My Secret Santa (2025)
Christmas Mrs Doubtfire
Hallmark purists routinely lament that Netflix has entered into the low stakes, fully predictable Christmas romance genre. However, in defence of our future sole entertainment provider, there is something to be said for putting a decent budget behind these movies as the quality is just exponentially better. And I get it, Netflix releases a half dozen slightly more expensive movies. Meanwhile, Hallmark has historically released literally dozens of new movies every year. However, in recent years the crown corp has started to air more series as part of the Countdown, and this year they even did away with the Moview & Mysteries and Hallmark+ entries, resulting in far fewer new entries. And if this is the way it’s going, those aforementioned purists are going to find themselves in even more of a tizzy over the lack of “classic” Hallmark Christmas movies.
But back to the movie at hand…
Matthew is the wealthy scion of a property magnate, ardently fighting his father’s efforts to being him into the family business. Taylor is a single mom trying to make ends meet, while balancing the needs of a teen daughter desperate to attend an expensive snowboarding program at the local resort. With lessons half price for employees and newly unemployed, Taylor scams her way into a job as the resort’s Santa Claus, inadvertently falling for Matthew at the same time. With a lot of throwbacks to the classic Mrs Doubtfire, there was a lot to enjoy here, right down to the panicked persona switching during a party.
As a Christmas movie, it mostly fit the bill. And I appreciated that it was actually filmed during the winter (few are) and at a legit ski resport (Sun Peaks near Kamloops, BC). It also helped to have some tried-and-true talent on screen.
