Melt My Heart This Christmas 2025 Movie Review
You’d be hard-pressed to find another holiday movie … or any movie … with the world of glassblowing at its center, but Hallmark has managed to find a novel way to incorporate the art into its latest ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movie, Melt My Heart This Christmas.
Melt My Heart This Christmas stars Laura Vandervoort as Holly James, an up-and-coming glassblowing artist in the town of Pine Grove, and wherever this town is — it’s cold. As it is nearing Christmas, the town is having its annual holiday crafters fair, but for some reason Holly is not allowed to participate. There seems to be some bad blood between her and the organizers of the event, this year run by Jack Dubois, son of the fair’s owner, Tom, who is giving Jack the chance to prove himself to take over in the future. One of the strict rules of the fair is that no merchants are permitted unless they have gone through all the proper channels, filled out all the forms, and have been properly vetted. So when Jack catches Holly apparently trying to sneak in while the vendors are setting up, he quickly puts a stop to that. He is also awaiting the arrival of the star attraction at this year’s fair, renowned glassblower Bianca Bonhomme, a real get since she has basically retired and retreated from public life. But she has agreed to participate in the fair this year, except upon her arrival she announces she can’t do the fair because her assistant quit. Bianca’s withdrawal would be a disaster for the fair, so Holly quickly steps up and volunteers to be the assistant because Bianca is the whole reason she got into glassblowing, and she manically runs through a greatest hits of Bianca’s work that inspired her to the point that Bianca has to tell Holly that she’s at a nine and she needs to take it down to a four. Holly promises to calm down and assist Bianca in any way she can. Little does she know that Bianca can be a bit of a tyrant, and she can never remember Holly’s name, calling her Dolly, Molly, Polly, etc. As they begin setting up her exhibit in the main hall, Holly is shocked by how … basic everything is. Bianca has always been known for her use of color, but everything she’s presenting now is just clear glass, pretty much anything you could find at HomeGoods. But Bianca insists this is new and fresh and of the moment, it marks her return to public life and she is using this fair as a test run. Except no one seems enthusiastic about this ‘new’ Bianca.
Holly, though, has managed to get some of her own work into the ’emerging artists’ tent and she did it all properly. Except she didn’t use her real name, instead submitting her application as Verre (which is ‘glass’ in French), which she tried to tell Jack before Bianca stormed in. Unexpectedly, her items are selling out at the fair every day, and each day she provides new pieces with a different theme, such as ‘Blue Christmas’. Holly finds herself between a rock and a hard place because she can’t let anyone know that she is Verre, especially not Bianca or Jack, because they may think she was just using them to forward her own work. That becomes complicated when Holly’s BFF Collette becomes the fair’s social media guru, and she makes it a point to mention that she is friends with Verre, so as her work becomes more and more popular, Collette is pressured to reveal who Verre is. As Holly continues to work with Bianca, she and Jack also begin to develop a relationship and Jack eventually reveals to her that the fair has not been doing well the last few years, and if they don’t turn it around this year his father is selling the property. They were banking on Bianca to be the big draw but her new work has been a major disappointment, and he’s trying to find out who Verre is because they are becoming the bigger draw. At one point, Jack accidentally breaks one of Bianca’s vases, and because it is so simple Holly creates a replacement, hoping Bianca won’t notice (and she didn’t until she stepped on a piece of broken glass days later). Bianca has also been trying to fend off a reporter, Walter Gregson, who is covering the fair because they have a rocky history — he’s the one who criticized Bianca’s work, saying she just falls back on the use of color and that her work was uninspired. That one bad critique caused her to retreat and give people what she thinks they want, while what they want is classic Bianca Bonhomme (one shopper makes that crystal clear when she decides not to buy any of the new items for her grandmother because they just aren’t classic Bianca). Holly finally convinces Bianca that people want the colorwork she does best and suggests displaying some glass Christmas present boxes she made based on the gifts her father used to give her. She agrees to put them on display but when Bianca notices some of Verre’s ornaments on the tree in the center of the fair next to her work, she put two-and-two together but her confrontation of Holly comes at the worst time — right in front of Jack, Gregson and his camera crew. With Gregson relishing this embarrassment of Bianca and the exposure of Holly as Verre (ratings gold!), will Holly be able to convince anyone that she did not purposely deceive them just to get ahead?
Melt My Heart This Christmas is actually a pretty charming holiday movie with the unique premise of glassblowing to bring all of the various characters together. If you’ve ever watched an episode of Netflix’s Blown Away competition series, you’ll be pretty familiar with the techniques the movie shows during the glassblowing process. They really seem to have gotten it right, and both Vandervoort and Jennifer Wigmore (Bianca) really sell the notion that they know completely what they are doing in the hot shop (where the glass works are created). It really is a novel concept for a movie and it really makes this one feel fresh and original. You can also tell that wherever they filmed in Canada was during the winter because Stephen Huszar (Jack) really looks cold in the opening outdoor scenes, and all of the actors’ breath is clearly visible. It’s unlikely they spent money faking that with digital clouds. And all of the snow looks real too. There is sort of a joke about the perfectly art directed snow in some of these Hallmark Christmas movies, but for the most part everything looks totally authentic. The story, by Ansley Gordon, does a great job at creating believable characters and situations, even if Bianca is a bit over-the-top at times with her sense of entitlement (which later seems to be more of a shield to hide how hurt she was by Gregson’s comments about her work). What the story didn’t need, at all, was the forced romance at the end. Never once during the movie do Holly and Jack show an ounce of romantic interest in each other. Holly is mainly concerned about not upsetting Jack and ruining the fair if she is found out, and Collette tries to suggest that maybe there is more to her concern, but Holly insists there is not. Even later at the fair, before she is exposed, the two just seem to have finally found a common ground to be friends, and Jack tries to get Holly to dance with him before Collette interrupts them (again assuming there was more to it than there was). Even in that moment, it never feels romantic and then in the very last scene, Holly gets the line, ‘I think this is where you’re supposed to kiss me,’ which almost feels like Gordon added because she had to have that kiss at the end. It was totally unnecessary. Once things were resolved, it would have been perfectly acceptable for Jack to ask Holly out on a date but they really did not need to kiss. Come on, Hallmark, let’s shake up the formula a bit! Director Amy Force does a great job at keeping things authentic, from the freezing outdoors to the creative process in the hot shop, always engaging the viewer’s interest. It really is a completely charming holiday movie that did not need to have a romantic angle.
The cast is also wonderful. Vandervoort completely sells Holly and her skills. She looks like she knows how to work the glass, and it is important that she never makes it seem like Holly only has her career as an agenda, totally shocked and in a real pickle when her work takes off, eclipsing that of her idol. Even when Bianca is being at her worst with Holly, and when the truth is revealed, Vandervoort’s performance keeps Holly as an innocent caught up in an extraordinary situation she had never anticipated. When Bianca lashes out at her, and when Jack banishes her from the fair, Vandervoort shows how hurt Holly is and we can’t help but sympathize with her. And she never gives any real indication that she’s interested in Jack beyond a friendship, so she manages to pull off that final line with a bit of a wink in her eye, like she knew this was something that had to be done even though it wasn’t necessary. Stephen Huszar is also really good as Jack. He really seems outwardly to have it all together when it comes to the fair, but knowing that he knows there is a lot on the line while no one else does, helps inform his performance. We can feel his underlying tension and worry that he’s going to disappoint his father and doom the fair to permanent closure. His growing relationship with Holly also feels real, but again, there never seems to be any romantic intention. He needs her to keep Bianca in check and to make sure Bianca does what she needs to do to promote the fair, and even as he and Holly are able to reveal some of their deepest emotions to each other — her about trying to be accepted as an artist and him trying to please his father — Huszar does not make it feel romantic. Both he and Vandervoort seem to be on the same page about that, it’s just a shame they were forced to fall into each other’s arms at the end. The actors do a great job at showing the growing friendship between Holly and Jack, and friends can eventually become lovers but they didn’t need to be here.
Jennifer Wigmore is terrific as Bianca, coming in hot right from the start, being a bit more extra than she needs to be, a bit too full of herself, but not a total villain. She also looks fabulous when she arrives, with the most perfect red lipstick anyone could want, which seems to be a symbol to show that Bianca is the queen bee here. Later when she ditches the red for a more natural look, it signifies that Bianca has let down her guard and has become more down-to-earth, willing to listen to Holly after everything blows up in her face, and relating to Holly why she has become this person she is now. Wigmore really does a great job of humanizing Bianca, so that while we first wanted to see her taken down a few pegs, we then can sympathize with her situation, we can see how her spirit was broken by that one bad review which gave other critics permission to pile on. Wigmore takes Bianca from self-centered to self-aware, reversing all of her bad behavior and actually willing to take Holly under her wing … and she even gets her name right. Bianca has a real character arc here, and Wigmore handles it all with the greatest skill.
Madeline Leon does a great job as social media influencer Collette, certainly making her someone you would want to listen too as she promotes the fair (although we really only see her hyping the work of Verre), and she is also a good friend to Holly, doing all she can to keep her secret. Darrin Baker makes reporter Walter Gregson a very enthusiastic personality, and it’s easy to see why he would have such a following. But he also manages to show that Gregson may have an agenda to undermine Bianca, seemingly relishing the moment it all comes to a head. We never know if he actually ran the video on his TV program, but when Bianca goes live with Collette to promote both her new installation of the boxes and give props to ‘Verre’, he manages to have a real moment with Bianca, asking if he was the reason she retired and changed her style (and she isn’t about going to give him that much credit). John Koensgen also has some good moments as Tom Dubois, giving him the demeanor of a man always putting business first, coming down hard on Jack as things seem to be falling apart, and making the rash decision to sell after the debacle with Bianca and Holly. But, like any good Grinch, he shows that his heart grows three times its size when Bianca goes viral and saves the day, and he finally sees that all of his son’s ideas had value. Everyone from main to supporting actors just do a great job at making this all feel very real.
Is Melt My Heart This Christmas the best of the best of Hallmark’s ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movies? Not exactly. I mean, it’s not flashy, it doesn’t come loaded with a ton of big name Hallmark stars (not that Vandervoort or Huszar are slackers, with several Hallmark credits between them), there are no cameos shoehorned in, but it just has a low-key charm to it that always keeps you invested in the stories, while the actors keep you connected to their characters. Even with the forced romance, it’s still warm and engaging, and we end up caring about these people by the end. You really can’t ask for anything more. In short, Melt My Heart This Christmas is a real holiday delight.
