It is quite possible that with Believe In , Hallmark has given us a Christmas romance movie with an entirely new plot. There are no business owners losing their shops or people trying to decorate/refurbish a house…there isn’t even an evil businessman trying to buy all of the shops on Main Street so he can build a giant mall. This may be something…gasp…new.

Beatrice (Meghan Ory) and Emilia (Lindura) are best friends. Beatrice dislikes Christmas and loves black coffee whereas Em adores Christmas and loves all things sweet. When Em wins two tickets to Christmasland in a contest, of course she has to bring her best friend with her. Who else would she spend Christmas with?

Yes, the plot of this is pretty basic. What the plot description leaves out is that Christmasland is a place where the townspeople become Christmas movie trope characters to give the tourists a “Christmas movie experience.” For example, the woman in the bakery who wins the Christmas baking contest every year gets beaten by the newbie in town and huffs about it a little bit…that is all fake. And that is what makes Believe In Christmas so interesting. We (and Bea) don’t know what is real and what is fake. There is a question around every turn and I think that is what makes this movie so great. Every time we, the audience, groan about something being cheesy, is it because it is cheesy or are the townspeople playing it cheesy because that is how it would be in the movie. I love it.

I only have one complaint about this movie: Em gets paired up with Porter (Kevin Hanchard), who looks like he is old enough to be her father. I don’t think we ever get actual ages for the characters but Hanchard is 50 years old and I can’t find any information about how old Lindura is. I can say that he looks like he’s in his 40s and she looks like she’s in her 20s. It may be great skin but it also may be super creepy. Thankfully, this is the one low point to a movie I otherwise enjoyed thoroughly.

Rating: I want to go to Christmasland and play pretend.