I am not sure the film title Charming Christmas does the story justice. Charming Christmas is more deserving of a title such as "Do Not Open Until Christmas", or "Santa, Is That Really You?" Regardless though of the actual film title this nifty little Christmas film bakes up the right Christmas ingredients that will leave a good taste in most Christmas connoisseur's mouths.

David Sutcliffe who plays Nick Claus has a most mischievous wide smile that says "I have many secrets". Nick is hired by the original store owners of Rossman's department store to play Santa Claus and apparently he comes highly recommended. Against the Rossman owners decision to hire Nick to play Santa without vetting him first through their Human Resources department, their daughter Meredith Rossman (Julie Benz) who holds a degree in Business tries to pooh-pooh her mothers' decision. But you know what they say....."mother knows best" so Nick gets a chance to work his magic as the Rossman department store Santa.

Mrs. Shullivan and I enjoyed how Nick seemed to have something positive to share with all the Rossman store employees and he saved his best michievious grins and wisdom for Meredith who was too focussed on expanding the single Rossman store into a franchise industry, and she certainly clashed with the new Santa hire, Nick.

Gradually Nick works his Santa magic with the children who sit on his lap and the Rossman store employees all believe that Nick has lots to offer as their lives seem to be changing for the better after receiving personal letters of wisdom from Nick.. Even Meredith (Julie Benz) agrees to wear the Mrs. Santa Claus and she begins to have mixed feelings for her mysterious store Santa.

Charming Christmas gives the viewers insight into family dynamics at Christmas that many of us can relate to such as single parents raising young children, friends that complain about their current status and worklife balance, and of course what would a Christmas film be without a little romance, tears and laughter?

Charming Christmas has all of the above as well as many fine performances and the screen presence between David Sutcliffe and Julie Benz is fun to watch. I give the film 7 out of 10 stars.

Julie Benz is about 43 in this movie playing a 30-ish Meridith, but it was just fine. David Sutcliffe as Nick is about 46 and I didn't realize it was him playing Rory's dad on the Gilmore girls about 10 years prior (he looked and sounded familiar). Julie and David were great together. The kid was also great. We did doze on this one about 30+ minutes into the movie, we re-winded and revitalized and enjoyed the movie.

One scene in which she was looking at Nick's resume quickly. I paused it and read that he had been CEO of "Toys for the World" located in Spitsbergen which is an island in the Arctic Circle. The movie was OK but not great. Enjoyed it.

In this story about a Nick Claus, some Christmas magic is hinted, but never demonstrated conclusively. Many good things happen to different people in almost miraculous ways.

The biggest miracle is Meredith, played by Julie Benz. Boy is she a Scrooge at the start. She is a rude workaholic that doesn't tolerate anything that isn't business. When she puts on the Mrs. Claus dress and stands in front of the children waiting for Nick dressed as Santa, I expected disaster. Instead she took the first step toward being human.

David Sutcliffe, as Nick, is totally confident. He has a demeanor that makes you think he knows things, and he could really be Santa. He handles Meredith masterfully and the chemistry between him and Benz is complex and grows.

Aidan Wojtak-Hissong is fairly unknown, but quite cute as Tyler. He also plays the you-can't-fool-me kid pretty well.

My only real complaint about the movie is that some transitions are forced which interferes with the flow and feeling of the movie.