Mystery on Mistletoe Lane

7.2 stars.

This is a fun little adventure for families as they solve a puzzle. This is an "x" marks the spot, discover the next clue sort of family mystery. There are no scary parts, and the trailer is a bit misleading, because it's not really a "mystery" per se. All that aside, it's still a wonderful story of people who suffered loss and found each other with a little help from a man who once occupied a mistletoe mansion.

This is sure to entertain a younger audience, especially children who love solving riddles, doing puzzles, and absolutely enjoy the holidays. So if you are in the mood for a little reindeer riddle during this holiday season, listen carefully to each clue (8 clues for 8 reindeer) and maybe you can solve the mystery before they do. And in the meantime, this mother of two young children may find her secret santa this Christmas.

I love Victor Webster and I have yet to see him put a foot wrong. Mystery on Mistletoe Lane is no exception as he plays David, the former historical society director and restoration specialist. He meets the newly hired director, Heidi Wicks (Erica Cerra) and her two children Annie and Garrett. New to town Heidi moved her kids into a historic property provided by her new job and it is of course a historic building. Doing some research she discovers it used to be known as the Mistletoe Inn. Her kids do a bit of looking around and discover a hidden Christmas scavenger hunt that was left by a previous owner, with rhyming clues and small handmade reindeer at each location.

There were a few plot holes...like how Wallace didn't come to inherit from his father and why his son didn't know the story of his biological father, but I am not going to nitpick. I enjoyed the story overall and I was thrilled with the scavenger hunt, the puns, and the interactions between Christmas crazy Heidi and the self proclaimed minamilist-no Christmas tree David.

This was wonderful and family friendly. I highly recommend for some holiday magic. Special note about Heidi's coworker Linda, played by Mary-Beth Manning, she was lovely and a great addition to the film. This is a delightful recommendation from me.

This is basically a treasure hunt at Christmas story. It started out looking like a haunted house story, but that vanished once the kids started following the clues. The mystery develops nicely into the treasure hunt. There are some added complexities later in the hunt, but clues to them were in it from early on.

I think that kids of one of the leads are just right in a Christmas story and these kids become a big part of the story without overwhelming the romance. I would say that the romance and the treasure hunt are almost equal themes in the plot.

The acting is good and the dialogue is good including a few "bad" jokes. Victor Webster and Erica Cerra have nice chemistry. I had no idea just from watching this that Cerra was Deputy Jo on Eureka despite watching that series at least twice. She makes a good lead in this kind of movie. I liked that Heidi was always upbeat.

Kind of a cozy, Christmasy Hallmark.

Victor Webster and Erica Cerra star in Mystery on Mistletoe Lane from 2023. Cerra is Heidi Wicks, a divorced mother of two, who moves from North Carolina to a small town in Massachusetts to take a job as head of the Historical Society.

She meets the old director, David, who helps her get settled in the large house the society has given her to live in.

Heidi soon learns the house was a center of the community at Christmas, which one year stopped suddenly. David's father (Fred Henderson) is reluctant to talk about the house. Meanwhile, Heidi's children find clues in the house and embark on a treasure hunt for wooden reindeer from Santa's sleigh.

Typical Hallmark, with a relaxed atmosphere, likable characters, and a warm story. I would put this a cut above most of the cookie cutter Hallmark films.

Best mystery movie of the year. Great cast leads are excellent and terrific chemistry. The story is unique and something never covered by traditions of past movies. The movie flowed so effortlessly and very believable The clues were so good and the two kids were very good and really played excellent detectives. The secretary of the organization gave a nice warm touch. She did more with her expressions than most actors do with words. The leads Father did an ok job but probably did not have much dialogue. All in all if they continue with these mystery movies and keep the quality I think we are in store for enjoyable movies.