To Have and to Holiday

When deciding to propose marriage, doing so as a grand gesture, with no forethought is not a good sign for things to come. Sure, let's call it romantic, but we can also call it being swept up in the moment with no plan. To Have and to Holiday doesn't address this significant flaw, but rather focuses on the rightfully annoyed and suspicious father of the proposed bride.

Maybe because I'm a father of daughters I had a hard time not cheering nearly every decision our unapproving father made. Obviously, we're supposed to not like him. Sorry. He's my dude.

Our lead is Celeste (Madeleine Arthur), who gets a quick proposal-before the first commercial break-from Jason (Robert Bazzicchi). For historical reasons, they need to get married in less than three weeks. Yikes. Celeste's dad Mark (Eric Close) is a pastor and plans to officiate the wedding. Turns out Pastor Mark runs every couple he marries through a Marriage Bootcamp and he does not hold back on our fledgling couple.

Side note: Every engaged couple might benefit from some type of bootcamp. Test those relationships before untangling them becomes too painful and difficult. It's not to teach them how to be married, but rather to see the other person as they will be for your relationship, not just until you say "I do" and you're stuck with them. It's worth exploring, young people.

Pastor Mark says, "If it turns out they're not right for each other, I won't marry them." Hmm, it seems like the couple should be the one deciding if it's right, after going through the bootcamp, not a third-party, deciding on their behalf. But Pastor Mark is a pretty opinionated fella.

To have and to Holiday is not a great deal of fun, but it's a mildly realistic scenario that rarely gets explored in these Christmas movies. We see one kiss and the credits roll. This movie looks at what happens next and I appreciate that. It's worth a watch.

Cast Kudos: Eric Close as Pastor Mark. Be strong dad.

Measuring Christmas Magic: No magic, but it's a Christmas movie.

Alternative titles: Christmas Bootcamp; Wedding Bells Bootcamp; Pastor Mark's Bootcamp for Christmas.

6.3 stars.

I have this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to like this movie. It's almost as if I'm not in the mood today. Should I hold off and watch it later? Anyways, I am getting through it slowly but surely. Slow and steady wins the race. Right now I'm not anticipating finishing it.

Pastor dad puts on the pressure, various gaslighting, bullying and guilt trip sessions later, the story improves somewhat, but not enough to sway my final opinion. This movie is not completely capturing my affections. I'd usually say something is missing, but in fact many somethings are missing.

There are good moments strew about, but insufficient to save it.

I continue plodding along...skipped to the last 15 minutes, it gets a lot better, too late to save it. Not my cup of tea.

To Have and to Holiday was just ok. It's basically a Christmas version of Father of the Bride (I really liked that movie). The movie started out pretty good. In flashbacks to when Celeste was younger you could see that her dad (Pastor Mark) wanted his old life back when his daughter was younger. Pastor Mark was unlikeable. For a man of the cloth he wasn't very nice. He spent 3/4 of the movie trying to sabotage his daughter's upcoming wedding. In Hallmark fashion he had a turnabout the last 15 minutes of the movie. The acting was good and the leads had chemistry. This won't be one that I would watch again.

While "To Have and to Holiday" is reminiscent of some older movies like "Father Of the Bride" and "Meet The Parents", this one was enjoyable because of the excellent cast who portrayed believable characters for a change. The relationship between the romantic leads Celeste (Madeleine Arthur) and Jason (Robert Bazzocchi) is believable. Madeleine Arthur is a very talented actress and was excellent in Hallmark's 2023 movie "3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost". The actor Eric Close, who plays Celeste's pastor father, Mark, was also excellent in this. I remembered him from the intriguing 2002 mini series "Taken". Let's hope Hallmark can keep the remaining 2024 Christmas releases on par with this one!

Given my limited interest in Christmas movies in general, of course I was not familiar with the existence of this movie, prior to stumbling upon it by chance. And as I was sitting through a month of sappy Christmas movies this year, I opted to add it to the list of movies to watch.

The storyline in the movie sort of felt like a "Meet the Parents" or "Father of the Bride" movie rip-off, just dressed up in a neat and shiny Christmas outfit. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it was a bad movie, because I found it to actually be enjoyable and a fun watch. So writers Grant Levy and Dominik Rothbard managed to churn out something that proved entertaining. And it was nice to have a Christmas movie that deviated from the archetypical over-the-top-sappy Christmas movies out there; yeah, I'm looking at you Hallmark.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actor Eric Close, and he really spruced up the movie as Mark Palmer, the father and pastor out to see his daughter not rush into a marriage. I can't claim that I was particularly impressed with leading actress Madeleine Arthur, sure she acted okay, but she just didn't have that particular charisma that many leading actresses have in sappy Christmas movies.

The movie is definitely not a Christmas classic for me. In fact, I will never return to watch it a second time. But it was an enjoyable enough watch the first time around.

I am sure that fans of the sappy Christmas movies will enjoy this movie, and thus should give it a chance.

My rating of director Stacey N. Harding's 2024 movie "To Have and to Holiday" lands on a six out of ten stars.