Netflix’s holiday brand is ridiculous Christmas-themed movies. They gave us multiple Vanessa Hudgens in The Princess Switch films. The streaming service also convinced us that a journalist could become a princess in the Christmas Prince films. Netflix loves a bit of holiday cheer with a ridiculous premise. The new addition to this Netflix trend is Lindsay Lohan’s Falling for Christmas.
The movie follows heiress Sierra Belmont (Lindsay Lohan) as an accident causes her to get amnesia. Yes, it’s basically Overboard with a Christmas twist. As someone who enjoys Christmas-themed movies with ridiculous premises, I was excited to watch this film. I also wanted to see if the Netflix and Lohan partnership is a match made in streaming heaven.
Let’s discuss some of the thoughts I had while watching Falling for Christmas.
Warning: Falling for Christmas spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.
Falling For Christmas Feels Like What Would Happen If Hallmark And The Disney Channel Collaborated On A Movie
After recently watching Dove Cameron in Cloud 9, I couldn’t help but instantly think of that film while watching this one. This is mainly because they both involve winter sports and are goofy movies. However, Jake (Chord Overstreet) is 100 times more likable than judgy Will Cloud (Luke Benward).
In general, Falling for Christmas often feels silly in a Disney Channel sort-of way. It has very cartoony-ridiculous characters, unbelievable situations, and a rich person learning to take care of themselves montage. The Disney Channel movie elements are then combined with the Hallmark movie tropes.
We have two characters from different worlds finding love, a small town, a widowed dad, an adorable kid, and the Christmas season inspiring people to help out their neighbors. Falling for Christmas definitely takes some lessons from Hallmark when conceptualizing this movie.
Disney Channel silliness and Hallmark sentimentality, to me, is a great combo for some light Holiday romantic fun.
Tad Is Strangely Likable
Falling for Christmas makes a bold and unexpected choice: the boyfriend isn’t a complete garbage man. In so many movies like this, the boyfriend turns out to be just the worst possible person ever. However, Tad (George Young) is shallow, a bit narcissistic, materialistic, and selfish, but he’s not terrible. At times, he’s even fun, and dare I say, likable.
I enjoyed that he had his own misadventure while Sierra was at the North Star Lodge. Ralph (Sean J. Dillingham) and Tad are a fun duo. And, I was kind of hoping they’d fall in love. My guess is that the writers didn’t want to make Tad irredeemable. In the end, it’s revealed he’s a queer character and he gets his own happily ever after.
Though I really think the writers should have gone with Ralph and Tad, and not Tad and Terry (Chase Ramsey), it was a nice little fun surprise. It added some layers to Tad that made him a more intriguing character. If Falling for Christmas has a sequel, hopefully, we see Tad settled down with Terry (or Ralph, not too late to change your mind, writers), or even a new character of any gender. This could add even more layers to the character. Maybe he becomes a parent and is less self-centered.
Lindsay Lohan Playing A Cool (Potential) Step-Mom Makes Me Fee Old
I grew up watching Lindsay Lohan movies. Therefore, she seemed much older than me. It’s hard (as a teen or a child) to imagine someone your age or similar having a successful movie career in adolescence.
Spoiler alert: she is not that much older than me.
I also watched a lot of Glee--far longer than I should have. Because Glee seemed like a show geared toward people younger than me when I originally watched it, I thought Chord Overstreet was much younger than me. I knew most of the cast were around my age or older, but he seemed young.
Spoiler alert: he is not that much younger than me.
Because I was misguided about these actors' true ages, I thought Chord Overstreet seemed too young to have a child Avy’s (Olivia Perez) age. Of course, unless he was a teen father. I also thought Lindsay Lohan was older than me, but still forever youthful and still too young to be playing a mom in movies.
The realization that both Overstreet and Lohan were appropriate ages to play parents made me realize that I am, in fact, old. When actors you watched in your youth while they were in their youth become movie or TV parents, you know you’ve become old. Senior discounts, here I come!
It’s Subtly Progressive
I almost applauded when Jake decides not to kiss Sierra because they don’t know her relationship status. This was a surprisingly smart move because it meant that none of these characters were doing anything morally grey by taking advantage of someone who doesn’t have all the facts.
Many movies and books play fast and loose with things happening under false pretenses. Like Tad isn’t the worst, Sierra is actually not that bad either before losing her memory. She wants to make a name for herself on her own but fears disappointing her father. She’s a bit spoiled, but she isn’t shown to be extremely unkind or mean.
Jake is also just a really nice guy. There is no darkness or brooding or meanness to him. He’s a plain and simple nice guy. Sometimes, especially in enemies-to-lovers movies, writers seem to believe that male romantic leads have to be a bit of a jerk to be interesting.
On the surface, Falling for Christmas feels very familiar to typical holiday romance movies, but it makes some clever, subtle decisions that allow it to fix some of those sometimes problematic elements.
Chord Overstreet Is Skilled At Having Chemistry With His Co-Stars
As someone who watched almost every season of Glee, I can say Chord Overstreet was great at making me like him with almost all of his love interests (and some of his friends). The show went a step too far with Rachel (Lea Michele) and Sam (Chord Overstreet). However, other than that, Sam worked with all of his love interests (and he had a lot of them).
Overstreet deserves credit for this because he has the ability to create chemistry with all of his on-screen partners. This skill comes across once again in Falling for Christmas. You can’t help but root for Jake and Sierra because of Lohan and Overstreet’s on-screen chemistry.
Falling For Christmas Has Major Rewatch Appeal
There are only about five Christmas movies that I watch every year. Most of them are Christmas movie classics, such as A Christmas Story, While You Were Sleeping, and Love Actually. However, I am always open and willing to add a new holiday film to that rotation.
I can’t promise that I’ll watch Falling for Christmas again, but it’s at least one of the 2022 Christmas movies that I would consider if I wanted a silly, romantic Christmas movie.
Other Thoughts
Did you think I wasn’t going to mention that Mean Girls reference? Of course, I am!
- Loved hearing Lindsay Lohan give a nod to Mean Girls and then hearing her own rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock" at the end.
- Hearing Chord Overstreet and Darren Criss’s holiday songs playing in the background gave me Glee flashbacks…in a good way?
- Sierra learning to love bacon is the best character arc of 2022.
- Got to respect Netflix’s ability to find ways to self-promote in their many projects.
- Seeing more movies add bloopers again during the credits makes me realize how much I missed them.
Falling for Christmas is a bit cheesy and silly, but that’s what makes it fun. And shouldn’t Christmas movies be a little cheesy and silly? I mean if you can believe in Santa, you can believe that someone can lose their memory and regain it back so easily.
