I started this Christmas season by watching a handful of actually pretty decent silly Christmas movies. So I thought to myself, “Self, have these movies gotten better? Or are you turning into a sucker?” Well, I watched two such movies this Christmas eve that confirms that neither is the case… terrible Christmas movies are alive and kicking.

I Believe in Santa is about a single mom who hates Christmas. She meets a good guy who her daughter loves too… and everything is great until she finds out he’s super into Christmas. And, on top of that, he also believes in literal Santa Claus. Can their relationship survive his apparently undiagnosed insanity?

Nothing wrong with the premise of this movie… it could work for a wonderful film full of that old holiday spirit. But this movie is just cringingly bad and dumb and syrupy and annoying. Unbelievable too… which is a funny thing to say about a Christmas movie, especially one that risks the appearance of an actual Santa Claus (no spoilers if the big man shows up or not. I just wasn’t sold on the idea that this particular mom would fall for – and want to stay with – this squinty-eyed weirdo.

The film doesn’t shy away from how weird this seems to everyone around him. And somehow it’s not QUITE a deal-breaker for the lead… though she is clearly freaked out by it. And the weird debates and arguments the movie makes for the existence of a literal Santa are just cringe-worthy and terrible. This could have worked in a better (and better-cast) movie.

I hate to say it and be proven a jerk, but part of the problem is the male lead, the guy who believe in Santa. He’s just got the wrong face for a romantic lead in a silly film like this, much less for a grown man who believe in Santa. He looks more like the wacky best friend character… or the bad guy. Not at all what I’d think of when I think of someone I trust when he says he believes in Santa. More like “stay away from my children, you creep.”

Now that I’m done being an awful human being, I’ll end the review by at least acknowledging it has a handful of good dialog scenes. I mean, it kind of ends with the idea that it’s ok to fall in love with someone who has different believes than you. That’s wholesome, right?

Score: 58