Countdown To Christmas 2024 Review: Santa Tell Me

There isn’t a movie of Erin Krakow’s that I don’t enjoy and to be a little honest, that always scares me. It scares me, because I never want to get to the point that I find one that I don’t like. I am happy to report that the Santa Tell Me will not be the one to break the streak of me loving her movies.

Santa Tell Me, the latest in the 2024 season of Countdown to Christmas movies, tells the story of Olivia and her quest to find out who her true love would be. When she’s young, she writes a letter to Santa, asking for the name of her one true love.

Now, when I was a little girl – sure, the whole idea of true love got to me, but I have to admit that I would not have thought about asking Santa for the name of my one true love. I was more about a doll or some sort of gift that I wanted. Olivia asked for a name, and she didn’t get it.

As she gets older, she’s accepted the fact that she’s not in a committed relationship. As so many of us do, we just move on and move forward, concentrating on something else. For Olivia, she concentrates on her career, where she is excelling.

Olivia is creative and can see the beauty in everything. She’s got an eye for design and can make even the most ugly spaces very beautiful. I have to admit that I am impressed by this – the moments of this movie where spaces are decorated so simply and yet so stunning. It pulls you into the movie and makes you see the beauty in things. A look, an addition to a room, the things that people are wearing… it all just fits.

No surprise that part of what sells that so flawlessly is Erin Krakow’s range and the way that she genuinely wants to convey the strength, goodness, and the also the innocence that never has to leave a person even with growth and aging. She makes sure that her characters have a relatability – so much so that even if you don’t share the same characteristics that they have you can still find yourself in them.

Krakow’s presence on the screen is one that has built her a legion of fans. Her role as Olivia in Santa Tell Me, will just solidify those fans as forever fans. They will see her and know that who she is as an actress is one that has and will build a way into the fabric of what they love. Krakow has a way of being part of the fabric that defines what the magic of these movies are – you care about them and you feel that these characters care about you.

While you’re watching the movie and you’re supposed to care about the three Nicks, played by, Christopher Russell, Benjamin Ayres, and Kurt Szarka, I found more annoyance with them. The actors are great, it’s that the three Nicks all take what seems to be every bad characteristic about men and showcase them. They are all three their own level of narcissistic and it does make me thankful that they aren’t on my screen the entire time. All three actors, I miss. The Nicks? Na.

Who I couldn’t help but root for from the beginning is the show runner, Chris, played by Daniel Lissing. I know that I have seen Lissing in a lot, but I also have never looked at his characters the same way I looked at this one. At the beginning when they said that he created a reality television show, Model House, I thought that we would be dealing with a douche. But here was this man that just wanted to create something good.

Chris and Olivia may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but Lissing and Krakow’s on screen chemistry make you root for them from the beginning. You want to believe in them and that they’ll see past their bad beginning. The way that the look at each other, the way that they feed off of each other and they want to get to know each other.

But Olivia is so wrapped up in the knowledge that her true love is supposed to be named Nick, that she’s not seeing Chris for who he is at first. Chris is wrapped up in trying to prove that he’s more than Model House. Both think that they are communicating, but it is the one thing that they are really not doing with each other.

Missed glances, missed kisses, missed moments – we watch them all and you’re just hoping that Chris is somehow her knight in shining armor.

When it comes to the day that all the Nicks find out about each other, you know that there is going to be conflict. They all try to assert their position in her life, but none of them are right. She knows it, they know it, and most of all Chris knows it.

Santa Tell Me is a movie filled with twists, turns, drama, and romance. It brings the joy of the Countdown to Christmas movies that we’ve all come to know, but with the innovation that Hallmark is bringing lately. It makes you laugh, blush, and even cry a little.

It was just filled with all the love and joy that holidays have to bring, mixed with all the romance that we have come to love from Hallmark.

Definitely a must see.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• Chris buying Olivias childhood home – at first I cussed him out, but now I see and respect the vision
• Love that it was home renovation
• Finding childhood memories was everything and so very special
• Santa, I will never look at you the same again
• I thought my coffee order had a lot of sugar. I was wrong
• Erin Krakow has the best hair – not everyone can pull it off, but she does so flawlessly. Jealous
• Love the sister/sister moments
• Laughing at all the dates I felt bad, but like they all had the worst luck
• Working on 12/24 should be outlawed
• The train scene is everything.
• Screw Hogwarts, I want a letter from Santa that changes
• I need more of this trope goodness – it was everything
• Chris and his romantic gestures are everything. That sleight ride. I swoon

Santa Tell Me gets 4.25/5 Christmas trees for us.