Hallmark For All Seasons

Countdown to Christmas 2021

Open By Christmas

“Open By Christmas,” starring Alison Sweeney, Erica Durance and Brennan Elliott, aired on November 12 during 2021’s Countdown to Christmas on Hallmark Channel.

The screenplay had two contributors, Amyn Kaderali and Christine Conradt. David Weaver directed. Conradt gave us As Luck Would Have It earlier this year, and On the 12th Date of Christmas last year. Weaver previously directed Christmas Town and Bottled With Love, among many others.

This movie poster is fun. I like that the men are covered by presents so that there’s some mystery to it, and Alison Sweeney looks adorable. My only quibbles are the giant open space above the heads of the men and the fact that this movie was really TWO stories, not just one.

Music: The opening credits were set to Santa, Can’t You Hear Me by Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande.

In a nutshell

The movie didn’t hook me in initially but it did grow on me and in the end I liked it.

The Plot of “Open By Christmas”

When Nicky finds an unopened Christmas card from a high school secret admirer, she and her best friend Simone search to find and thank the anonymous author.

Actors & Chemistry

I thought the cast was great. Sweeney and Elliott are both solid actors and are great in this as Nicky and Derrick. I appreciate that they understand that their characters are more mature and thus act that way, for the most part. I do think it is weird to go looking for someone that wrote an anonymous card 22 years ago thinking they might feel the same.

I also thought Erica Durance and Michael Karl Richards were great as the other couple, Simone and Jeremy, along with Glen Gordon who played Durance’s son, Anthony. You may recognize the teen from Sweet Carolina earlier this year.

The cast blended well together. I liked the friendship between Nicky and Simone. I also thought that the other characters reacted well against each other. Anthony and Jeremy, Jeremy and his mother, Nicky and Derrick – they all had great scenes together and felt connected. I’ll talk more about some of those connections in a bit.

Despite those connections though, I never got romantic feels between Sweeney and Elliott. And because of that, I had mixed feelings at the end. I was happy for the happy ending, sure, but also felt it wasn’t earned.

Tropes

There were surprisingly few tropes in this movie. In fact, this movie theoretically could have been set at ANY time of the year as it really had very little to do with Christmas itself.

All the house had front porches. Woman returning from big city to hometown for the holiday. Ornaments that have meaningful histories. A snowball fight. Some tree decorating and CGI snow. A craft market. There was some baking/cookie decorating. And the movie ended with a kiss on a covered front porch while it snowed. I guess once I listed them all out, there were more than I thought, but my initial impression was the movie lacked tropes.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

I know she’s an efficiency consultant, but is she really taking off an entire month from work to help her parents sell their house and move? Even consultants need regular paychecks to pay the bills, I would think.

The card is 22 years old. There’s no way some rando person that went to high school with you that you happened to see at a party would recognize the handwriting in that card after all these years.

Very slowly during the movie, Derrick and Nicky get to know each other and it’s not until the 1 1/2 hour mark that Derrick finds out that Nicky had the card. And then with 15 minutes to go in the movie, Nicky tells Derrick that it doesn’t matter who wrote the card anymore, despite the fact that she originally wanted to know. It doesn’t matter because she realized that high school wasn’t as bad as she thought it was. Um….WHAT? Who still cares about the opinions of the people they went to high school with 22 years prior? I thought you were searching for the card-writer because it was an unrequited love?

Feelgoods

All of the relationship issues between mothers and sons hit me all kinds of ways. My own kids are reaching that age where they will be leaving the nest soon. My daughter is a freshman in college, and while she is living at home while getting her first two years done, it’s likely that she’ll move out her junior year in favor of living near the campus she has transferring to that year. And then my son is a senior in high school and will DEFINITELY be moving away to live on campus once he gets his first two years of college done locally.

And so all those conversations about children moving on, and being left behind, and not having enough time – I felt all of that. I’m really close with my kids and I think having them move way is going to be VERY difficult for me.

I also loved Jeremy’s mother’s conversation with Jeremy, letting him know that in his desire to make things perfect for Simone, he was neglecting to just be with her. And since it was “their” house, Simone might enjoy decorating it as well.

And then for Anthony to come to his mom and ask about spending the day together MELTED MY HEART. And then to have him squirm when she touched his hair – SO ACCURATE and it’s like they had a camera in my house. *lol*

My favorite scene in the entire movie? Seeing Anthony and Miriam both asleep on the sofa in the living room. I laughed out loud.

General Thoughts

I saw a lot of chatter around the fact that Jeremy shouldn’t have bought a house without telling Simone. But I’m fine with that plot point. She was very open about the fact she always loved that house. Secondly, when my husband and I lived in Queens, there was a house around the corner from our apartment building that I saw every morning on my way to work. I LOVED that house. I often told my husband that I’d love to live in it some day.

Sadly, it went on the market and sold before we were ready to buy a house. But I did take advantage of the open houses to go see the inside. And while it needed a LOT of work for whoever purchased it, it was a house with amazing potential. Had my husband bought it for me as a surprise, I would have not been upset in the slightest.

Re-watchability of “Open By Christmas”

I do think this is re-watchable, even if it’s not my favorite. It’s all due to the charm of Sweeney and Elliott and the engaged couple storyline, which totally spoke to me from a mom perspective.

The Ranking

“Open By Christmas” is a slow burn kind of movie, but worth watching. It’s in my upper third for the year, and almost cracked the Top 10.

The Santa Stakeout (air date: Oct 24) – 730 pts – weighted score: 122.3 (85.8%)
You, Me and The Christmas Trees (air date: Oct 22) – 716 pts – weighted score: 121.3 (85.1%)
Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
A Mrs. Miracle Christmas (air date: Nov 6) – 688 pts – weighted score: 116.2 (81.5%)
Boyfriends of Christmas Past (air date: Oct 23) – 673 pts – weighted score: 116.1 (81.5%)
Next Stop, Christmas (air date: Nov 6) – 682 pts – weighted score: 114.7 (80.5%)
It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
The Christmas Promise (air date: Oct 30) – 675 pts – weighted score: 114.1 (80.0%)
Gingerbread Miracle (air date: Nov 5) – 671 pts – weighted score: 114.0 (80.0%)
Christmas In My Heart (air date: Oct 23) – 675 pts – weighted score: 113.9 (79.9%)
Open at Christmas (air date: Nov 12) – 658 pts – weighted score: 111.6 (78.3%)
You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
South Beach Love (air date: Oct 9) – 615 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
Love Strikes Twice (air date: Oct 2) – 608 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
Christmas Sail (air date: Oct 31) – 606 pts – weighted score: 105.1 (73.7%)
Christmas in Harmony (air date: Oct 29) – 605 pts – weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
A Christmas Treasure (air date: Nov 7) – 625 pts – weighted score: 104.6 (73.4%)
A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
Coyote Creek Christmas (air date: Oct 30) – 614 pts – weighted score: 104.3 (73.2%)
Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (air date: Oct 1) – 595 pts – weighted score: 103.0 (72.2%)
Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
Advice to Love By (air date: Oct 16) – 599 pts – weighted score: 102.2 (71.7)
Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
Taking the Reins (air date: Sept 28) – 574 pts – weighted score: 101.2 (71.0%)
Raise a Glass to Love (air date: Sept 18) – 590 pts – weighted score: 100.7 (70.7%)
Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
Sweet Pecan Summer (air date: ) – 576 pts – weighted score: 97.3 (68.3%)
Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
Finding Love in Mountain View (air date: ) – 504 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
Journey of my Heart (air date: ) – 450 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)