A California Christmas is barely a Christmas movie. It takes place around Christmastime but there are few references to Christmas until the party at the end. But it’s got Christmas in the title and it’s on the Christmas movie list so I watched it.

Joseph (Josh Swickard) is a businessman tasked with talking Callie (Lauren Swickard) into selling the land her family’s dairy farm is on. When he arrives at the ranch, Callie mistakes him for the new ranch hand. While he takes on the farm’s daily tasks, he finds himself falling in love with Callie.

This is not a comedy. No matter what Netflix or IMDb wants to tell you. This is not a comedy. It is a straight up drama, which is fine. Just don’t sell it as a comedy. Especially when Callie’s life is so sad.

Much like Christmas by Starlight, the lead actress, Lauren Swickard, wrote the script. In addition, the two leads are married to each other in real life. This does give their characters a little more chemistry than most Christmas movies but, to be honest, I wasn’t particularly concerned about their relationship. With all of the suffering in Callie’s life, I was more interested in how she was handling all of the emotional trauma.

Normally, this wouldn’t be the type of movie I would watch. However, if you enjoy watching dramatic movies, you might enjoy this. Be warned - there is a lot of death and sadness. Don’t watch it if things like that bother you.