One of the newer tropes in Christmas movies is “teaching people how to be Santa Claus.” We had Santa Bootcamp back in 2022 and now we have The Santa Class. That is some big boots to fill.
Kate North (Kimberley Sustad) has recently become the new owner of North Star, a school that teaches how to become Santa Claus. Unfortunately, the school has fallen on hard times. On top of that, San, an instructor for their rival - St. Nicholas School, has recently been laid off and has turned to Kate for a job. As they prepare for their next class session, Kate and Dan come upon Nick (Trevor Lerner), a man with amnesia dressed in a Santa suit who they believe is the real Santa Claus. Can they help Nick regain his memory while defeating St. Nicholas School in The Santa Cup competition and save North Star at the same time?
I’ll admit that this isn’t one of my favorite movies this year. There are a lot of places where the movie seems to drag a little. However, it does have some really funny scenes. Particularly the ones with Paul Campbell, one of Hallmark’s favorite leading men, playing a fictional version of himself preparing for a role as Santa Claus in a Christmas movie. I think I would have liked it better if there were a little more actiony scenes that involved everyone. For example, there’s a scene where they go to a trivia contest. One of the students is studying Santa folklore and they let him answer all of the questions. Scenes like that are much funnier when everyone participates, not just one person. (See Trivia At St. Nick’s.)
The ‘is Nick really Santa’ storyline was also really good. If they weren’t going to focus on the group as a whole, another good idea would have been to focus on him more. I’m not sure what they point they wanted to make with the movie. Santa is really real? A group of misfits can beat the cool kids when they work together? Passion for something is more important than money? These have all been done many, many times before. The Santa Class doesn’t give us a good reason to sit through it again.
Rating: Paul Campbell referencing his entire body of work is the best running joke ever