
Christmas by Design: Missing a Bit of That Shine
I liked it, but I didn’t. You know what I mean?
I’m convinced that Christmas time is any cheesy romance lover’s favorite time of year. What’s not to love? There’s romance (and snow) in the air, cozy romantic settings galore, and more Christmas romance movies than a girl can possibly watch — but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. I’m going to share some of my thoughts on each Christmas movie I watch this year, because why not? We all can use a little more Christmas, and a little more romance, in our lives — especially around the holidays.
What do you get when you combine fashion, small-town romance, and family fun? You get Christmas By Design, I guess?
This movie features Rebecca Dalton, who Hallmark fans will recognize from The Good Witch series, and Jonathan Keltz, who was a new love interest for Hallmark — at least new to me.
The Plot
Christmas by Design centers around Charlotte (Dalton), a big-city fashion designer looking for her big break. After her apartment and clothing shop is ruined by a plumbing fiasco, she reluctantly heads home to her small town where she hasn’t returned for the holidays in quite some time. We soon find out that this is because Christmas has been hard for Charlotte since her father passed away several years ago.
Before heading home, though, Charlotte learns that she’s a finalist in a fashion design challenge for a big department store — the winner gets one men’s design and one women’s design featured in the store’s holiday line for the next year, and the final fashion show for the challenge is on Christmas eve.
On the drive to her small town, she rear-ends Spencer (Keltz) who is the local small-town mechanic. Spencer recently moved to town after his wife passed away.
Over the course of the days leading up to Christmas, Charlotte and Spencer spend time together after she agrees to fend off the gaggle of small-town single ladies vying for Spencer’s attention. In return, he agrees to help with her designs for the challenge.
Along the way, of course, they start to fall for one another and, ultimately, as we all know, they end up together, despite some hiccups along the way.
The Chemistry
I liked Charlotte and Spencer, but I didn’t feel like they had particularly strong chemistry. They seemed more like really good friends — although there were definitely a few scenes where sparks flew. One stand-out moment is when the pair end up kissing in front of everyone in town during BINGO night.
Both characters have some sweet moments and some deep conversations with each other, but ultimately the big falling out they have before finally making up leaves a bit to be desired. It’s the age-old overhearing-part-of-a-conversation-that-sounds-bad-but-really-isn’t thing, and I felt like Spencer really didn’t give Charlotte a chance to explain or even believe her when she said he didn’t hear the rest of what she said.
Anyway, the chemistry was there but didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
The Christmas Feels
The town was cute and quaint, and I loved Charlotte’s family’s house, but the cozy Christmas vibes were a little lacking in Christmas by Design. Charlotte is downright rude to her stepfather throughout a good portion of the movie and, while she does eventually apologize and explain that she was struggling to figure out how to keep her father’s memory alive as the rest of the family seemed to move on, it brought the Christmas vibes down for me.
I will say that I loved Charlotte’s aunt, though — she was the perfect quirky Christmas lover who made me smile with her big glasses and kooky sweaters every time she made an appearance.

The Lowdown
Was Christmas by Design my favorite Hallmark Christmas movie I’ve seen so far this year? No. But was it my least favorite? Also no. I don’t think it’s a standout for me, but it’s a solid movie that will still get you in the Christmas spirit if you have a couple of hours to kill or want something festive and light-hearted to watch while you work. I’d still recommend giving it a watch if you’re in the mood for a cute, albeit slightly predictable, romp.