A Christmas... Present

First half of the movie is a little irritating and frantic. Candace Cameron bure's character works so hard at making happiness that it does kind of grade on your nerves a little bit. The second half of the movie is thoughtful and has a very nice story. I think I like the movie because it wasn't your typical cookie cutter movie this is truly about an entire family. Not just two people falling in love at Christmas time. That was very refreshing and loved hearing about the true meaning of Christmas and how if you don't have God at your core then life's going to be a struggle. My husband enjoyed the movie also and he typically doesn't care for any of them because they're so cookie cutter.

In many ways, this was not a typical Christmas movie. But that is probably one of the reasons I liked it.

While this movie was not perfect - some of the situations were kind of staged and forced, I liked what Ms. Bure was trying to do. I really liked the story she was trying to tell about a family. And not just a nuclear family, but the extended family, too. One family being there for another! This movie had a kind heart.

And I loved that they included church. Millions of Americans go to church during the holiday season and so many Christmas movies leave that out! How can you be a real Christmas movie without church!?

This story grew on me during the telling. I'm looking forward to watching it again.

The faith component in this film was lovely, but not enough to carry a repetitive, mediocre script with little else. For me, Candace's character was overacted and very one-note to the point of irritating. The entire film was the same thing, over and over: plan activities, go to activities, and no one really listening to each other's needs. Marc's talents were wasted in this film, and chemistry between the leads was non-existent. I did, however, enjoy the banter and interaction between the actors in the social media dance contest pieces before the film's release. Those showed more originality and chemistry than the entire movie. It was those promos that encouraged me to watch. Also, with Candace as the spokesperson for Great American Family, I thought for sure this would be a "10." It was not.

Hallmark and GAF Christmas movies are almost exclusively romances, and mostly they try for Romcoms with varying degrees of success.

This is NOT a Romcom, and there is no romance. Make no mistake, this is a Christmas family drama.

Candace's character's brother lost his wife to an illness since the last Christmas. Candace wants her busy family to participate in lots of Christmasy events, despite their own busy schedules and conflicts.

After a phone talk with her brother, she decides the family needs to visit the brother and his tween daughter to help them over the Christmas blues, and takes her demanding Christmas schedule along with them.

This is going to remind you of every family--or extended family--gathering where some people are fixating on doing one thing and the rest on another. It can get uncomfortable, and it was depicted that way in this movie.

The movie winds up with a very religious theme and message, and my wife speculated that's one reason Candace Cameron Bure went with GAF. Even though we've seen more of the religious side of Christmas on Hallmark in 2022, I don't expect Hallmark to go quite this deep into the meaning of deeply personal religious convictions.

The movie is excellent for what it is. It won't be for everyone, and it will be very meaningful for others.

I had never loved a movie and raged with it as hard as I did with this one I am obsessed with christmas, I always love the decorations, the general cheer and family reunions, but never really plan, I let it all happen naturally, and this woman's obsession with planning every minute detail SHE wanted without being considerate of others, plus the two selfish teenagers that need to practically be coerced into doing stuff drove me crazy and made me laugh at the same time

As I said in the title, this movie is all about understanding that we need to be considerate and we can love the season, but we need to look out and not turn into monsters thinking we do what is best without considering other's wishes

All in all the message is good, and for christmas movies, you know that you can't go wrong with Candace C Bure, she is like the trademark christmas actress lol.