Stream It Or Skip It: ‘To Have and To Holiday’ on Hallmark, Where An Overprotective Pastor Tries to Scare Off His Daughter’s Beau During the Holidays

Hallmark is switching things up from their regular rom-com formula to sprinkle in family drama with To Have and To Holiday. Madeleine Arthur (Devil in Ohio) and Robert Bazzocchi (Gen V) star as a young, newly engaged couple trying to prove that they’re ready to walk down the aisle by Christmas, even as Eric Close‘s (Nashville) pastor and overprotective father of the bride-to-be tries to dissuade them. There are father-daughter dynamics, healthy communication, and a small town with big personality all at work here. Is it enough to culminate in a movie worth watching this holiday season?

TO HAVE AND TO HOLIDAY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Celeste Palmer (Madeleine Arthur) has been temporarily staying with her boyfriend, Jason Arrington (Robert Bazzocchi), in New York City while finishing up a short-term, low-level position with big-name fashion company Gallavali. She dreams of making it big in the fashion industry, but hasn’t had any luck finding longterm employment in the big city. Disappointed both at her lack of job opportunities and at the prospect of dating Jason long-distance, Celeste prepares to return home for the holidays to lift her spirits and maybe even relocate while she tries to get back on her feet. But Jason isn’t ready to say goodbye, and offers to come home with her to meet Celeste’s family and spend their first Christmas together as a couple.

While Celeste is thrilled about this change of plans, the same can’t be said about her father, Mark (Eric Close). Mark is the pastor in Celeste’s cute, Stars Hollow-like small town, Everly, and he is very overprotective of his only child. He and his much more welcoming wife, town mayor Judith (Kate Drummond), get to know Jason over an awkward dinner at the Palmer family’s home. Celeste learns that Mark’s church is going to be majorly remodeled in January and she laments that she always wished she could get married in that church as it was. For some reason, this makes Jason think that now is the perfect time to propose to Celeste, even though he doesn’t have a ring and they’ve only been dating for three months. Celeste immediately says yes and they decide to get married on Christmas Eve, with Mark officiating.

It doesn’t take Judith long to get onboard, but Mark struggles to support the union, as evidenced by his attempt to set Celeste back up with her local ex, Dean (Karn Kalra), as well as his general lack of hospitality. Mark decides to put Jason through the wringer with a grueling, pre-wedding bootcamp for him and Celeste to pass in order to prove they’re ready to walk down the aisle. Although he tries to fit in with the locals and get Mark to like him, Jason finds that earning everyone’s approval may be an uphill battle. Can he change their minds and pass Mark’s tests before Christmas, or is this relationship doomed to end as quickly as it started?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The “overprotective father meeting — and immediately disliking — his daughter’s new boyfriend” plotline of To Have and To Holiday might remind you of the 2000 rom-com Meet the Parents. Just replace a retired CIA operative with a current pastor and make it at Christmastime!

The marriage-prep course parts also are reminiscent of the 2007 rom-com License to Wed.

Performance Worth Watching: Both Rosie Simon and Reid Price shine as Celeste’s childhood friends, Tracy and Tim, portraying the longtime couple with an easy charm and good humor that made them stand out, despite being supporting characters. The two actors also had great chemistry, enough that they actually sometimes felt even more natural and entertaining together than the main couple (which I guess makes sense for the characters, since Jason and Celeste haven’t known each other that long anyway).

Also, an extra shoutout to Reid for his committed rendition of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!”

Memorable Dialogue: “That’s the guy who’s marrying Celeste and messed up the mail.” “Jason Arrington from New York. He messed up the mail!” As if facing Mark’s disapproval wasn’t enough, Jason is also catching strays from extras around town.

A Holiday Tradition: Everly has an annual town Christmas festival that draws patrons from all over the map to shop for gifts, enjoy festive decorations, and imbibe in hot chocolate so good it was featured on The Food Channel. There are also concerts, crafts, and a tree lighting ceremony, with everything culminating in a Christmas Eve led by Pastor Mark.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It does! To Have and To Holiday is a fun festive play on the common Christian wedding vow phrase “to have and to hold.”

Our Take: To Have and To Holiday just might be absurd in all the right ways. While an engagement after three months is wild in real-life, and an impromptu holiday wedding planned in just a few weeks is even wilder, these kinds of unrealities are pretty intrinsic to the holiday film genre as a whole. What makes it all work is that the movie is aware of its impracticalities and embraces them, bolstered by solid performances and an original script from Grant Levy and Dominik Rothbard. This movie genuinely made me laugh multiple times, and I couldn’t help but be charmed by the town of Everly and its inhabitants.

Madeleine Arthur and Robert Bazzocchi are competent leads and the deeper we got into the movie, the more I believed them as a couple. It really did feel like Celeste and Jason were getting to know each other better as the movie went on and I was rooting for them by the end (it was hard not to be won over by Jason’s Golden Retriever-like personality and earnest drive to win over everyone around him for the sake of his lady love).

I also like that To Have and To Holiday sort of subverts the usual Hallmark holiday movie plot by starting with a couple that’s already together and making family an even bigger focus that the romance, as Mark tries to reconcile that his little girl is all grown up. The characters are also more than just their relationships, especially Celeste, who never gives up on her fashion career dreams, even if it means leaving the comforts of small town life behind. This ends up making all of the characters feel fairly three-dimensional or at least memorable in a way that carries the film and makes it stick out from the rest.

Our Call: To Have and To Holiday is full of colorful characters that make the whole world of Everly pop. Sure, it can be silly and cheesy, but there’s also genuine heart and humor that makes this movie an ultimately easy and pleasant Christmastime watch. STREAM IT!