I thought that this was going to be a ditzy little movie, but it was unexpectedly sweet and moving. I liked all of the characters and am going to have to add this to my Christmas movie collection. Loved the Chef! Everyone needs a gay best friend!

The Lifetime movie Dear Santa is a sweet and enchanting holiday treat. The story follows a big city socialite named Crystal Carruthers who’s about to be cut off by her parents, but a new opportunity presents itself when she comes upon a letter to Santa Claus by a little girl asking for a new mom for her and her dad. Amy Acker delivers an incredibly strong performance and has great chemistry with child actress Emma Duke; who has a natural charisma. However, most of the other actors are pretty weak, as is the writing; which is full of clichés and one-dimensional character stereotypes. And the TV movie quality really comes through in the cheap looking sets and costumes. Yet there’s a sincerity and charm to the story that makes a lot of the acting and production issues forgivable. Dear Santa is formulaic and predictable, but there’s still a bit of Christmas magic to it that shines through.

I am fan of Amy Acker, but had put this movie to the bottom of the list as the name made me think it would be a bit of a simplistic overly traditional Christmas movie, which is not necessarily a bad thing but there's so many of those movies.

I was extremely surprised to find this movie outdid all of my expectations and was an amazing, moving, sad, humorous movie with quite a bit of depth, so far as a Christmas movie is concerned. Highly recommended to everyone!