The Santa Class

Every now and then Hallmark comes up with a really unique idea for their Christmas movies and here is an excellent one. Kimberley Sustad and Benjamin Ayres play Kate and Don, who have been antagonistic with each other for years after a failed "date," but join forces to save Kate's family Santa school. The first half hour of this movie is hilarious. Sustad's wonderful talents for sharp and witty comedy are on full display and who knew Ayres could be so funny - he's always good, but here he is exceptional. In the second half hour, you meet the ragtag Santa school students, and what a bunch they are. All funny, with their idiosyncrasies, including the real Santa who has lost his memory (played expertly and endearingly by Trevor Lerner), an old Grandpa (played nicely by Tom Pickett), a woman-Santa-wannabe (the always good Carmel Amit, willing to forego her attractiveness in this part), and a man who expresses himself through a hand puppet ! No kidding- but it's hilarious. And then the surprise - there's a very talented Hallmark regular playing himself in a very tongue-in-cheek performance as he goes to the school to research how to play Santa. We are sure he's not this self-absorbed in real life, but you can't tell that from some of the looks he gets from Sustad, his frequent co-star and co-writer in other Hallmark films. All of the other students are well played and funny. Plus, Allesandro Miro shows up with a funny performance as Blaise, the school's major competitor. This is all extremely well written and nicely directed by Lucie Guest with expensive looking sets.

But, many kudos have to go out to the casting director who engaged these marvelous performers for this movie. They all look like they really enjoyed playing these parts and, together, led by the terrific Sustad and Ayres, they carry it off to perfection. As an added bonus, the scenes between Kate and the real Santa during the last 30 minutes are touching and wonderfully played by Sustad and Lerner, with a gift given at the end of the film that is very special. A little Christmas "magic", lots of Santas, lots of fun, and lots of sentiment. The best of Hallmark's 2024 new season.

While there might be a few loose ends hanging in this plot which don't make sense, you can easily forget them. The movie is ridiculously strange and funny, including the includsion of the "real" Santa Claus, who shows up with retrograde amnesia.

A student who mostly talks through a hand puppet? LOL Shades of Billy Crystal on SOAP from decades ago. (And played by Gary Jones from Stargate SG-1 ... great to see him again).

Paul Campbell playing ... HIMSELF! LOL An actor preparing for a Christmas movie role. I can't count the number of Christmas movies he's been in, but it's a lot.

The Santa obstacle course is the bizzare construct of a warped mind, just the kind of mind you want for a writer who's going to give you something different.

And Trever Lerner gives us one of the best Santas in the long history of Christmas movies.

Throw in a little antithetical romance and you have a complete movie. :-)

This is great fun and could well turn into an every year watch.

The Santa Class is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, which opens up the possibility for laughs in unexpected places. It's a fun watch with the family and one I'd recommend you take.

Kate (Kimberly Sustad) runs a Santa school, training the future santa's of the mall world how to handle the demanding job of being the big guy and keeping the dream alive for young people. Kate's school is an old campground. Dan (Benjamin Ayres) is the lead santa trainer at a rival santa school (why not), until he gets the boot and finds his way to Kate.

All of this is background to the real magic of the movie - when the real Santa shows up wandering the backroads near Kate's school. He has no idea who he is, but they certainly do. They enroll him in the school in the hopes that it might help him recover his lost memories and, you guessed it, save Christmas.

The Santa Class goes heavy on the laughs, and save for a few scenes (party crashing), it hits the mark. In a world where the real Santa is in your class, anything is possible. The movie focuses on acceptance, too. The perfect Christmas and the perfect Santa don't exist. All are welcome.

Sustand and Ayres complement each other well and their enemies-to-lovers romance is a welcome change of pace.

One weird note. We have no idea what the Christmas Cup is until the third act of the movie. So we really want to win it . . . But the audience doesn't know what that made-up competition entails. A bit of a miss in the editing room I think.

It's fun. I recommend you enroll in The Santa Class.

Cast Kudos: Paul Campbell as himself. The Hallmark actor really puts himself out there as himself, researching a role. He references his past rolls in many Christmas movies and is just plain funny.

Measuring Christmas Magic: Santa is real and he's in your class.

Alternative Movie titles: Santa Bootcamp; Santa School is in Session; The forgetful Santa.

I added this 2024 Christmas movie to my Christmas movie marathon without ever having heard about it. Well, truth be told, from the movie's cover, then I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations to the movie. Yeah, I know, don't judge a book by its cover.

However, I have to admit that writers Alexandre Coscas, Joseph Kelbley and Russell Hainline really surprised me with the script and storyline that they put together for director Lucie Guest to bring to the screen. It was a refreshing script that didn't dive into the standard tropes of sappy Christmas movies all the way. Sure, there were sappy Christmas movie elements here and there, but in overall, it was actually a good change of pace in terms of Christmas movie storytelling. So thumbs up to the writers for that accomplishment.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And I will say that the acting performances in "The Santa Class" were good.

The character gallery in the movie was nicely written. I definitely enjoyed the offbeat and quirky characters that were training for Santa duty.

If you enjoy Christmas movies and want something that offers more than just your average copy/paste Hallmark sappy Christmas movie formula, then you definitely should take 84 minutes to sit down and watch this movie. I was genuinely and wholeheartedly entertained.

My rating of director Lucie Guest's 2024 movie "The Santa Class" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Loved Trevor as Nick he fitted the part very well,hope to see him in more holiday movies.

Now onto the remaining review.. Although a bit clichéd,it wasn't anything typically overdone by Hallmark-Such as festivals,etc.

It was cast & acted decent,music didn't overly drown out speaking.

The holiday decor was fine & not sure if this took place in Canada,pretending to be elsewhere but felt"almost"season/temperature realistic.

The opening credits to the movie was refreshing,get rather bored with the cookie cutter productions-Quality over quantity matters!

Was a fun storyline in general,one might actually watch again.. Check it out!