“Enchanted Christmas” Recap & Review

Disclaimer: I absolutely love Hallmark Christmas movies. Everything I say is out of this undying, appreciative, in awe type of love. Yes, I make fun of them, but my husband and I make fun of each other all of the time, and we are annoyingly in love.

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Laura is uptight. The End!

Okay, okay, that was unfair. Let me try again.

Laura (Alexa PenaVega) is an uptight, ex-dancin’, widowed mom, project manager who currently lives in Los Angeles. Her boyfriend of 2 months, Scott (Randy Wayne), is a guy. Just a guy who works with her and has an expensive haircut.

Laura’s boss, Oliver (Steve Bond), tells her that she must oversee a 4 week remodel of a property they just acquired in Rosemont, Utah. And, it’s not just any property!

It’s the Enchanted Lodge!

This puts Laura in a funk, because

• she grew up in Rosemont, Utah
• her dad still lives there
• she always danced in the Enchanted Lodge’s Christmas show
• Ricardo.

Ricardo (Carlos PenaVega) is a professional dancer who has been traveling the world with his dance partner, Taylor (Chelsie Hightower). He is back in Rosemont to perform at the Enchanted Lodge’s Christmas show, and is very unaware that he is about to run into his ex-girlfriend-dance-partner, Laura.

Laura and her daughter, Nikki (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen), arrive at her dad’s (Rene Rivera), house in Rosemont. They haven’t seen each other in a year because he was mad she moved away after her husband died?????????? I don’t know, but I don’t think you can be mad at someone making a fresh start for themselves after their husband dies unless they

• steal your waffle maker
• throw peppermint tea in your face
• hit you in the head with a shovel

and then run off to their new life.

Laura starts project managing at the Enchantd Lodg, and it’s a mess. There is a bear statue playing an accordion in front of it. She has no experience getting rid of bears! Ugh, what a disaster. How in the world will everything get done before the grand reopening AND Christmas show? While checking in on the ballroom, she opens the door and runs straight into Ricardo.

The last time these two saw each other was in front of the fountain at the Enchantd Lodg, years and years ago. Back when all the E’s were on the sign. Back when there was still a fountain there. Ricardo broke them up with the announcement that he was leaving to become a professional dancer. Laura has been mad at him ever since.

Although Laura acts annoyed to see him, it sparks a desire in her to watch home movies of the two. It’s also the first time we see Laura actually smile.

Until…

After this, Laura starts to warm up to Ricardo. She doesn’t even throw anything at his head!

A lot happens

• Nikki joins a squad of dancing reindeer
• Taylor ditches Ricardo for an audition for a European tour
• Laura is like naaaaaah, I can’t be Ricardo’s partner
• Laura is like ok yeah, I can be Ricardo’s partner
• They practice

Ricardo finds the fountain under a sheet in a room, so he moves it back outside.

Okay. Let me get this straight. The fact that the fountain was in a room means that someone moved it there. Then Ricardo finds it, and was like ope better move it back!

HOW DO YOU MOVE A FOUNTAIN?

Like, this thing isn’t tiny. Or even small. Was the Hulk hired to move it each time? And not even the Lou Ferrigno Hulk, but the very current CGI Hulk?

Anyway, they both wish to find love.

Babe-hair Scott shows up to project mange the project manager. Or as he claims, just to help Laura out.

Cue the workin’ & dancin’ & flirtin’ & fallin’ asleep in random places montage.

Taylor comes back to announce that she nailed the audition and got the part! There is only one catch: Ricardo must join her on this 2 year, global tour. Oh, and he must leave in 3 days. Oh, and that’s before the Christmas show. Oh, and it totally makes sense that he also got the part when he wasn’t even there to audition.

After Laura finds out about the dancin’ deal, she tries to convince Ricardo that he must go. He cannot give up his dream. She will figure out a new finale to the Christmas show. Maybe #thereindeersquad can perform twice!

These things happen

• Scott calls Oliver and tells him that Laura has been sucking at her job
• Laura overhears and breaks up with him (they were still a thing at this point????)
• Scott comes clean and says he lied about Laura sucking
• Oliver fires Scott
• Laura becomes General Manager of the Enchanted Lodge
• They decide to keep the accordion playing bear

Right before the finale of The Christmas show, Ricardo shows up to dance with Laura. And spend the rest of his life with her because she is his dream now. I will say this: I have seen many Hallmark Christmas movies, and this is the first one I’ve seen where the man gives up his career aspirations for the woman. So, that’s cool.

Even though they’ve been practicing a foxtrot, they dance a cha-cha or something?

They kiss. Celebrate Christmas together. It snows. The End.

I rate “Enchanted Christmas”: the fountain in the park that geese have taken over, and will attack you if you come near it, which is a 2/5 on my scale of Fountains.

The Scale

1. The fountain a drunk guy peed in
2. The fountain in the park that geese have taken over, and will attack you if you come near it
3. Fountain in the mall your mom let you throw a penny in for a wish
4. A chocolate fountain
5. The Fountain of Youth

I mean, it was fine, but this is one of the first Hallmark Christmas movies that I haven’t really enjoyed watching. “Enchanted Christmas” had a lot happen, but still felt slow. I gave it an extra point because Chelsie Hightower was in it, but deducted 7,000 points because the movie should’ve just been her dancing the whole time.

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