We really need these Christmas movies to stop normalizing toxic work environments. I think the boss in Saying Yes To Christmas is the worst one so far. Let me tell you about it.

June (Erika Prevost) works for a publishing company as a junior editor. Her boss, Shannon (Sabrina Grdevich), wants her to go home for Christmas - only so she can try to convince a writer, Sally Wells (Catherine De Seve), to sign with them. While June is trying to focus on getting all of her work done, a childhood friend, Blake (Romaine Waite), accidentally wishes that June said yes to Christmas. As a result, June can only say yes to any Christmas offering put in front of her. Can she still nab that promotion at work while agreeing to all of these holiday events?

There are plenty of toxic work environments in real life. We don’t need to see them in all of our Christmas movies. In Saying Yes To Christmas, Shannon not only forces June to harass this poor writer into signing with them in the weeks leading up to Christmas, she also forces June to do the work of a personal assistant. June isn’t her personal assistant! June feels like she has to do things like handwriting Shannon’s Christmas cards in order to move up the corporate ladder. I understand that this is a very real thing in the real world. But this is supposed to be a fantasy world. Why does Shannon have to call June every day to make harsh demands? Why does she have to make any harsh demands? June’s conflict is already set up and it has nothing to do with her workload. June wants to put out more inclusive children’s books, which Shannon and the company are unwilling to do. THAT should be the focus.

Trying to look past the awful work environment, the rest of the movie is decent. For once, the plot isn’t overdone. Sure, this is a similar plot to Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar but the Christmas twist makes it interesting. June doesn’t have to say yes to everything. It’s only things related to Christmas. I do wish they made some of the requests a little more outrageous but that’s OK. It is the Lifetime channel, after all. We can’t get too crazy up in here.

I recommend watching this movie, if you are able to look past Shannon’s brash character. It would be nice if there was a way to mute one character in a television show. We could get rid of all the toxic characters in one fell swoop. So many Christmas movies would be so much better that way.