There’s a lot of ice skating in Christmas movies. This one is actually about ice skating!

Courtney (Abigail Klein) is a former ice skater who currently runs a local ice skating rink. Noah (Ryan Cooper) is a former hockey player who is opening an indoor skating rink. When the mayor announces that he is closing Courtney’s rink, Courtney tries her best to save the rink and its Christmas Carnival.

While the concept of saving a business from closing isn’t new, there are a few new twists on it in Christmas On Ice. From what I can tell, Courtney doesn’t actually own the ice skating rink. The city pays for everything via the parks and recreation department but she acts like she’s not a city employee. She acts like this is her business and the city is trying to shut her down. But I do give her props for working so hard to keep the rink open. Especially since it offers free classes and cheap entertainment for people who can’t afford to go to the fancy indoor rink.

Overall, Christmas On Ice is a pretty good movie. The acting is decent, the plot is pretty good. But it is missing that certain something to kick it over the edge into a can’t miss movie. Maybe it’s because everyone seems so apathetic about everything. Yes, Courtney is working hard to keep the rink open but she doesn’t really put any emotion behind it. Even in the scene where she is getting emotional about Noah’s Christmas traditions with his daughter, Grace (Meara Mahoney-Gross), it doesn’t really feel like she’s actually moved by it.

One part that disturbed me was the book idea for Courtney’s roommate, Beth (Caroline Portu). Beth works at the local Santa station, taking pictures of kids with Santa. Courtney recommends that Beth make a book with the pictures of kids crying on Santa’s lap. The book happens but we never see Beth asking parents for permission to put their kids’ pictures in the book or getting them to sign photography agreements. There is a scene where Courtney, Noah, and Grace go to Santa so they could have easily showed Beth asking parents to sign some paperwork. It came off as a little creepy to me.

Even with all of this, is it worth watching? Yes, if you can look beyond the few shortcomings. There are a few good moments in there. Particularly the scene with the kids performing at the Christmas Carnival. That was cute.