I just want holiday movies to be an escape because I’ll be frank, I’m head in the sand about the next few years and I’m trying to use the power of film to hide in my own world until I feel like this one is safe again. Then again, it never was safe and you should avoid any echo chamber, but yeah. I don’t need to put on a Christmas movie and remember how Jenny McCarthy normalized stopping vaccines and look where we are, as polio shots are being on the list of things stopped and people are going to remember what the measles were like again.

But anyways.

She’s Mary Class in this, daughter of Santa, who is played by George Wendt. Why did Santa and Mrs. Claus (Lynne Griffin!) wait so long to have kids? And why did she go into marketing? Why would this bring the real world in to have Santa have a heart attack and why is this a Hallmark movie where Mary has a lost love named Luke (Ivan Sergei) at home in the North Pole?

Somehow, this has Michael Moriarty in it and I wonder, did I cast this movie?

The sequel has Dean McDermott as Luke and Paul Sorvino as Santa. Lynn Griffith was back and that’s really all I care about.

Director Ron Underwood made Tremors. Yes, he also made City Slickers and Hearts and Souls, but The Adventures of Pluto Nash is the reason why he made ABC Family Christmas movies, including Holiday In Handcuffs, Deck the Halls and this movie and its sequel.

You can watch this on Tubi.