“The Christmas House” aired on November 21, 2020 on the Hallmark Channel. It starred a great group of actors, and is based on a story created by the leading man, Robert Buckley (Love in Store). Growing up, he lived in a Christmas House very similar to the one featured in the movie. In case you missed it, here is his delightful appearance on Hallmark’s Home & Family from last week where he talks about his childhood home:
He co-wrote the movie with Erin Rodman, making her own debut as a Hallmark writer with this movie. Michael Grossman also debuts as a Hallmark director, having directed one-off episodes of several of my favorite TV shows over the years, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reaper, Firefly, Eli Stone, Angel and Cobra Kai (literally just to name a few).
Buckey, in an interview on the Hallmarkies Podcast, said their initial hope was to shoot the movie in the United States, but due to COVID restrictions opted to head to Canada instead. As a result, all that beautiful wintery Christmas display was filmed in British Columbia, including Vancouver and Victoria.
In a nutshell
Oh my gosh. I LOVED this movie so much. It held its balance between funny and sweet, between sentimental and slapstick, without going into saccharine. It was so, so fun and so, so good.
Plot of “The Christmas House”
Working through some difficult decisions, Mitchell family matriarch Phylis and patriarch Bill, have summoned their two grown sons – TV star, Mike Mitchell and Brandon Mitchell – home for the holidays. It is their hope that bringing the family together to recreate the Christmas house, will help them find resolution and make a memorable holiday for the entire family and community. As Brandon and his husband Jake make the trip home, they are anxiously awaiting a call about the adoption of their first child. Meanwhile, Mike reconnects with Andi, his high school sweetheart.
Actors
This cast. My goodness, this cast. It was perfect. Robert Buckley, Ana Ayora, Sharon Lawrence, Treat Williams, Jonathan Bennett, Brad Harder – they were all perfectly cast and clearly enjoyed making this movie together. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching them on my TV.
Chemistry
In the week leading up to the premiere of the movie, I loved seeing the preview if only to see Jonathan Bennett throw something at Buckley, which caused Buckley to run in the house yelling, “MOM!” like a tattletale. The little 2-second snippet never failed to make me laugh. I’ve heard that this was one of many unscripted moments that were kept in the movie, and I’m forever grateful because it’s likely those little throwaway moments that made me love this whole group of actors together. At some point characters Mike and Brandon were competing over who could load the most boxes onto the truck, and as mom Phylis almost gets knocked over she grumbles something like, “I hope one day you have sons!” All those little things, the safety of family jokes, a shared family history – those all came through with this cast, and I adored them all.
I also really enjoyed the chemistry between Buckley and Ana Ayora. I’ve read some criticism of Ayora’s performance on social media, but I disagree. I thought she was great and had a Gal Gadot vibe about her. Not only that, but I appreciated that she and the actress playing her mother both had natural Latina accents versus the atrocity of having a supposed Latinx character only say random words with any kind of discernable accent just to “prove” that they are Latinx. Throughout the 1990s the majority of my friends had Latinx backgrounds (most notably Panama, Colombia, and El Salvador) and none of them had accents since they grew up in America, while their parents spoke limited English. As such, it drove me crazy in Jingle Bell Bride that the Latinx characters basically only said “tamale” with an accent but otherwise were very homogenized. I know some may disagree with me, but it’s how I feel about it. And for that reason, I really, really liked Ana Ayora, who hails from Miami which has a strong Latinx culture by way of Cuba.
And a word about the LGBTQ+ subplot of the brother and his husband wanting to adopt. As someone with gay friends who even just 20 years ago were marginalized and told they were likely pedophiles who only wanted to adopt children to molest them (which is obviously not true), I’m so happy that a happy, healthy, established relationship was shown AND that the characters were not given just one token scene.
Tropes
Several tropes showed up in “The Christmas House,” but not nearly as many as I figured we’d have considering the movie was all about a Christmas house! At the beginning of the movie the two brothers and the bro’s husband took a selfie at the airport. Their childhood home had a tiny front porch. Childhood gal pal had a son and was a single parent. We saw some cookie making, some tree shopping, and certainly some tree decorating. Not only that, but they built a snowman, Jonathan Bennett wore a big scarf AND I even saw a shot of a snowglobe!
Bingo Card Score for “The Christmas House”
I covered 8 spots on my bingo card. No bingo. Feel free to download my free bingo cards and play along!
Did I Hear/See That Right?
I have no qualms with this movie whatsoever. It was awesome. I’m prepared to fight anyone who says otherwise!
Feelgoods
Several things tugged at my heart in this movie.
First, the house itself. In my area we’re known as the Christmas House. We don’t necessarily go crazy on the inside (we’re certainly not hiring movers to empty out the house), but on the outside we do it up GOOD. We have a dozen inflatables, 80 or so lighted animals, arches, a spiral tree, and dancing lights set to 45 minutes of music that plays over the radio as you sit in your car. Frequently when I meet new people that have moved into the neighborhood, I’m introduced as “she’s the one that lives in the Christmas house,” to which they respond, “Oh we love that house!”
Here’s a shot of the house in 2014 BEFORE we added the bigger props for the light show:
Another thing I loved was Mike teaching Andi the proper way to fluff the garland. He talked about the best way to ensure proper coverage was to go left-right-up-down. Y’all. That is EXACTLY how I fluff the three artificial trees in our house. When I heard him say it I laughed out loud and said, “YES! YES! YES!” That’s the best way to fluff a tree or garland!
Lastly, I appreciated the debate that the elder Mitchells were having. It’s a legitimate concern. My husband is three years older than me AND he qualifies to retire at age 65. I will qualify at age 67. The result is that he will retire FIVE YEARS before I’m able to retire. He’ll have five years of creating his new daily life while I continue to work the 9-to-5 job every day. I do wonder how that will affect our lives when that happens. So to see the exact same discussion being had by Phylis and Bill – well, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one thinking about these things.
Re-watchability
Um…the movie just came out a few days ago and I’ve already watched it three times. Of course, I’d watch it again!
The Ranking
“The Christmas House” is in the Top 3 for the year, y’all. No surprise there. And if you look only at raw score instead of the weighted score, it’s actually in the 2nd spot. I. LOVED. THIS. MOVIE.
- One Royal Holiday (air date: Oct 31) – 722 pts – weighted score: 121.8 (85.5%)
- On the 12th Date of Christmas (air date: Nov 1) – 707 pts – weighted score: 119.2 (83.6%)
- The Christmas House (air date: Nov 22) – 710 pts – weighted score: 118.6 (83.2%)
- Sweet Autumn (air date: Oct 17) – 693 pts – weighted score: 118.5 (83.1%)
- A Timeless Christmas (air date: Nov 14) – 700 pts – weighted score: 117.7 (82.6%)
- Deliver by Christmas (air date: Oct 25) – 697 pts – weighted score: 117.4 (82.4%)
- Christmas With the Darlings (air date: Nov 8) – 691 pts – weighted score: 117.2 (82.2%)
- Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater (air date: Nov 7) – 681 pts – weighted score: 115.8 (81.2%)
- The Christmas Bow (air date: Nov 8) – 676 pts – weighted score: 113.2 (79.4%)
- Cranberry Christmas (air date: Oct 31) – 650 pts – weighted score: 112.1 (78.6%)
- The Angel Tree (air date: Nov 21) – 670 pts – weighted score: 110.9 (77.8%)
- Matching Hearts (air date: Feb 8) – 640 pts – weighted score: 109.0 (76.5%)
- Winter in Vail (air date: Jan 4) – 623 pts – weighted score: 108.8 (76.4%)
- Wedding Every Weekend (air date: Aug 15) – 639 pts – weighted score: 108.3 (76.0%)
- Love in Store (air date: Feb 22) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.2 (75.9%)
- Christmas in Vienna (air date: Nov 14) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.0 (75.1%)
- A Nashville Christmas Carol (air date: Nov 21) – 634 pts – weighted score: 107.0 (75.1%)
- Love on Harbor Island (air date: Aug 8) – 634 pts – weighted score: 106.9 (75.0%)
- Holly & Ivy (air date: Oct 31) – 615 pts – weighted score: 106.8 (74.9%)
- The Secret Ingredient (air date: Feb 15) – 617 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
- The Christmas Doctor (air date: Nov 15) – 605 pts (weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
- Country at Heart (air date: Oct 3) – 611 pts – weighted score: 104.1 (73.1%)
- You’re Bacon Me Crazy (air date: Apr 4) – 591 pts – weighted score: 104.0 (72.9%)
- My Best Friend’s Bouquet (air date: Oct 10) – 599 pts – weighted score: 103.4 (72.5%)
- The Christmas Ring (air date: Nov 7) – 609 pts – weighted score: 103.3 (72.5%)
- Fashionably Yours (air date: Apr 11) – 594 pts – weighted score: 102.6 (72.0%)
- Follow Your Heart (air date: Oct 4) – 585 pts – weighted score: 101.6 (71.3%)
- Christmas Tree Lane (air date: Oct 24) – 574 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
- A Valentine’s Match (air date: Feb 1) – 562 pts – weighted score: 99.8 (70.0%)
- Love On Iceland (air date: Jan 18) – 563 pts – weighted score: 99.4 (69.7%)
- Hearts of Winter (air date: Jan 25) – 561 pts – weighted score: 98.2 (68.9%)
- Jingle Bell Bride (air date: Oct 24) – 558 pts – weighted score: 97.9 (68.7%)
- Just My Type (air date: Mar 28) – 565 pts – weighted score: 95.4 (66.9%)
- Meet Me At Christmas (air date: Nov 15) 532 pts – weighted score: 91.1 (63.9%)
- Bad Date Chronicles (air date: Feb 28) – 520 pts – weighted score: 91.0 (63.9%)
- Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
- Nature of Love (air date: Apr 18) – 520 pts – weighted score: 90.3 (63.3%)
- Chateau Christmas (air date: Oct 25) – 502 pts – weighted score: 87.3 (61.3%)
- Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
- Love Under the Olive Tree (air date: June 20) – 473 pts – weighted score: 85.0 (59.6%)
- In the Key of Love (air date: Mar 14) – 470 pts – weighted score: 82.5 (57.9%)
- Love in the Forecast (air date: Jun 13) – 440 pts – weighted score: 72.5 (50.8%)
- Midway to Love (air date: June 26) – 410 pts – weighted score: 69.0 (48.4%)
- Falling at Look Lodge (air date: Sept 26) – 350 pts – weighted score: 64.0 (44.9%)
- Romance in the Air (air date: Aug 1) – 367 pts – weighted score: 63.2 (44.3%)
- Follow Me to Daisy Hills (air date: Sept 19) – 337 pts – weighted score: 62.8 (44.1%)
- How to Train Your Husband (air date: May 16) – 350 pts – weighted score: 62.5 (43.9%)
To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!
Programming note: Thanksgiving week there will be a new movie every night. So far I’ve been able to write up 3 of the 4 movies from every weekend. I’m very doubtful that I’ll be able to write a review of every single movie this week. But I will do my best!
In any event, what did you think of “The Christmas House”? Comment below and let me know!
