Krissy Kringle, the oft-put upon main character who accidentally receives Santa's magical "Naughty or Nice" log book in the mail. She uses the book's mystical spying technology to her advantage, finding out what "nice" or "naughty" shenanigans her uppity neighbor (True Blood/Grimm's Jessica Tuck) and her fiancé (Kyle XY's Matt Dallas) as well as other random people in her life are up to. This leads her (as well as her wacky co-worker confidant) into several sticky, and typically hilarious, situations. This is a cute, fun movie that kept me interested for the entire running time. Highly recommended!

Another casting tidbit: The parents from 80s sitcom Family Ties - Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter - co-star as Krissy's parents. Fun casting choices like this are what keep me coming back to Hallmark movies time and time again!