Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Wholesome holiday movie about the importance of family.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Holiday in Santa Fe
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In HOLIDAY IN SANTA FE, Tony (Mario Lopez) and sister Maggie (Aimee Garcia) run Casa de Milagro, a year-round brick-and-mortar Christmas store in the title New Mexico city. It's a successful family business built by his parents Jose (Efrain Figueroa) and their mom Milagro, recently deceased, and now run by the siblings. Mom was the artist, whose visions and creativity sustained the store and provided new decorations every year, including blown glass tree ornaments and other holiday items. Some time before, she'd turned down a Chicago greeting card company's generous offer to buy the shop. Now, in Milagro's absence, with Maggie struggling to do the creative work herself, the company is back with another great offer. Tony invites the rep Belinda (Emeraude Toubia) to see the place in person, hoping to get his family on board. Will they sell?
Is It Any Good?
This holiday film deserves praise for overcoming piles and piles of unlikely situations, remaining highly watchable nevertheless. Holiday in Santa Fe suggests that a little year-round Christmas store in a town of 87,000 people has sufficient national financial value to be purchased by a successful corporation for a substantial pay out. That aside, there's still the matter of figuring out what great work of art we're waiting for Maggie to produce when she seems artistically blocked all the way up until the day before Christmas. What possible Christmas-themed piece of art could be phenomenal enough to persuade a hardened businessman—flying in by private jet on Christmas Eve—that he must revise his assessment of the financial asset under review? In the end, Maggie pulls an all-nighter and gets the job done and it's, well, underwhelming. If a group of junior high schoolers presented it as a class project, then fine, but as the basis for a large corporate deal, credulity is stretched.
Apart from all the ridiculousness, this is a sweet, safe, inoffensive holiday movie that repeats, over and over, the importance of family above all else. It's easy to watch and you can't disparage the good intentions.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the way that Latino culture is depicted in Holiday in Santa Fe. Why is it important to see different cultures and their special ways of celebrating holidays?
How does the movie show a preference for tradition above wealth?
The movie follows a template used in most Christmas movies. What are the components of that template?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : December 10, 2021
- Cast : Mario Lopez , Emeraude Toubia , Aimee Garcia
- Director : Jody Margolin Hahn
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Middle Eastern/North African Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Writer(s) , Latino Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Topics : Family Stories , Holidays ( Christmas )
- Run time : 85 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : December 4, 2025
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