Watched on: Netflix
Originally aired: December 10, 2021
Directed by: Jody Margolin Hahn
Starring: Mario Lopez, Emeraude Toubia, and Aimee Garcia
Please see IMDb for full cast and crew information.
Synopsis
Tony runs a Christmas shop with a Mexican twist in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his sister and father. Now Belinda, a representative from the big company Warm Wishes, is on her way to talk about buying their business. Tony is prepared to listen to what they can offer but his sister is not. Belinda arrives from Chicago with the mission to buy the company before the New Year. Tony wants to show her the soul of their business to try to preserve their mothers legacy even after the deal. He engages Belinda in the Christmas celebrations and she starts to get a new take on the deal, and a new interest in Tony.
Review
This was my first Christmas movie of the season, and it honestly left me wanting. I think some of that is because actual Christmas in Santa Fe is apparently a bit different than the Christmas that I'm used to (based on some very brief internet research), and the movie holds more true to that than it does trying to bring us the holiday magic of your typical cheesy Christmas movie. I also struggle with the idea that Santa Fe is a small town, because I know of Santa Fe, and I've never lived in New Mexico. But it does have the classic small town holiday festival in Winterfest.
Some of the highlights from Winterfest are a ham throw, which is described by Lopez as throwing the ham like a football, but it's really more of a shot-put action. I'm happy to report that there were obviously no hams harmed in the making of this movie as the prop they used was clearly far too light to be an actual ham. There was also a chili tasting contest, at least between the two main characters. Again, not normal Christmas movie fare, but it does hit the right feels for like a cookie baking competition.
And it obviously wouldn't be a Christmas movie if there wasn't some major small town icon at risk of closing, and that's La Casa Milagro. Except it wouldn't really be closing. In fact, the entire premise of the movie is that the FMC is only in town to arrange a buy-out of the shop to make it part of a Kathe Wohlfahrt style business. Unlike most Christmas movies, some members of the family are even on board for the buyout, at first at least.
So is this a Christmas movie? Not in the traditional sense. Like I said, it seems to hold true to what Christmas in Santa Fe really is, but that's not what I was looking for in a Christmas movie. But as I've never experienced Christmas in Santa Fe, I don't want to answer the question with a resounding no.
Overall I give Holiday in Santa Fe 3 Santa hats. - Katie
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