Review

She’s Making a List
Subtitle: A Naughty, Nice, and Slightly Spreadsheeted Christmas Romance

In the glorious realm of Hallmark holiday movies where the snow falls on cue and everyone somehow has a fireplace, She’s Making a List brings us the gift we didn’t know we needed: a Christmas inspector. That’s right. Our heroine, Isabel, works for the “Naughty or Nice Group,” a consulting firm that evaluates kids like they’re quarterly earnings reports. Because nothing says holiday cheer like behavioral audits and red pens.

Enter Charlie, an energetic 11-year-old, and his widowed dad, Jason — the kind of ruggedly handsome single father that Hallmark movies manufacture in bulk. As Isabel runs through her holiday checklist with the same intensity most of us reserve for avoiding fruitcake, she discovers that Charlie might be borderline nice, and Jason is very much "merry and eligible."

There’s cocoa. There’s an almost-kiss interrupted by carolers. There’s even a heartwarming speech that implies maybe the spreadsheet doesn’t know everything — gasp! In the world of Hallmark movies, this one checks all the boxes: charming lead, overdecorated town square, and a plot that wraps up faster than a present at an elf's workshop.

By the end, Isabel not only redefines the list but also discovers that love, like snowflakes and last-minute plot resolutions, can be beautifully unexpected. It’s everything you want from Hallmark holiday movies — plus a clipboard.