We’ve known for a while that Hallmark isn’t the only one making Christmas romances, but Dating Santa on Prime Video shows that the genre has spread all over the world. When Lucía (Ana Serradilla), a single mom, falls in love with Sergio (David Chocarro), a handsome cook, she comes up with a crazy plan to make him like her daughter Olivia Duflos, who is crazy about Christmas: he’ll pretend to be Santa. Does Lucía’s bad trick make a movie that’s fun enough to get on our good list?
Opening Shot: We see a cute snowflake necklace made from popsicle sticks. We pan down to see a little girl writing a letter to Santa. More homemade ornaments fall from the roof. What does she want for Christmas? I guess we need to find out… Here it is…Seeing Santa.
The Gist: Lucía is a single mother who wants to advance in her work and has no dates. She doesn’t want to go on a blind date that her sister Pía sets up. What’s the twist? She falls in love with Sergio, the hot cook she’s paired with, right away. The two plan to stay together for a whole year, even though they live in different cities. What’s the matter then? Leonora, Lucía’s daughter, is crazy about Christmas and would love nothing more than for her family to always be just the two of them.
Take two weeks off from work and show up at Lucía’s door wearing a Santa hat and a red chef’s coat, which is a surprise. She goes crazy when Leo finds them. She tells Leo that her boyfriend is Santa Claus to make the news of her boyfriend less painful. Sergio does the right thing by telling his girlfriend right away to be honest with her daughter. She and her sister both do. Things go wrong, though, when Leo tells some mean kids that her mom is dating Santa. Leo tells her in tears that the kids said she lied, her mom lied, and Santa isn’t real, so Lucía chooses to keep up the lie… He has to play Santa Claus, and the lodge where he works will be the “North Pole.”
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: A coworker joked that the idea makes me think of Tim Allen’s “The Santa Clause” movies with the bachelor Santa. But I think it was more like the plot from “The Parent Trap” crossed with “Love Actually.” This movie has more Richard Curtis energy than Hallmark energy. It’s family-friendly fare about two adults who try to stay together by cheating on a kid.
Performance Worth Watching: As Santa Sergio, the hot cook turned bad boy, Argentinian hottie David Chocarro is a dream come true. That’s why his IMDB page shows that he has a pretty good job as a romantic lead in Spanish-language movies, including at least one Prime Video movie.
Memorable Dialogue: During the movie, there are many funny lines, but one made my Grinch heart laugh. Sergio shows off a “Gingerbread House,” which is just a stone house covered in pieces of cardboard. Leo tries to eat a part of the stairs, which almost ends the game.
To be honest, though, the most remembered lines are at the end, when Sergio declares his love and makes an emotional return: “All I know is fire can’t exist without air.”
A Holiday Tradition: This movie is full of well-known holiday customs, like tree lightings and elementary school pageants. However, the new one that caught me off guard was the one where Leonora insisted her mom put big plush ears, a tail, and a red nose on their car to get people in the holiday mood. The one I’m most likely to copy? A Mexican take on a s’more, made with a tortilla, a roasted marshmallow, and chocolate sauce.
Read More – The Railway Men on Netflix: Is the 2023 series based on a true story?