A Wish For Christmas (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

A Wish For Christmas

[studioAT · 6/10 · 18 December 2020]

The last Hallmark Christmas film I saw Lacey Chabert in was 'Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe', a film that really did her no favours, so it was pleasing to see her pop up in much better fare here.

With an engaging storyline and a nice dynamic between her and co-star Paul Greene, this worked well.

I agree with a previous reviewer though - it was a shame that the resolution between the guy and his dad happened without us seeing it. I know Hallmark films probably are more geared towards women than men, but it still would've been nice to see what really was a key scene.

Good overall though.

Yeah, not quite Hallmark's Best

[RNMorton · 7/10 · 3 December 2016]

But if Lacey Chabert's in it and it's Hallmark I'll usually give it a solid look. Lacey has become the Queen of Hallmark Christmas movies, she's quietly attractive, distinctive, and with a little edge to her. I really liked her last few Hallmark Christmas entries, this one seemed a little forced or something. Lacey is a marketing wiz who won't stand up for herself, at the company Christmas party she gets courage from Santa, and then gets thrown into a challenging marketing pitch with company CEO Greene. I know Greene is also a Hallmark staple (who I hadn't seen before), he was okay but something about this just didn't feel right (as opposed to, say, Once Upon a Holiday where things seemed to effortlessly flow). So I would recommend it to the Hallmark hard core but not necessarily others.

Pretty Good

[lovemontana · 7/10 · 1 November 2020]

I'm always amazed at reviews of Hallmark movies that complain about predictability or flat endings! What else do they expect? That's Hallmark for ya. I like thinking there are actually people who have wonderful Christmas traditions and family gatherings. I would love to spend Christmas in a town where I could get lost in happiness!

In this movie I was more amused that once again the women playing Paul Greene's mother is his age! Ok, she's 7 years older and his Aunt is 6 years older. This has happened before with Paul. Are they trying to make him seem younger?!

Anyway, typical Hallmark and I liked it.

Psychsophrenic leads

[Jackbv123 · 6/10 · 17 July 2017]

Lacey Chabert plays a total doormat who is turned into an assertive, confident closer via a Christmas wish. Question is, after getting the wish granted, should she still have some of that overly-apologetic wimpy character. My opinion is that it should be a lot less than the way it is played. Chabert goes back and forth from assertive to apologizing. Constantly. I guess the writers and/or director thinks otherwise, but to me it came off badly. Chabert didn't seem convincing in either one.

Green also flip flopped. In the beginning he was over-demanding, shouting negative orders at the one guy who seemed to be his assistant. When he is with Sara on the road, he is ready to give up and only she salvages the car rental and the appointment. At times he seems to let her lead him around and at other times he seems angry that she is at least taking a last shot when there is nothing left to lose. He frequently has uncertainty in his eyes which is not consistent with the CEO of this company. After she seems to blow the pitch, he gets angry and bossy again. Then he shows up at work on Christmas as a nice guy again.

I read reviews that complain the ending is too abrupt. While I agree that it wasn't totally comfortable, I also disagree thinking that there was no real mystery about what took place off screen. Neither scene, whether the client or the dad, would have been easy to film, or entertaining.

I also read a review that said Sara returned to being wimpy. (BTW, that review has spoilers and is not marked as such.) But, her apologies to her boss after the failed pitch are no different than several apologies that took place earlier and it was certainly no wimp that climbed into the limo with the client. And she did not wimp out with her boss in the final scene.

The film was lacking in romantic moments. It doesn't totally make sense that they are kissing at the end. And I don't remember a lot of humor. But there was a heartwarming sense of pride each time Sara took charge, and in the scene with the little girl, and with Peter's family. I was thinking we should call Sara "the fixer".

I had trouble rating this movie. The first time I watched it, I left a rating of 9. After the second time, I downgraded it mostly because of the lack of romance.

Rushed Ending, but Cute Enough

[tiffanytallent1981 · 6/10 · 22 July 2021]

Skip to the last paragraph, if you don't want a detailed summary of this movie!

Sara works in advertisement and is a big pushover. Her boss, Dirk, constantly uses her ideas as his own and gives them to the CEO, Peter. At the annual office Christmas party, Dirk takes credit once again, this time for a game changing idea. Sara leaves the party, unable to stand up for herself. She runs into who she thinks must be the Santa of the party. He gives her the gift of a wish-anything her heart desires. Sara of course doesn't actually believe her wish would come true, but really wants to be more confident and assertive. Her friend convinces Sara to return to the party, where something comes over her. She immediately confronts Dirk about stealing all of her ideas. CEO Peter overhears most of it and the next day offers for Sara to pitch her idea to a huge prospective client. They fly to the meeting, but the client had already chosen another company, without canceling with them! Sara's new assertiveness gets them another chance at getting this client. Unfortunately, they have to go to yet another city to meet. They end up being late and the client refuses to see them. Sara once again saves the day and gets another meeting for the following day. Peter and Sarah spend the evening with his family, since their meeting just happens to be in his hometown. Apparently, Peter had a falling out with his dad and hadn't been home in a couple years.

Anyway, the meeting FINALLY happens, BUT now the absolutely inconsiderate client won't get off of his Bluetooth long enough to listen to the pitch. Sara's new boldness kicks in and she lets the client know how disrespectful he is being. Peter of course is furious that Sara ruined their chance. He tells her to go back home while he finishes up some things there (talking to his dad). Instead, Sara stays, without Peter knowing, and lands the client. The next thing we see is a very jovial Peter bringing dinner and gifts to his employees at the office on Christmas Day. Then his parents show up with more food. And Sara arrives to give him an envelope, which he opens after she leaves. Peter then runs after her, thanking her for getting that big client. Then they kiss and return to the party.

I was excited to watch this on the Frndly TV app. I had previously seen it on YouTube and felt that a chunk must've been cut out near the end. Nope. The movie was made that way, with a rushed ending. We don't get to see how Peter makes up with his father. And we don't get to see Sara's pitch to a prospective client. The romance part was also rushed between the two. The movie goes from Peter being completely cold to Sara for blowing a pitch, to running after and kissing her. It really made me wonder if Peter would've ran after her, if she HADN'T gotten that client. Sure, they had a little chemistry, but I don't think their connection was strong enough to kiss at the end. I still liked the movie for the sole reason that Sara learned that she had the power within herself to remain confident.

What did we miss??

[tims-79714 · 4/10 · 10 December 2016]

Thank you to the other reviewers who wrote about the dissatisfying ending. I did the same thing, re-watching the ending to see if I somehow missed the conversations between the male lead (Peter) and his father, and the female lead (Sara) and the jerky client. How the heck did everything get wrapped up so neatly? And I agree that it certainly appeared that Peter would not have run after Sara at the end if she hadn't gotten the contract signed, since he was totally cold to her when she arrived. Wow. True love.

And way too much wasted filler... for example, wouldn't it have been cool if the mother and daughter who Sara helped at the car rental agency turned out to be the client's family, which is why he had a change of heart??? As it was, it seemed like just a silly waste of time that could otherwise have been used to explain the "happy ending."

Awesome HM Christmas movie. Fun watch!

[Victor-J-1964 · 7/10 · 29 October 2017]

Sara Thomas (Lacey Chabert) is an awesome team player at marketing firm that is basically a pushover that allows others to take advantage of her good nature. At the company's Christmas party her marketing director promotes her project as his own. Santa offers to grant a Christmas list that would will only last for 48 hours. Sara wished for courage to stand up for herself. This wish takes Sara on a journey with her firm's CEO Peter Williams (Paul Greene) that includes a road trip, confronting an unreasonable client, strained family relations, and so much more.

The chemistry between Sara and Paul is believable and you find yourself cheering for them. Chabert is my favorite HM leading lady, and Williams is also a favorite.

Missed the mark

[jonathanrspalding · 4/10 · 7 November 2016]

Lacey Chabert has made a niche for herself in the popular Hallmark movies of Christmas. Generally her movies have been above the norm and quite good. Unfortunately this one was not.

A Hallmark Christmas romantic comedy has a narrow range of possibilities and outcomes so four factors make it work or not.

One, is it romantic. Sorry, but not here. The male leads character was a jerk who makes his employees work on Christmas and refusing to see his family on the Holidays even though he was in town. The better romance would have been between him and Lacey's co-worker. Her role should have been expanded as it would have made the movie at least more comedic.

Two, it is funny. No, this one was not generally funny nor really tried to be.

Three, is it supported by good side characters and subplots that make the story enjoyable. This is more true here but still it was below par.

Four, does it have meaning to the Christmas season. While this is kind of true here, it still could have been set in March by finding a leprechaun as easily as it was set in the Christmas season.

All in all, while to be fair there are some good moments, specifically Lacey telling off her supervisor at the Christmas party, and nice elements generally it fails to really be romantic or funny which is not a good combination for a romantic comedy.

Not too bad for a Christmas movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 9 June 2018]

This turned out to be one of the more enjoyable Christmas movies that I got around to watching during the Christmas season of 2017.

Why?

Well, because of the storyline that had elements of a classic Christmas tale laced up with some lighthearted comedy and romance. But also because they had some very nicely talented actors and actresses on the cast list. And the chemistry between Lacey Chabert and Paul Greene was so good.

Sure, like all Christmas movies, then "A Wish For Christmas" was blessed with an overly predictable and generic storyline and plot. But hey, don't they all? I suppose that is part of the Christmas movie charm for some reason.

While this does not have the making of a Christmas classic, it is definitely a Christmas movie worthy of being watched at least once for the holidays with your loved ones.

Did they cut out a piece of the movie?

[beth-68812 · 2/10 · 28 November 2016]

I love Lacey Chabert and generally love everything she does. But my husband and I rewound this movie about three times looking to see if we had somehow skipped a part of the movie while fast forwarding through the last batch of commercials. It just felt like a chunk of the movie was missing. It felt like they ran out of money and said okay we got five minutes to wrap this thing up!

They never told what happened between her boss, Peter, and his dad and yet the dad shows up at the end all happy. Yes, it shows Peter walking into the house saying, "Dad, dad." And then boom, we are jumped forward in time with his dad flying in to Peter's company and saying, "Thank you for coming home and straightening me out." What? Really? We were never told what happened to estrange them!

Peter "changed" enough to provide his workers with Christmas dinner and gifts, even double pay, but not enough to give his workers the day off??

They didn't show how Lacey's character managed to change a real jerk of a client to her way of thinking after her Christmas wish had worn off. The ending really just felt disconnected to us. The effect ruined the whole movie. Thumbs down on this one!

I love the movie

[jegharikkeemail · 10/10 · 11 December 2020]

I great chistmas movie that is a classic / easy going and not a big plot but i love the simplicity of the movie / i can see myselv watching this several times

Pretty decent

[jeanbarnes-60407 · 7/10 · 17 November 2018]

Someone else said they didn't understand the rift between son and father. The son made it clear while strolling through town at night: he quit law school. His dad wanted him to be a part of the family firm, yet he chose a different route in life.

Good actress, bad story

[DogePelis2015 · 5/10 · 15 November 2020]

Lacey Chabert is a very good actress, but her film is mediocre and very boring.

Entertaining for the meek and mild

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 3 December 2017]

A Wish for Christmas is the perfect movie for the meek and mild this holiday season. Hallmark's Lacey Chabert stars as a classic pushover: she brings coffee for everyone in the office, does her colleague's work, and lets her boss steal her ideas. When she makes a Christmas wish for courage, her request is granted.

Along the way in her newfound life, Lacey takes charge of her career and starts to fall in love with her boss's boss, Paul Greene. Paul has his own demons to face, and the upbeat and slightly pushy Lacey helps him return home to face them with his family. In typical Hallmark fashion, this movie is more corny than realistic. I mean, if you'd really spent your whole life being a pushover, could you tell people off and they'd accept it? But it's Christmas, so we make allowances for cheesy plot lines, tidy endings, and embarrassingly terrible Christmas caroling. Give this one a watch when it makes a repeat appearance on television; it's not the best but it's entertaining.

Well Worth Watching Lacey Chabert

[Christmas-Reviewer · 7/10 · 19 November 2016]

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA OR TIES TO FILMS I REVIEW.

It seem like Hallmark has 3 actresses they cast in all their films. "Lacey Chabert" "Candace Cameron-Bure" and "Alicia Witt". I am just waiting one day to see them all in one film together or it least have their Hallmark Movies take place in the same town. Well anyway this is my review of a solid Hallmark film that is one of the better ones I have seen this year.

In this film Lacey plays Sara a sweet young hard working career woman who people take advantage of. Her friend makes her do her work (And pick up coffee for her staff) and her boss just stole her idea and presented it as his own. Now at an office Christmas Sara is given a wish by a secret Santa. Her wish is for that she wants to not be afraid of speaking up for herself. Well guess what her wish comes true and she gets instantly reported after the big boss hears Sara giving her boss the riot act.

The story takes a predictable turn but you will still enjoy the romance. The film works and is highly enjoyable. Please watch it. It is one of the better films made so for that I have seen this year.

Wished for a much better film

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 29 March 2023]

While the concept is not a unique one, it did interest me and if done right the story had potential to be entertaining in a romantic comedy sort of way. Paul Greene is more often than not worth watching and always shines when he is given likeable, sympathetic characters, while Lacey Chabert is one of my favourite Hallmark regulars. 'A Wish for Christmas' was also watched as part of my Christmas Hallmark film quest that has been ongoing since 2019, so three reasons for seeing it.

2016 did see some good Hallmark Christmas films, like 'Journey Back to Christmas', 'Love You Like Christmas', 'Finding Father Christmas' and 'A Christmas to Remember'. It did also see some mediocre or less ones, such as 'My Christmas Dream', 'A December Bride', 'My Christmas Love' and 'A Rose for Christmas'. 'A Wish for Christmas' is one of the mediocre or less films unfortunately, one of the worst of the batch despite having Chabert and Greene in it. The former comes off well, the latter does not.

'A Wish for Christmas' does have a few good things. Chabert is immensely charming and very easy to like throughout, with no signs of overplaying, overdone mannerisms or phoning in, and the supporting cast give committed performances as well.

Did think that it was slickly made and some of the soundtrack is pleasantly festive.

However, there are so many things wrong and the worst of them are so bad that it is easy to forget the good points. Count me in as another person that absolutely despised Greene's character, an absolute self-absorbed jerk with no respect for anybody but himself with no sense of character growth or change. Greene looked stiff and strained throughout, his usual subtle charm and easy going-ness absent. Actually got the sense that he hated playing the character and realised too late that it was way out of his comfort zone. He and Chabert have absolutely no chemistry at any stage, the disconnect seen so blatantly in the early parts are maintained throughout so the central relationship never grows. Which is what makes the final decision at the end so abrupt and impossible to swallow, as well as that it is so hard to believe how Chabert' character or even anybody could find any appeal in Greene's.

Very few of the characters are interesting or easy to get behind in development, the exception being Chabert's. The script is clunky and has a lot of cheese (more cheese than in a cheeseburger) and schmaltz (like having too many sugars in a cup of tea). Also found some of Greene's character's dialogue on the distasteful side. The story lacks energy, needed a lighter touch than what was given and is completely lacking in charm and heart. The character decisions could have been less vague and forced.

Summing up, weak. 3/10.

Nice Christmas movie, but...

[skylerbiz · 7/10 · 29 March 2020]

This is a fairly nice Christmas offering from the folks at Hallmark, and has the usual warm fuzzy plot line. But it would have been greatly improved if the producers had hired a child actor who didn't speak baby talk to play Amy. Hearing the little tot saying words like "Cwismas" and "Sarwa" was just plain annoying.

Stop being so apologetic

[mloessel · 4/10 · 26 July 2022]

Lacey Chabert's character was too apologetic. She gets a wish that lasts 48 hrs and when that wish is present she returns to her apologetic ways when the force of the wish has diminished. The Santa that empowers her needed to be more specific regarding what happens when the power of the wish is gone. Apparently for the next 48 hrs she will be given the necessary confidence to speak her mind in an appropriate way. This episode is one continuous apology after another. And were the sub plots that were ok. As a viewer I knew when Chabert's courage to speak kicked in. When it was gone the apology showed its ugly face (so unnecessary). In the final scene you have Lacey and Paul finally realizing thy like each other and do the kiss. I was expecting the director to say, "Cut ... that's a wrap". No there is a final final scene where Paul's family shows up to join the Office Christmas party in what has become a festive celebration. Yawn ...

lacey chabert

[judyharl · 12 January 2020]

She is so boring seems to have no personality except when she is bossy and commanding her and Paul greene not a good fit not sure who her costar should be she ruins all the scenes.hallmark needs less bossy women she is not good fit for hallmark her or Jill Wagner Danica McKellar too bossy also Kristy Swanson Candace Cameron Bure is awful actress

A Wish for Christmas is fun.

[allmoviesfan · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

Lacey Chabert stars with the always-good Paul Greene in a fun Christmas movie about a woman (Chabert's Sara) who is a bit of a wallflower, and happy to be in the background at her work, even when her big Christmas idea is shamelessly stolen by a colleague.

Frustrated by that turn of events, Sara makes a wish to Santa, asking for the ability to speak her mind. She gets it for 48 hours, and that's where the fun begins. And, of course, there is the expected romance, with Paul Greene's Peter.

No one is going to label A Wish for Christmas as a Hallmark classic, but Lacey Chabert is great in pretty much everything she stars in for Hallmark, and same goes for Paul Greene. I enjoyed it.

Really, really bad movie

[krstonoshic-94757 · 1/10 · 27 November 2017]

Christmas? What is the Christmas message here? It's OK to be humiliated and then humiliated again, and plus - grateful to be humiliated.

This movie is disgrace for female first and then for men as well. I cant believe someone approved this to be on TV (or anywhere).

Would anyone want to show this to their family?

Feel good christmas movie

[zendatrim · 8/10 · 1 November 2021]

I enjoyed this very much. It had all sorts of things in the story, but mainly about a young web designer who everyone took for granted. This sadly is so common place now in the workplace. Also the fact that employees are just expected to work over the christmas season with little rewards.

Anyway I dont want to get into the plot too deeply it was just a gentle storyline good acting, nice script, lots of christmas and all the cooking baking made me hungry.

Yes nothing wrong with this and it even had a happy ending. Perfect.

A Mess for Christmas

[MickyG333 · 6/10 · 23 November 2023]

6.2 stars.

At first glance, 'A Wish for Christmas' has an impressive start to what seemed to be a potentially wonderful Christmas story. A woman (Chabert) lacks confidence. She is a total pushover. Her boss and owner of the company (Greene) is an untouchable figure to all the employees. A random guy in a Santa outfit grants her one wish. She wishes for confidence and the many attributes that come with it. The rest of the story is about her new found confidence and all it entails and how she is able to be assertive in life and especially business dealings. The caveat is that her new confidence has a time limit. Does she believe in the wish? We are never certain.

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, the movie takes a nosedive (in my opinion). Greene and Chabert could have had good chemistry, but something just wasn't right.

Now for the juicy stuff. There are so many errors with the writing, casting, and directing I'm just gonna jump right in. First: on the flight for a business trip, why are they flying coach? The plane is half empty and he's a rich business owner. Second: We are introduced to a woman whom you'd expect is his sister, nope it's his aunt, but the actress is only 2 years older than Greene. Ok, maybe his aunt was very young when he was born. I suppose that makes sense, but that's not the case, because the actress who plays his mother is only 7 years older than he. And finally, on the age issue, Chabert is 8 years younger than Greene. Already it's a stretch for any romance to feel authentic and these age discrepancies are unacceptable. There's more. The assistant at the other company is in two places at once. Sure, she could have flown later, but there was no indication she was, and how did she get to the lodge if there were no rental cars left? You'll see what I mean, just pay attention to the details. The story is disjointed and doesn't flow, there is no clear theme: is it about confidence, or forgiveness? A years long grudge between father and son, where does that fit into the message? He goes home again later to make up with his dad, then what? We jump forward to a better set of circumstances, how did we get here? There are gaping holes in the last 10 minutes that can only be explained by editing the movie to fit into the allotted time slot. What a mess.

Conflict of Interest

[cammietime · 4/10 · 27 December 2016]

This movie starts out well, but then implodes. Sara is easy on the eyes, and her wish of being more confident is interesting and unique, but that plot device is generally wasted in the end. This movie has multiple violations of accepted and realistic corporate procedures. First of all, Sara is called a "junior web developer" who reports to the Director of Marketing? Wait what? Web developers design websites based on the input and instructions of the business, aka marketing people, they do not determine or direct corporate marketing strategy. Sara would be in IT, or in the .com department, NOT in marketing. Second of all, HR at this company has their hands full now since the CEO is openly in love with a direct subordinate, and he has promised her a promotion - which is not seen in the movie, which means it is inbound, which means everyone at the company would interpret the promotion as favoritism towards his girlfriend when it eventually happens. The whole thing of the boss getting the hots for his subordinate made me sick. The movie also spends WAY too much time in the middle bogged down in putzy conversations that do not move the plot forward, toeing the "should we really do this since you are my boss" line. I liked the jerk client at the end (he seemed the most realistic character in the movie), and they totally wasted Sara's reaction and capability in that scene. In the ending we get, the conversation we waited the entire movie for is not seen. Same thing with the CEO and his daddy issues. Of course his dad wants him to move to the small town and take over the family business - I've seen three Hallmark movies today and and two of them had this plot device, and it is really weak. Anyway, this movie starts out with great promise, gets lost debating if an attractive, young female subordinate should fool around with her boss, then decides skip over the juicy scenes and tie everything up in a way too short bow. I would rate this movie a C-.

Hallmark has done better

[doctorsmoothlove · 2/10 · 12 November 2019]

I caught this film on Hallmark's countdown to Christmas 2019. Lacy Chabert plays a corporate marketer by the name of Sara who gets stomped over by everyone she meets. One night at a dinner party, Sara meets a man in a Santa Clause suit who gives her a special business card.

This is the best scene of the movie. Chabert talks to Santa as if he were just a guy in costume, right? Santa, for the most part plays along. It's the only time the film gives us some humor in a familiar script. Santa's business card says that after 48 hours her gift will expire. The gift is courage. Courage to stand up for herself to her snobby boss, her new boss's emotionally abusive dad and many others.

It's a shame the movie effectively ends after the first third. After Sara stands up for herself once, the only gimmick is spent. The rest of the movie is repetitive sequences of people being mean and Sara telling them to be respectful. There's even an obligatory bad relationship she helps improve with her holiday cheerfulness.

With no visual flair and familiar actors, there isn't much to recommend. The plot is an after school special involving adults. This movie comes off like a cheapie thrown together in a few weeks for something else to show during the Christmas season.