My Secret Santa

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG

Length:  1 hr  30min

Christmas ~ Comedy ~ Romance

Directed by:  Michael Rohl

Starring:  Alexandra BreckenridgeRyan Eggold and Tia Mowry.

Single Mom. Double Life.

Taylor Jacobson (Alexandra Breckenridge) is a struggling single Mom who has just been fired from her job at Clotz Cookie Company, right before Christmas. To top that she runs into her landlord who reminds her that she is four months behind on her rent. She then finds out her daughter has been accepted to an elite snowboarding camp at Sun Peaks ski resort which is very expensive. Desperate for cash, the next day she takes her vinyl record collection down to the record store. A customer in the store notices a record by a local band The Screaming Kittens in her collection. When the record store owner offers her a hundred dollars, he insists the local band record is worth a lot more. He then realizes that Taylor is on the cover and used to be the lead singer of The Screaming Kittens.

Matthew Layne (Ryan Eggold), the customer, follows her out of the store and offers to buy her a hot chocolate but Taylor turns him down. Taylor tells her brother about her situation and he discovers that employees of the resort get 50% off the snowboarding camp that her daughter has been accepted at. She goes down to the resort to apply for a job and finds out that the only job available is for a male Santa Claus that pays two thousand dollars a week. With her brother being a costume creator and makeup artist, she cooks up a scheme to impersonate a male who can get the Santa job at the resort. She goes down to the resort in the prosthetic costume and gets the job as Santa Claus, using the name Hugh Man. She is immediately surprised to meet Matthew Layne who is the General Manager of the resort and whose father owns the resort.

Christmas comedy ensues as Taylor tries to keep Matthew from recognizing the lead singer of The Screaming Kittens who turned down his offer of a date. As Taylor, ah-hum, Hugh Man, works with Matthew at the resort playing Santa, he keeps thinking that there is something familiar about “Hugh”. As they bond, he starts confiding in “Hugh” about the woman he met and is starting to have feelings for. Hilariously he asks “Hugh” for advice on how to better get to know Taylor, who is right in front of him. Things get more complex as the season rolls by, and Taylor tries to keep Hugh’s real identity a secret. Her daughter’s snowboarding aspirations and the rent are depending on it.

Alexandra and Ryan are good together in this, they pull off the Christmas Santa Chaos and hit it off with a rocking musical number on stage at the end. It is a little campy in it’s own cute way, but definitely worth a Holiday watch.



New Movie My Secret Santa Debuts On Netflix Wednesday December 3, 2025

A determined single mom in need of a job to send her daughter to snowboarding camp disguises herself as a man in order to get hired as a seasonal Santa — like Mrs. Doubtfire in the reverse. But when she starts to fall for her boss at a luxury ski resort, complications arise that could cut this busy holiday season short.

When her daughter is accepted to an elite snowboarding camp at Sun Peaks ski resort, Taylor (Breckenridge) is desperate to make ends meet. Enlisting the help of her friends, she designs prosthetics to transform her into a rosy-faced man of a certain age. Why? So she can land a seasonal job as the resort’s Santa. When she gets the gig, everything seems to be coming up Taylor — until she meets a charming man at the resort named Matthew (Eggold), who, it turns out, manages Sun Peaks. Though she initially rebuffs him, there’s clearly chemistry between the two. But will her Santa-suited deception keep her from truly connecting with Matthew?

Starring Virgin River’s Alexandra Breckenridge and Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam), My Secret Santa is the latest piece of holiday cheer from The Princess Switch franchise director Mike Rohl. The movie also stars Tia Mowry of Sister, Sister fame and was co-written by Carley Smale and Ron Oliver, who ushered in Lindsay Lohan’s return to acting with 2022’s Falling for Christmas.

My Secret Santa debuts on Netflix Wednesday December 3, 2025.



Jingle Bell Heist

2025   Netflix

Rated:  Unrated

Length:  1 hr  36min

Christmas ~ Comedy ~ Romance

Directed by:  Michael Fimognari

Starring:  Olivia HoltConnor SwindellsLucy Punch and Peter Serafinowicz.

“Tis The Season To Give And Take.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Two down-on-their-luck hourly workers reluctantly form an alliance to rob one of London’s most illustrious department stores on Christmas Eve. As they hatch their plans, the pair start to realize there are sparks between them, and they’re not from the twinkly holiday lights around jolly London town. The Netflix original holiday film Jingle Bell Heist stars Olivia Holt (Heart Eyes) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education). The film was directed by Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You), and co-written by Abby McDonald (Bridgerton) and Amy Reed (Diary of a Future President).

When Sophia Martin (Holt) moved to London from Philadelphia to care for her mother after a cancer diagnosis, she expected life across the pond to be a bit more affordable. Stuck caretaking while working two jobs, Sophia’s at her wit’s end when she learns her mother’s surgery won’t be covered by insurance. Desperate for a quick payday, she resorts to robbing her horrible boss, Maxwell Sterling (Serafinowicz), only to be caught by Nick O’Connor, a former security consultant turned phone technician.

Nick has no reason to turn Sophia in, though. He’s more interested in teaming up with her to land funds to take care of his daughter after his recent divorce. So Sophia and Nick form an alliance out of desperation, but, as the pair begin to plan the ultimate seasonal scam, a holiday heist at a posh department store, their scheming relationship might just turn into something more.

The Review:

I watched this last night (Friday November 28,2025), the day after Thanksgiving,  also known as Black Friday. The official battle cry day of The Holidays. I wasn’t really in a Christmas mood yet being a little overwhelmed by how quickly Christmas was going to arrive. I looked for a movie in vain, which is incredibly odd because I have numerous streaming platforms to access, and numerous lists of movies to watch to review, including a growing Christmas/Holiday Movie List. But I wasn’t quite ready to watch a Christmas movie yet. Then I saw Jingle Bell Heist on Netflix, it is high up on my Christmas list of movies to watch, and was #2 on Netflix’s Top Ten Movies…..

Alrighty then, Christmas movie it is…..

I gave in and tried to get in the mood as Jingle Bell Heist started, honestly I felt more like The Grinch. The Movie starts with Sophia and Nick in a Department store Christmas Eve as the lights are getting turned off. They turn to each other and, Jinx Jinx they owe each other a coke as they both start to say, “You don’t have to do this…….”. Then we are transported back in time to two weeks earlier as Sophia is walking to work. She comes upon a man and his daughter busking, playing Holiday tunes on their violins when a grumpy old Grinch guy says, “You can’t do that here, take it somewhere else.”

Right away Sophie (Olivia Holt) grabbed my attention as she watched, then bumped into the old Grinch guy, promptly heists his wallet, takes out the cash and gives it to the buskers as she says, “Merry Christmas”. That was it, Jingle Bell Heist and Olivia Holt had my full undivided attention. I love the Underdogs and Sophie and Nick (Connor Swindells) sure have the world working against them. As their troubles unfolded before me, they instantly had my empathy. Both trying to lift themselves up out of their situations financially, working at jobs with bosses they don’t like. Both trying to look out for and take care of their families.

Sophie and Nick cook up a scheme to “get the money” but that is just the beginning of this Christmas Caper Roller Coaster Ride. There is more going on than meets the eye, everywhere we look and every step of the way, as these two plan a Holiday Heist. Unexpected twists and turns right up until the very end in this Christmas Rom-Com! In the end I enjoyed the Jingle Bell Ride! Why are you still reading this?

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on Netflix!




New Movie Jingle Bell Heist Debuts on Netflix Wednesday November 26, 2025

Just in time to kick off the holidays and the long Thanksgiving Weekend, Netflix is releasing a brand new Christmas Caper.

Jingle Bell Heist Debuts Wednesday November 26, 2025 on Netflix.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Two down-on-their-luck hourly workers reluctantly form an alliance to rob one of London’s most illustrious department stores on Christmas Eve. As they hatch their plans, the pair start to realize there are sparks between them, and they’re not from the twinkly holiday lights around jolly London town. The Netflix original holiday film Jingle Bell Heist stars Olivia Holt (Heart Eyes) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education). The film was directed by Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You), and co-written by Abby McDonald (Bridgerton) and Amy Reed (Diary of a Future President).

When Sophia Martin (Holt) moved to London from Philadelphia to care for her mother after a cancer diagnosis, she expected life across the pond to be a bit more affordable. Stuck caretaking while working two jobs, Sophia’s at her wit’s end when she learns her mother’s surgery won’t be covered by insurance. Desperate for a quick payday, she resorts to robbing her horrible boss, Maxwell Sterling (Serafinowicz), only to be caught by Nick O’Connor, a former security consultant turned phone technician.

Nick has no reason to turn Sophia in, though. He’s more interested in teaming up with her to land funds to take care of his daughter after his recent divorce. So Sophia and Nick form an alliance out of desperation, but, as the pair begin to plan the ultimate seasonal scam, a holiday heist at a posh department store, their scheming relationship might just turn into something more.