Single on the 25th 2025 Movie Review
What happens when your holiday plans fall apart at the last minute due to circumstances beyond your control and you have no significant other, leaving you Single on the 25th? If you’re in a Hallmark Channel ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movie, you use that time to find yourself.
For Nell Duke (Lyndsy Fonseca), nothing is worse than being single at Christmastime because everywhere she looks, couples are kissing under the mistletoe. After her family cancels holiday plans at the last minute, Nell decides to spend the week of Christmas having fun on her own! When she crosses paths with her neighbor Cooper (Daniel Lissing), a financial analyst who prides himself on being happily unattached, he notices Nell struggling with being alone and decides to share tips on how to keep the holidays festive. Cooper inspires Nell to challenge her insecurities and find happiness in being on her own. In turn, Nell helps Cooper realize he’s missing out on real connection. In the fun partnership that forms, the friendly singles’ Christmas together starts to feel like something more. Their special connection falls apart when Nell finds out Coooper only offered to help because he felt sorry Nell had to spend the holidays alone. To make Christmas truly magical this year, Cooper must show real growth of character while Nell finds her own strength in being single during the holidays.
Single on the 25th, inspired by the song of the same title by Lauren Spencer-Smith (who makes a cameo appearance to perform the song), avoids what could be a heavy subject for many who do find the holidays to be a lonely time, although there is a hint of sadness in Nell at first, but if it got too sad this would be a Lifetime holiday movie. Instead the script by Joie Botkin nicely builds the characters of Nell and Cooper — although it’s never clear why they seem to be at odds when we first meet them and they have an awkward exchange in the lobby of their building — so that we can find something in them to become invested in as the story progresses. Nell is obviously all about spending time with her family for the holidays and after they cancel due to an unfortunate injury to an uncle, Nell even begins to change her plans to go home, even though she’s ‘carefully curated’ the entire holiday experience for the family including many events that are non-refundable, not to mention a table at one of Chicago’s most exclusive restaurants that takes months to book (or ten years as Nell exaggerates). Nell is pretty much ‘what you see is what you get’ with her. Cooper is more complicated, working for a hedge fund in a decidedly ‘bro’ type of environment, so perhaps it’s that he gives off that vibe outside of the office that Nell finds off-putting. We learn, however, that Cooper isn’t some overgrown frat dude — we can’t say the same for his co-worker Thomas. He actually has a good heart, as demonstrated when he is the one person in his office who isn’t annoyed by the Santa who keeps showing up to collect money for charity, giving the guy some money and showing him to another floor where he may have more success.
In the story, it’s actually fate that brings the two together because Cooper was supposed to go on a ski trip with Thomas but got roped into planning a holiday party for a client. Once he learns Nell is going to throw away all of her plans (and money) to be with her family, he convinces her that maybe she should take advantage of this opportunity to do something for herself and enjoy the activities she’d already planned … even if some of them are decidedly for a group, like a carriage ride around the city. Cooper’s guidance and encouragement helps Nell open herself up to the world, and it turns out she has a talent for party planning so she can help him in return with his event. As the two grow closer, their whole relationship feels natural as it develops into something more than just two single ‘friends’ helping each other through the holiday. Of course, as with almost every Hallmark romance, there has to be a moment of drama that threatens to destroy everything that’s been built up, and that happens when jerk Thomas tells Nell at the company party that Cooper is only hanging out with her because he feels sorry for her. That may have been true at first, but Cooper has developed real feelings for her, and her storming out of the party is very upsetting (and it’s good to see him confront Thomas about it too, although he never has a good reason for saying what he did unless it was perhaps jealousy because he also tried to deride the party, which was not the usual sterile corporate event and their boss said it was the best party they’d ever had, and that was thanks to Nell). It’s actually sad when Nell and Cooper begin intentionally avoiding each other, but we still root for them to be honest with each other and express how they truly feel.
The cast do a great job at making their characters feel like real people. Fonseca is wonderful as Nell. She infuses Nell with eternal cheerfulness, even when it’s obvious she’s upset, doing her best to assure anyone with concern that she is absolutely fine being alone for Christmas. She has great chemistry with Daniel Lissing, but she holds her cards close to the vest, never really being overt in her feelings for Cooper. You can see in her eyes at times that she does like him, but her outward behavior always keeps him just at arm’s length, perhaps so Nell isn’t hurt if he only sees her as a friend. They do have one moment while watching Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer that is a clear sign they are both feeling some type of way but both pull back suddenly out of panic that maybe things are going too far. But when Nell is told by Thomas what Cooper said — when he first started hanging out with her — Fonseca really shows how hurt Nell’s heart is, and we truly feel that pain. For his part, Lissing does a great job at making us think he is a typical bro but then turning expectations on its head as he shows that what we see on the surface is not who Cooper is. He puts up a facade at work, but he really shows how Cooper is a guy who has had to build up this persona, which becomes even more clear when he admits how he was the lonely kid growing up. He had to learn how to survive on his own — not that he doesn’t have a loving family — in a world that seems to cater to couples. The expertise he shares with Nell is strictly on a friendship basis at first, but Lissing is able to convey through looks, body language and how he speaks that Cooper is learning that being with someone might actually be better than just accepting the loneliness. Both actors are totally believable in their performances, and their chemistry is evident even when the characters are trying to deny there is chemistry.
Fonseca and Lissing are ably supported by their co-stars, who help make their world feel even more authentic. Teneisha Collins plays Nell’s bestie Julia, who is really concerned that Nell is spending the holiday alone, despite Nell’s proclamations that she’s fine. Julia offers to bring Nell to her in-laws for Christmas, not just so Nell isn’t alone but for moral support as she reveals to the family that she’s expecting, and also has concerns about Cooper, only knowing him from Nell’s description of his as being a sketchy neighbor before she ever really met him. She makes Julia’s friendship with Nell feel real. Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon does play Thomas as a total bro, loud and a jerk in the office and out. The contempt with which he tells Nell what Cooper said just makes you hate the guy, but the script does try to give him a moment of redemption when Cooper confronts him again at the office and his facade crumbles, showing that he is just over-compensating in the office to fit in with all the other bros. He apologizes to Cooper, but it would have been nice to see him apologize to Nell. Marcel Jeannin and Ellen David are terrific as Cooper’s parents, Mike and Chloe. Dad Mike is a bit of a goofball, especially at holiday parties, while mom Chloe can talk to Cooper about more serious topics, showing that she only wants him to be happy, and both are totally welcoming to Nell as Cooper’s friend, but mom can see there’s more to the story (as most mom’s can). Everyone in the cast just makes this feel like a real, lived-in world.
Overall, Single on the 25th ends up being a delightful story of a friendship that turns to romance in a realistic way. The leads are always engaging, and the production helmed by director Jonathan Wright looks terrific and captures the holiday spirit and the magic of a Hallmark romance.
