In the first of what is sure to be a holiday jam-packed with fun and festive rom-coms, Netflix has offered us a great way to start off the holiday season. “Falling For Christmas” dropped on the streaming platform on Nov. 10, 2022. 

The film follows main leads Sierra (Lindsay Lohan), a wealthy socialite, and Jake (Chord Overstreet), a ski lodge resort owner, as their paths collide shortly before Christmas when Sierra is left with amnesia after Jake rescues her from a rough fall during skiing.

Sierra is with her fiancé, Tad (I hate him), a social media influencer, when she falls from the mountain and hits her head. After rescuing her, Jake brings her to his ski lodge to revive her memories. There, she starts to bond with him, his daughter and her grandmother. 

My favorite parts of the movie were the scenes where we got to watch the core characters bond over the holidays, such as the snow globe scene where Sierra and Jake had their cute moment while discussing Sierra’s quest to regain her memory. Overstreet and Lohan have a strong sense of chemistry that makes this movie all the more fun to watch. 

Tad was the only annoying part of the film. Can we stop putting wannabe influencers as characters in movies, please? I don’t think anyone asked for the rising number of  “influencer” characters in movies to be a thing in the first place.

Tad has no personality besides, “Can I record this?” And only exists to be a driving conflict between Jake and Sierra. Let the influencer character archetype die, I’m begging. 

Every character (besides Tad the Terrible) served a role in the story, so I was invested in more than just the main leads and their romance. Jake and his daughter bonding over the holiday season and helping Sierra was adorable to watch. I usually hate little kid characters in these kinds of movies, but this was an exception. 

Sierra was a spoiled, privileged figure at the start of the movie. What made her tolerable, and even sympathetic, was how she was as a character. Being rich wasn’t her only purpose — she had goals and aspirations outside of her father’s company. It was a nice way to make the doesn’t-know-how-to-take-care-of-herself character refreshing, and I ended up liking Sierra because of it.

Jake is a sweetheart, and I wish we got more leads like him in these Netflix films. He was sweet and only wanted to help Sierra. I liked how everyone in the movie acknowledged how great of a guy he was, and how he went out of his way to help others instead of himself. 

Overall, this movie was an adorable watch that made me excited for the holiday season. It’d be great if we got more of this world, even though Netflix is Netflix and will probably ignore this great film for something not nearly as entertaining. At the very least, I hope Overstreet and Lohan star in other projects together.

Rating: 5/5 stars