Stream It Or Skip It?

It’s Christmas in July over on Hallmark! All month, the channel is airing holiday movies that will make you wish for a nip in the air and put you in the holiday spirit, starting with Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle. Natalie Hall stars as Tina, a woman responsible for chairing a charity gala in her town. When she learns the gala’s venue, a historic mansion, has been sold and the new owner refuses to let her hold the ball there, she receives some help from the man who sold the mansion to save the venue and the gala. It’s a real Christmas miracle.

Opening Shot: After a quick montage of gifts being wrapped, four women – who work together running a gift shop – discuss the fact that they’ve just agreed to host a Christmas gala.

The Gist: Natalie Hall stars as Tina, one of the owners of a thriving gift-wrapping business called All Wrapped Up, which she runs with her three best friends, Olivia (Cindy Busby), Mia (Kathryn Davis) and Lily (Ashley Newbrough). A quick snapshot of Tina: she’s driven and ambitious, which is why she’s agree to help run a charity gala during her shop’s busiest season, and she’s also skittish about romance after her fiance broke things off last year.

Tina is thrown a curve ball when she learns that the beautiful mansion, the Alford House, where the charity gala is set to take place has been sold and is under new management. The new owner, a hotel developer, plan to tear down the building, so Tina needs to find a new venue in just two days, and right before Christmas, too. It will take a miracle to find a place… but since this is Tina’s Miracle, I think we don’t need to get too antsy about things.

Things get complicated when Tina learns that the cute single dad she’s been flirting with, Michael Alonzo (Alec Santos) is the broker who sold the Alford House. Tina is totally put off by the stories she’s read about Michael (namely that he’s a ruthless businessman – he laid people off at Christmas!), but she can’t help but admire the fact that he’s a tender, devoted dad to his daughter Haley (Presley Allard). Haley has been struggling at school due to her dyslexia, and Michael plans to start up a whole school just for kids with learning disabilities but without the experience or a location it would…take…a…miracle. That’s two miracles in Tina’s Miracle that need to be conjured!

But Michael is not the villain Tina thinks he is, and not only do he and Tina work together to save the Alford House so that Tina can hold her gala there, but Michael plans to turn the space into a school for kids like Haley, too.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle, begins as a story about an underdog (Tina) facing a man she assumes is her corporate adversary (Michael), who eventually find common ground and fall for each other. It’s reminiscent of Hallmark’s recent holiday film My Sweet Austrian Holiday and Netflix’s Holiday in the Vineyards.

Our Take: Unwrapping Christmas is actually a series of four films (each one centered on one of the four women who run the All Wrapped Up gift shop) which premiered last year on Hallmark+ and have now made their way to the Hallmark Channel for Christmas in July. Tina’s Miracle, the first film in the series, has a lot of tender moments, especially when Tina and Michael come together to support Haley, who misses her dead mom, something Tina relates to all too well.

But what separates from the good from the great when it comes to Hallmark movies that often read as very same-y, is a charming supporting cast and surprising, clever, or witty dialogue and character development. Unfortunately, Tina’s Miracle remains solidly generic throughout, and not even the three friends who co-own the gift shop – who will all headline their own films later this month – have anything to do. While we love these movies for the soft, simple kindness they often impart, in this case, things are just a little too soft.

Parting Shot: Michael gifts Tina a scarf – one she helped him pick out earlier in the film – and professes his love for her. They kiss.

Performance Worth Watching: Natalie Hall is really the star of the show here – she’s a classic Hallmark leading lady but, perhaps because of her previous work on soaps like All My Children, she has a real knack for great, often very funny physical acting where her face connotes annoyance or pleasure with the tiniest movements.

Memorable Dialogue: “Be open to the fact that he might not be the evil supervillain you think he is,” Tina’s colleague and friend, tells her in reference to Michael.

Our Call: Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle is a perfectly nice film, but it lacks anything that makes it stand out. Everything about it is just fine, but there’s nothing truly special that sets it apart. SKIP IT.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.