Confessions of a Christmas Letter

Due to the advent of social media, the tradition of writing a family Christmas newsletter has become old-fashioned, but not in the town of Holly Hills, where the best Christmas letters are honored on the wall of fame at the post office.

Settie (Angela Kinsey) struggles with writing her family newsletter each year while trying to compete with her neighbor, the villainess Sue (Colleen Wheeler). Sue is a straight villain through this entire movie which is a rare thing for a Hallmark movie. Typically at the end of the movie, the villain's icy heart is melted, but nope, she's a straight up baddie.

Settie hires an author named Juan (Alec Santos) to write her Christmas letter, offering him a two week stay in Connecticut at their house and the chance to interact with the family throughout the holiday holiday season. Juan, suffering from writer's block, accepts, and gets a chance to learn the wacky family and meet their single daughter Lily (Lillian Doucet).

The first 15 minutes of this movie was simply awful. It felt like we were dropped into a scenario that we didn't understand and I actually had to rewind and start over to make sure I didn't miss an explanation, but the movie surprised me and got better over time. When the movie concluded I felt some actual emotions towards the outcome as Settie reads from the aforementioned Christmas letter.

The love story was definitely the B storyline, taking a backseat to the family learning to love their intricate quirks and battling the evil woman next door. Dang Sue!

Funny scene: There's a scene where grandma carries a tray of fully engulfed cinnamon rolls to the dining room table and serves them like they were not on fire seconds ago. That takes guts.

Measuring Christmas magic: Yes, we had Christmas magic and the sets were decorated very well for the holiday. Although I would question the safety of having fully lit garlands covering the kitchen cupboards, and every headboard in the house.

Cast kudos: Juan for the win.

Alternate movie titles: This is tough because Confessions of a Christmas Letter is actually probably the best title of any Hallmark movie so far this year. So I'll give one option: The Christmas Letter Wall of Fame.

Of course I had never heard about this 2024 Christmas movie titled "Confessions of a Christmas Letter" prior to sitting down and watching it as part of a December Christmas movie marathon. But from the movie's cover alone, it looked like it was going to be an archetypical sappy Christmas movie. Yet, I still opted to give the movie a fair chance.

Writers Jennifer Smith and Kate Smith put together a fair enough script. It was watchable and entertaining enough, for sure, but it was hardly an outstanding foray into the sappy Christmas movie genre. But hey, if you enjoy the sappy Christmas movies, then you're in for a treat here.

The only cast member that I was familiar with was Garry Chalk. However, I will say that the acting performances in the movie were fair.

"Confessions of a Christmas Letter" is a movie that caters to the diehard fans of sappy Christmas movies. You're not in for any grand movie experience, if you sit down to watch the movie as a casual viewer.

My rating of director Heather Hawthorn Doyle's 2024 movie "Confessions of a Christmas Letter" lands on a bland four out of ten stars. There are far, far better sappy Christmas movies out there.

I thought that the movie would get better as it went a long but after about half an hour I couldn't finish. The characters were so over the top and so unrealistic and child like it was stupid. Not really anything good to say about the movie and sadly I cant say anything about the actors themselves due to the character they were playing took the light off their abilities. Hallmark should start looking at much better scripts and ask themselves is this a movie that is worth watching or is it a movie people will be turning the channel after realizing it is ridicules and is an embarrassment for everyone involved.

I must admit I get hooked on Hallmark Christmas movies despite their formula, predictable, corny format. This movie though, I had to turn off shortly in. I tried to watch it again and yes, I made it further, but it is the worst Hallmark movie of all time. The acting, I guess I will call it that, is beyond awful, the premise is ridiculous and there is nothing about the characters that makes you have the slightest bit of interest in them. I really like Angela Kinsey (The Office) and Fred Ewanuick (Corner Gas), but what were they thinking taking on roles in this horrible movie!!! I would definitely recommend giving this one a pass.

4.9 stars.

I don't understand what is going on here. It's the story of a middle aged woman who has failed to win a Christmas letter contest for many years. She hires a famous novelist to write it for her. Already, you can see a debacle in the workings.

Her family is in on the scheme, relatives and friends are visiting their home over the holidays. This writer she hires comes from Puerto Rico. He has what appears to be a gay father or grandfather with a gay lover living with him there. I am not sure if they are gay, but they act like it. I'm just curious about that part.

The matriarch's son is gay and married, then we are introduced to strange and competitive neighbors and friends and the rest of the story is a cacophonous smattering of activities and planning and running in circles during the holidays.

Failed romance, no drama, no comedy. It's a shame when a film attempts to resemble classics like 'National Lampoon...' and nobody can do it.