The movie is titled Christmas with the Darlings but the family’s name is actually Darlington. Did they rename the characters and forget to change the movie title? Or maybe they didn’t realize the family is Darlington and not Darling….

Jessica (Katrina Law) is the executive assistant for Charles Darlington (Steve Bacic), the CEO of the Darlington family company. With his brother Max (Carlo Marks), Charles has taken custody of his orphaned nieces (Islie Hirvonen and Madeline Hirvonen) and nephew (Anthony Bolognese). When Jessica learns that the children are to be sent to boarding school for Christmas, she offers to take care of the children at the Darlington mansion instead. Max, infamous for being irresponsible, steps up to help her.

Christmas with the Darlings is what The Christmas Aunt wanted to be. Jessica does various holiday activities with them but none of it feels cheesy or forced. Instead of making paper snowflakes, they decorate the trees outside the mansion with birdseed ornaments so the animals have something to eat. They drink a lot of hot chocolate, they work on a Christmas puzzle…it is wholesome holiday activities that all of them seem to thoroughly enjoy.

On top of that, the actors have great chemistry. Granted, the two sisters are actual sisters in real life. Beyond that, I could believe that Jessica actually wanted to spend time with the children and that she actually liked Max, even when he was being goofy. And I could feel Max’s frustration at being classified as the “irresponsible” brother when he was so much more than that.

it is still very early in the Christmas movie season but I think this may be it. This may be the best Hallmark Christmas movie this season. So, yes, go watch it. Watch it more than once if you like. Then maybe watch it again next year. I don’t think you will regret it.