I thought it was good Christmas movie overall with some different storylines happening at the same time, not all of them good, but still interesting. It was also nice to see how some of these people that build a Christmas House like the Griswolds have to plan out months in advance.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Almost passable, but not quite.
'The Christmas House' is cheesy and the actual plot is lame, I do appreciate the additional bit of depth to the story though - admittedly that's relatively-speaking as it's still a Hallmark movie, but there's slightly more to it than is usual for a festive flick of this sort. There is some same-sex couple representation, which is definitely something you don't usually get with these films, so minor (belated, after all) props for that.
As for the cast, they bring what's required. I watched Treat Williams in 'Rocky Mountain Christmas' last year and found him to be the standout, he's solid again - helped by a better cast around him here. Robert Buckley and Ana Ayora are decent, as are Sharon Lawrence and Jonathan Bennett.
I'm always intrigued when these television films get a sequel, so I'm up for checking out 'The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls' - even if I'm not expecting much from it, naturally.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
I subscribe to the Hallmark channel so I have no problem with a lot of cheese in movies, especially Christmas movies, but this was so bad I wanted to turn it off ten different times. The mother blowing her whistle like a drill seargant was the dumbest part -- whoever thought that would be funny must be deaf. The only actor with a good role was the kid next door, although the brother had a couple of good lines. And they made a part 2? I can't believe it. At least it can't be worse.
