Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ms. Christmas Comes to Town’ on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Where Barbara Niven Will Make You Cry Holiday Tears

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries kicks off their annual Miracles of Christmas lineup with Ms. Christmas Comes to Town, a holiday drama about a beloved TV host passing the sleigh’s reins to her assistant/producer/surrogate daughter. Oh — and there’s a love story or two, too. While the title sounds like we’re in for a Mrs. Claus movie, there is actually no literal magic to be found in Ms. Christmas Comes to Town. This is a holiday movie that is all too human.

MS. CHRISTMAS COMES TO TOWN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Erica Durance (We Need a Little Christmas) plays Amanda, producer of the Holiday Shopping Channel’s annual, monthlong gift-recommending and gift-giving extravaganza hosted by the beloved holiday hostess, Ms. Christmas (Chesapeake Shores‘ Barbara Niven). Ms. Christmas is not her legal name, by the way. Her real name is, I kid you not, Gale Storm. Anyway — this is going to be Gale’s last year as Ms. Christmas because the MRI results came back and she has a year, maybe two left to live. Yep, Ms. Christmas Comes to Town goes there.

With one last ride as Ms. Christmas in her, Gale proposes they turn the event into a mini tour, visiting all the small towns she loves and spotlighting local artisans along the way. The network head only agrees to this if she brings along a nurse to keep an eye on her (UnREAL’s Brennan Elliott). As for Amanda, Ms. Christmas decides to make her her onscreen sidekick to prepare her to take over the role — and she doesn’t tell Amanda about the whole terminal illness thing.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the nurse, a handsome goofball named Travis, has already met Amanda. The two ran into each other at a coffee shop when Amanda mistook him for her blind date. And to keep Gale’s health a secret from Amanda, Travis is posing as the godson of the network head. The lies are piling up like presents under the tree!

Will Ms. Christmas ever tell Amanda the truth? Will Travis be able to keep up the charade while still watching over his patient? Will Amanda — I mean Ms. Holiday — learn how to read a teleprompter without sounding like a holly jolly robot? And most importantly: is this movie about a terminally ill TV host going for one last hurrah going to bum you out or inspire you?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Imagine a Christmas version of The Bucket List, one with a bit of The Golden Bachelor in it thanks to a romantic subplot between Barbara Niven and an old flame played by handsome Hallmark regular Mark Brandon.

Performance Worth Watching: This movie features not one, but two Hallmark actors who have already earned accolades in this category: Barbara Niven for A Zest for Death and Chris Gauthier for Retreat to You. Gauthier once again plays a gregarious scene stealer, a bus driver named Murray who can’t stop making Christmas puns and also doesn’t know how to pronounce “Exeter.” And then there’s Niven, who is just as magnetic as Ms. Christmas. This is a hard character to play! Niven has to not only convey the on-air charisma befitting of a seasoned holiday host, she also has to play a terminally ill woman going on a This Is Your Life style tour. She’s never passive, always resilient — you could actually tell me that she’s playing the mythical Mrs. Claus and I would buy it. There’s that much magic here.

Memorable Dialogue: “The family you come from isn’t always as important as the family you find.”

A Holiday Tradition: This is Ms. Christmas’ 24th year hosting a home shopping program that, in terms of cultural impact, seems to be the equivalent of 24 straight days of Oprah’s Favorite Things episodes.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: This movie is literally about Ms. Christmas traveling from town to town, and the title is a play on a popular Christmas song. Not only can I not think of a more accurate title, this might be the most accurate title I’ve ever encountered.

Our Take: What a feat — ! It’s actually a miracle that this Miracles of Christmas movie isn’t just a massive bummer. It’s also a miracle that it works as well as it does, because there are so many ways that Ms. Christmas Comes to Town could have drifted into a snowbank.

There’s the terminal illness, which isn’t exactly the kind of easy breezy fare you expect from a Hallmark movie. However, Christmas is a time to feel all emotions at an 11, even the bad ones, and plenty of holiday movies go that way. The premise is also a bit of a WTF (what the falalalala?) moment. You’re telling us that the host of a programming block on essentially the Home Shopping Network, a network that I just had to google to make sure still exists, is one of America’s most enduring and most popular holiday figures? Okay — ! And it also should be hard to build a movie around so many lies. Why isn’t Ms. Christmas telling Amanda about her illness? Does Travis really need to pretend to be someone he’s not? There really should be too many balls in the air for this movie to juggle.

But juggle it does — ! Ms. Christmas Comes to Town somehow turns all of those hurdles into opportunities to show just how much this cast can soar. As I’ve already pointed out, Niven is fantastic as Ms. Christmas. Erica Durance and Brennan Elliott are also a joy to watch as the movie’s central romantic couple. Durance excels at playing the Type-A career woman we’ve come to expect in these movies, but what really works is her chemistry with Niven. They really give these characters a history and dynamic that, I regret to inform you, will make you feel feelings after two hours. And balancing that out is Elliott’s Travis, who really is a sweetheart of a character, a true hunky nerd who leaps at the chance to become Ms. Holiday’s onscreen sidekick Mr. Winters.

What I appreciated most about Ms. Christmas Comes to Town is how, even though everyone initially takes Gale’s diagnosis way too in stride, the movie gradually peels back the layers of Gale’s life and her relationship with Amanda. What seems like a major plot point breezed by actually leads to some really earnest, touching moments — the kind you want in a Hallmark Movies & Mysteries movie. And the plot device of this traveling crew going from town to town doing the most Christmas-y activities possible keeps the movie light and from becoming a sobfest until it absolutely needs to be.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Ms. Christmas Comes to Town is an early standout of Hallmark’s holiday season — and maybe next year we’ll get a Ms. Holiday & Mr. Winters sequel.