Ooh. Mystery on Mistletoe Lane has mystery in the title. That means there has to be at least one mystery, right? Don’t let me down!

Heidi (Erica Cerra) and her children have moved to New Hollow for her new job as the director of the historical society. As they move into their new home, the children begin to find clues to a bigger mystery. What lies at the end of the little wooden reindeer?

This is another one of those love-hate movies. I really did enjoy the children’s plotline with the riddles and reindeer. However, Heidi’s plotline of trying to make the community be interested in the historical society? Big yawn. There really wasn’t anything interesting in it. I would have loved it if the movie revolved around the mystery, whether the children involved the adults or not. Or maybe they could have made Heidi’s job more important in the mystery. She was researching more about the house but it didn’t really mean much in the end. More mystery, less boring stuff.

Rating: If only there were more than eight reindeer….

When I saw the title Christmas At The Golden Dragon on Hallmark’s Christmas movie list, I wasn’t sure what to think. Hallmark isn’t known for its diversity. I was a little worried about a movie about Asian people with a title like that. Thankfully, my worries were unfounded.

Jim (Vincent Cheng) and Sue (Sharon Crandall) Chen have run The Golden Dragon for as long as anyone can remember. Now that their children have grown, they have decided to close the restaurant to allow them to live their own lives instead of spending every Christmas working at the restaurant. Prompted by the news of the closure, their regular customers start to reexamine their own relationships and what they want from life.

Christmas At The Golden Dragon isn’t just one story. It’s five different stories that are all related. Not all of the stories are great but a couple of them are actually good. Romy (Kara Wang), the Chen’s daughter, has a great story about going home for Christmas with her boyfriend, Blake (Markian Tarasiuk). She imagines the Christmas that she sees in the movies with perfect caroling, a childhood bedroom that hasn’t changed in decades, and the family gathering around to open presents on Christmas morning. When she doesn’t get that, she starts to understand how her version of Christmas (working at the restaurant every year) effects the other people in her community. She really comes to appreciate the restaurant that she resented growing up.

While I don’t think every story in here is a home run, I do think The Golden Dragon is worth watching. At the very least, you will get to see how “helping your community” can have a different meaning from volunteer or charity work. Keep an eye on Miguel (Jason Fernandes). He is someone we should all strive to be.