Melissa says "You can cry in front of me." And sometimes that's the only thing you need to hear from your friend while she just let's you cry.

I loved the movie because it was about true friends and good family. For me this was a real tear-jerker because these are things that I really value. First we see Gretchen and then Melissa are going through things that you just shouldn't go through alone. Some people would not have the heart to help someone she doesn't even know when they have problems like this of their own, but Gretchen reaches out to support her brand new neighbor and becomes that kind of friend. Her son is remarkable also because he was the one that broke the ice.

This movie has a mystery and the new friends become detectives to seek out the identity of Melissa's sibling. There were good clues and false clues. If you guessed the identity, it wasn't from any clues the characters had because there was no way they could have known until the end. And the movie didn't even reveal all they knew until after the final truth was known.

But in general terms you usually know what you will get in a Hallmark movie and this one was no different.

The acting was good. We often talk about chemistry in the romance movies. Well this wasn't really a romance, but it was the two women, Leah Gibson and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who had chemistry, extraordinary chemistry. Dylan Kingwell, as Ethan, was also prominent.

P.S. after the third time I've watched this. That's a good measure of how much you like a movie. And more than that. It was the Hallmark special July showing of Christmas movies, but this year I really wasn't into them. There were just a small few movies I noticed that I really did want to see again, and this was the one I looked forward to the most. And I had tears stinging my eyes almost all the way through it. It is even more poignant when you know what is going to happen.

The Christmas Note is an amiable Hallmark film. Gretchen and her young son Ethan move back to her hometown to be near her mother. Her soldier husband Kyle is recovering from injuries in a military hospital and is hoping to be discharged soon.

Gretchen has to deliver a message to her new neighbour Melissa and tell her that her mother has passed away. Gretchen offers support when Melissa discovers a note left behind by her mother. It tells her that her mother had an older child that was given up for adoption.

Gretchen and Melissa undertake a search for this sibling who they think will turn out to be a long lost brother and this search brings them close. At the same time Ethan has written a letter to Santa who wants his father home for Christmas.

There is little that will come as a surprise in this movie but the acting has conviction and the characters are likable.

This does not have the usual greasy, self-centered boyfriend in the beginning that makes you wonder why, if the female lead is really so smart, she ever dated him in the first place. Also, the music is far above better than the terrible bar/lounge so-called Christmas music that were a part of the 2017 movies. This was a wonderful film about relations instead of romance. It was even better than the Hallmark Hall of Fame offering in Dec. 2017.