My Secret Santa review (2025)
My Secret Santa is a rom com that feels like it could have been more enjoyable if the filmmakers could do more with its Christmas version of Mrs. Doubtfire premise.
Taylor (Alexandra Breckenridge, The Walking Dead) is a single mom who’s always struggling to make ends meet for herself and daughter, Zoey (Madison MacIsaac, Nobody 2). Things aren’t about to get better as she gets fired weeks before Christmas and her landlord, Doralee (Diana Maria Riva), is looking for the rent check.
Writers Carley Smale and Ron Oliver paint Taylor in somewhat of an irresponsible light as she explains that the rent is late because Zoey wants a new snowboard. Zoey isn’t written like a bratty teen and would probably want the snowboard a lot less if it meant not having to sleep in Taylor’s van because they got evicted.
To further stack the odds and completely fuel Taylor’s financial desperation, Zoey gets accepted into a snowboard academy. Naturally, it’s not cheap. While it’s understandable that Taylor would want to do right by Zoey, she’s written like a movie character refusing to accept reality.
Seeking solace or maybe a loan from her brother, Eric (William C. Vaughn), and his husband, Kenny (Adam Beauchesne), Taylor instead gets some valuable information. Employees at the ski lodge can get the academy payment slashed in half. The only catch is the lodge isn’t hiring except for Santa Claus. Good thing Eric and Kenny are skilled costumers who start prepping Halloween decorations and intricate masks in November.
MORE:
- Zootopia 2 review (2025)
- Skeleton Crew – Zero Friends Again review S1E6
- Image Comics reviews 12/3/25 – GI Joe 15, Rook Exodus 9
- Jingle Bell Heist review (2025)
With their help, Taylor whips up an elaborate Santa Claus costume and the woefully unimaginative alias of Hugh Mann. Not to go all question Christmas movie logic here, but My Secret Santa needed to address some pretty basic questions namely how would Taylor hide her alias if she were getting the employee discount? Or why she needed the subterfuge in the first place since she could file some Equal Employment Opportunity lawsuit for not getting the chance to play Santa Claus as a woman. And how in 2025 could this whole innocent scam be found out immediately when she got her first direct deposit check?
For the sake of My Secret Santa’s premise, let’s just play along. Before landing the Santa gig, Taylor had a meet cute at a records store with Matthew Layne (Ryan Eggold, The Blacklist), who remembers Taylor used to front a rock band back in her teens. Per the My Secret Santa script, Taylor has basically been celibate since Zoey was born and uninterested in dating, but there’s some semblance of a spark with Matthew.
Just to make things interesting, Matthew is the son of the lodge’s owner, Robert (Barry W. Levy), who’s ready for Matthew to start taking on some responsibility as the lodge’s general manager. That decision doesn’t sit well with the far more qualified Natasha (Tia Mowry), who’s been Robert’s right-hand for years.
Smale and Oliver don’t want to make Natasha a straight-up villain, but she does do some toothless sabotaging like giving Matthew the wrong time for a meeting and not putting envelopes to mail out on his desk.
Mowry is a likeable actress, but My Secret Santa needed an active antagonist who’s suspicious of both Taylor and Hugh and Natasha was clearly the ideal choice. It’s not like she was lacking for motivation to screw over Matthew, who passed her over simply as a nepo-hire.
Director Mike Rohl, who helmed The Princess Switch trilogy, is no stranger to flip-flopping characters yet the My Secret Santa hijinks never feel fully realized. The lodge’s big Christmas tree lighting ceremony ends in an explosion, yet the scene has no energy. Another has Taylor as Hugh acting super bashful as she’s in the men’s locker room to change into the Santa costume. Another finds Taylor giving overly cautious motherly advice when hearing children’s wish lists for Santa. Overall, the comedic elements of the film are lacking.
Fortunately, My Secret Santa does earn some goodwill with the romance elements. Breckenridge and Eggold have an enjoyable chemistry. The film is at its best when the focus is on their road to romance, which makes My Secret Santa seem like the one Christmas movie this year that would have benefitted from being less unique and creative. A simple romance with some comedic moments would have been just fine with this pairing.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Photo Credit: Netflix
Check out the inspiration for My Secret Santa by watching Mrs. Doubtfire on Blu-Ray on Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.