Radio Christmas (TV Movie 2019)

Radio Christmas: Directed by Jeff Beesley. With Keshia Knight Pulliam, Michael Xavier, Nakai Takawira, John B. Lowe. When her Philadelphia radio station is closed for repair for the holidays, DJ Kara Porter is forced to broadcast from the small town of Bethlehem. She’s desperate to increase her numbers and get promoted outside of Radio Christmas-a year-round Christmas station-and seeks to uncover the identity of the town’s Secret Santa, an anonymous benefactor that saved all of Bethlehem’s Christmas festivities. Along the way, she discovers the true meaning of family, community, love, and of course, Christmas.

“Yes, the story of Bethlehem PA is not accurate. So you dis the whole movie? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to look at some things about the movie beyond that one glaring problem. (BTW – I have done the same thing at least partially and I apologize for it. I usually try to avoid it but if I do have a problem getting past one sticking point, I still try to bring out other things positive and negative in any review I write.)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story should have been Bethlehem, Iowa, or Utah, or anywhere we can file away as made up. If you do that, this is a unique story. The radio/podcast angle is nice. It does lead to the common reporter-investigates-a-secret trope, but even that is not as worn out as some themes. I knew almost immediately who was the Secret Santa, but the whole audience learns that fairly early in the movie. As soon as Kara said sheu0026#39;d keep the secret, it was a pretty certain guess that somehow she would fail.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor me these movies are about relationships and I really enjoyed the relationships between Keshia Knight Pulliamu0026#39;s Kara, Michael Xavieru0026#39;s Scott, and Nakai Takawirau0026#39;s Andie. I loved that Andie is a hockey player, but thatu0026#39;s minor compared to how warm that three-way relationship became.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a Lifetime movie, but as many of them do, it has what we tend to call a Hallmark ending. To do that, they used some unexpected things and some predictable ones.”