At the tail end of the Covid lockdowns, just as New Mexico opened business up to masked customers, we came down to Santa Fe on a househunting trip. We did tourist things while we were here, including a day at Santa Fe’s historic plaza. It was lovely, all decorated for Christmas with lights and ribbons. Which was weird, because we visited in the spring. Our waiter at the Plaza Cafe said they were filming a Christmas movie called Holiday in Santa Fe and sure enough, we caught a tiny glimpse of Mario Lopez filming a scene at the Haagen-Dazs on the corner.
Around Christmas that year, in our new Santa Fe home, I looked up this Christmas movie but it wasn’t readily available to stream. Until today, when it turned up as a new arrival on Netflix. I finally got to watch it and it was a perfectly fine Christmas movie that mentions Santa Fe about five thousand times. It’s kind of an odd blend of actual Santa Fe style and generic Christmas movie tropes, but it’s cute and the acting is decent for a Christmas movie.
Eleven months of the year I revel in the bleak and cynical (more or less) and Halloween was my favorite holiday way before everyone else was, but in December I watch holiday movies. They’re a bright little palate cleanser, if you will, as the days shorten and the cold weather really sets in. (That reminds me, Santa Fe does actually get cold weather and snow in winter; the movie makes it seem way warmer and milder than it really is. Also, Belinda from Chicago would probably have headaches from the high altitude.)
When I was young I was (trying to be) too cool for that kind of stuff, then I had kids and embracing holidays was a conscious choice made for their sake, and now I’ve just mellowed enough that I enjoy dumb and sappy stuff once in a while, I guess. I work on craft projects and watch a whole range of holiday crap for a month, and by January I’m all holidayed out and ready to embrace the darkness once again.
I’ll watch basically any magical Christmas tale, but some of my recent favorites are Love Hard, Feast of the Seven Fishes, and Single all the Way. I don’t look for good plot because basically all Christmas movies are ridiculous. I look for decent acting and amusing quirks, mostly. My standards are very low, way lower than they are for normal movies, but it does take a certain charm to make me watch a Christmas movie more than once. As much as I loved seeing Santa Fe landmarks and finally watching the movie we stepped into years ago, I probably won’t watch Holiday in Santa Fe a second time. Still, it’s got Aimee Garcia, who’s charming as hell, so that’s something.
If you have a Christmas movie to recommend, lay it on me now while my standards are still low. I’d love to know your favorites.
Cauldron Comforts 