The Christmas Writer (2025)

-Written by Michelle Vorob.

The Christmas Writer is a light, “Hallmark” style Christmas movie by Christin Baker. Noel (Shelby Allison Brown) is a successful novelist of lesbian Christmas stories, struggling with writer's block after the passing of her mother. Noel decides to travel home to her small town, hoping to gain some inspiration for her next book. Once home, Noel meets Callie (Callie Bussell), the new owner of the local bookstore, who's also a single mom.

If you like light, fluff stories, or like having something pleasant but inconsequential playing in the background, you will likely enjoy The Christmas Writer. I typically don't even enjoy blockbuster rom-coms, so I found this movie boringly difficult to get through. 

I don't know what it is about a typical Hallmark-esque film that feels so flat, despite the effort put in by the cast and crew. The chemistry and acting is never one hundred percent. Some scenes feel fun and natural, while others are like pulling teeth, even with the same actors. There's manufactured misunderstandings that lead to forced conflict, much like a sit-com, too many one-dimensional characters with absolutely no depth and a relationship timeline that makes no sense. 

In The Christmas Writer, there's essentially the meet-cute, a little time spent at the bookstore for professional reasons, one date and Callie gets upset when Noel says “maybe” there's something worth exploring, rather than “absolutely without a doubt, let's plan a wedding right now.” Noel just lost her mom, is under time pressure to write a book, has a grandma also dealing with the loss of her daughter (Noel's mother), and just had a relationship end when she found her girlfriend in bed with someone else. “Maybe” wasn't a good enough answer for Callie, because she took it to mean Noel wanted to be casual. I have never been so simultaneously annoyed and bored. What in the Isle of Lesbos are you thinking? No reasonable person would be looking for unwavering commitment this early on, would they? 

Now, on a production note, I wouldn't think this would need saying, but I was surprised to see greasy looking hair on a few of the actors in more than one scene, due to styling product buildup. I understand there are time constraints and scenes are shot out of order, but unless your characters are in a substance abuse fueled downward spiral, or some similarly unfortunate situation, greasy hair is an odd look. Also on a production note, there was a scene at the bookstore that seemed strangely edited. Callie's makeup and the lighting seemed different all of a sudden. Actually, the energy of the scene was different all of a sudden, like filming wrapped for the day, picked up at another time and they just allowed it to be different, without reshooting or editing for continuity. It could've been my boredom, but it seemed like something was off.

You can watch The Christmas Writer to decide what you think and see how it all plays out. 

Directed by Christin Baker. 

Written by Christin Baker and Katie I. Williams.

Starring Shelby Allison Brown, Callie Bussell, June Tuss, Karen M. Chan, Stacey Lee Powell, Kendahl Landreth, Jordan Myrick, Caitlin McWethy.

5.5/10 = WORTH THE RISK, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED