Hallmark, sometimes I worry about your decisions. You took Jordin Sparks, the extremely talented singer, and cast her as a writer. Sure, she sings two songs in the movie but I think you only added those in so her fans wouldn’t riot. I shake my head at you, Hallmark.

Lou (Jordin Sparks) is a writer for a small town newspaper. However, she wants to write a novel. So she plans on moving to New York City for inspiration and a change of pace. Meanwhile, Kyle (Michael Xavier) has moved to Pine Grove to spend the holidays with his aunt and figure out what he is going to do next. His dream is to run his own restaurant. Will they be able to make their dreams come true?

A Christmas Treasure is a little different from most Hallmark movies. Instead of one person being firmly planted in their current city trying to convince the newcomer to stay, one is packing to leave while the other is just arriving. I do wish that they made the twist a little more interesting. Lou kept talking about how she wanted to move to New York and how much stuff she had to pack but we never saw her actually doing anything to further this move. No packing, no looking online for apartments (perfect place for an Apartments.com sponsor!), not even booking travel to New York. Does she even have a job in New York? How is she going to pay to live there? If she’s going to move, dive into that.

Instead, Lou spends a lot of time helping plan holiday events for the town. I know that her family has been in the town for generations so people look to them as leaders but no one in her family is really a leader. Her family runs the local paper. It’s nice that they help out so much but I don’t think anyone would think lesser of her if she stepped back because she was preparing to move.

The core of the movie revolves around this time capsule that was buried 100 years ago. And it would have been great if that was what the movie was about. On the contrary, there are all of these side stories that don’t have time to really evolve into something special. There’s Lou reading her great-grandfather’s journal while trying to find inspiration for a book. Plus Kyle and his aunt Marcy (Lossen Chambers) trying to find the perfect Christmas recipe for a contest among the restaurants in town. Oh, and Lou’s best friend is pregnant. And Kyle is trying to find a new job as a fancy chef. And don’t forget we have to squish Lou and Kyle into a relationship so they have to spend a lot of time together for some reason. It’s just a big too much.

Should you watch it? The actors are all wonderful, even though the script doesn’t really give them a lot to work with. They should have cut out a couple of the side characters and a few of the holiday events to focus on Lou moving and Kyle helping his aunt. That need to be the conflict. Not whether or not the best friend can sing the solo at the concert. Who cares about that? We all know Jordin is going to sing it. Duh. Watch it for the cast but don’t be surprised if you are disappointed by the plot.