I wonder if this year’s theme in Christmas movies is non-romantic love. Or at least movies where the romantic love is secondary to another plot line. It is an interesting change.
You Make It Feel Like Christmas was originally titled A Christmas Mission. Aaron (Michael Xavier) returns home from active duty to find that his ex-girlfriend and childhood friend, Emma (Mary Antonini), isn’t coming home for Christmas. He takes it upon himself to travel into the city to convince her to spend the holiday with her father, Tom (Alex Poch-Goldin). However, Emma’s shop has caught the eye of the famous design guru Kate Marguiles (Stephanie Sy). Kate insists that they host a holiday charity art sale on Christmas Eve, not leaving Emma time to spend with her family.
As I said in the intro, the romantic relationship between Emma and Aaron isn’t really the main relationship here. It’s the broken father-daughter relationship between Emma and Tom. Unfortunately, most of the conversations with get with these two are Facetime-like video calls where they call to ask specific questions and avoid any real conversation. While their conflict could have been fixed with a conversation or, even better, therapy, they are the reason that Aaron comes back into the picture.
So let’s talk about Aaron. He is the most hands-off suitor I have seen in any of the Hallmark/Lifetime movies. Sure, they have known each other for years but he’s trying to convince her to come home. Why is his angle “I will help. Let me know what you need done - taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom, whatever.”? And why does he try to rekindle the relationship by starting out with a blatant lie? Instead of pretending he didn’t know she was in the city, he should have just said “I came to see you.” It would have been simple and honest and she probably would have appreciated that more.
The best relationship in You Make It Feel Like Christmas, which we barely get to see, is between Emma’s best friend and shop co-owner Liz (Nadine Pinette) and Aaron’s cousin Sarah (Solange Sookram). They have the sly over-the-shoulder glances at each other and the “I’m interested” subtext in the few conversations they have. I think they would have been much more interesting than either of the main relationships. Too bad they get pushed way to the back of all of the plot lines.
While I appreciate the father-daughter relationship being the main story here, the movie itself is pretty boring. A lot of time is spent watching Emma do nothing as she tries to figure out what kind of wreath to make for the art sale. All of the relationship-building scenes are just as boring. Feel free to turn this on while you’re doing chores or something but don’t dedicate too much time to it. It is not worth it.