I think maybe the newest trope of this year’s Christmas movies is “women like sugar.” Of the seven movies I’ve watched so far (including this one), five of them have specifically given their lead female characters “I LOVE SUGAR” traits. It’s annoying.

Jennifer (Mallory Jansen) and Aidan (Tyler Hynes) are social media scavenger hunt game creators. The two of them get thrown together on a new project after Aidan’s usual teammate suddenly goes out on paternity leave. What is the project? A “12 Dates of Christmas” scavenger hunt for a local hotel that will take participants all over the city of Chicago.

Amazingly, Hallmark has given us another movie that doesn’t actually focus on the romance between the two main characters. (Granted, the first movie was on their Movies & Mysteries channel….but it’s still Hallmark.) This time around, the plot does center more on Jennifer and Aidan trying to figure out 12 date-related Christmas clues for their scavenger hunt. Technically, this means they are on a bunch of “dates” together but they aren’t really dates so it’s forgivable.

In my opening paragraph, I talked about this year’s newest sugar trope. However, there is a second sort-of-trope that is popping up this year. And that is military families. This is my third year of watching (way too many) Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix Christmas movies. I don’t remember any other year having so many military members or families as main characters.

• The Christmas Doctor - Dr. Zoey was in the military before she became a traveling doctor.

• Christmas in Vienna - Mark the diplomat had a father that was in the military so they moved around a lot when he was a child.

• Deliver By Christmas - Josh’s wife was in the military and she was killed when she was deployed.

• On The 12th Date of Christmas - Aidan’s father is in the military so they moved around a lot when he was a child.

Again, out of seven movies so far, four of them have main characters connected to the military somehow. I’m not against featuring military characters or families in Christmas movies. But they don’t have to be in every single one. I hope that this isn’t going to be the trend for the rest of the season. It will be a bit of a mood-killer.

As for this particular movie, it’s kinda cute. Seeing Jennifer and Aiden try to figure out where to send the scavenger hunters was interesting. It was a little annoying that Aiden kept poking fun at Jennifer for not being a “native” of Chicago but he legit said that he grew up on a bunch of military bases around the world and only came to Chicago every Christmas to spend it with his grandfather. I would argue that he isn’t a native either.

I’m a little surprised that, like many of the other movies this year, 12th Date isn’t particularly terrible. (Maybe my movie nemesis, MarVista, has gotten out of the Christmas movie game….) I would say that this would be a good movie to have in the background while you’re baking cookies or decorating your tree. It doesn’t require a lot of attention but it is worth a watch.