Review - Love Always, Santa (2016)

Love Always, Santa is the story of a young girl, Lilly (Isadora Swann), who wants her mother to be happy again, Celia (Marguerite Moreau), after the loss of loss of Lilly’s father several years prior to the events in this story. Lilly writes a long letter to Santa in the hopes that he can help Celia regain a sense of happiness. Jake (Mike Faiola), an accomplished and ell known writer of children’s books, receives the letter as he is working for a Christmas Organization that handles letters sent to Santa Clause. Intrigued, he writes a multi-page letter to Lilly giving her insights, and encouragement, and signs the letter “Love Always, Santa”, thus the title of the film. The result is an ongoing multi-letter correspondence between Celia and Jake/Santa, which, when it suddenly stops, results in Jake going to find Celia and Lilly in their hometown of Northfield, Minnesota.

title image - IMDB

The story covers a lot of territory as Jake gets to know both Celia and Lilly, as well as a few of the other folks around town. But the question remains, will love and romance develop between Jake and Celia? Especially with local interest Randy on the scene? And what will happen when Celia learns that Jake was the writer of all those letters from Santa?

Interior shot - Bun Always Rises - AKA The Hideaway - IMDB

This is a film that I have wanted to see, but until this week I have been unable to as it was never released in the USA on DVD (although I know a family that does have a copy, more on that later), and there was a screening locally that my Bonnie Bride was able to attend, but I was unable to attend due to work obligations. We were finally able to watch it together as it was available on Pluto.tv.

Isadora Swann at Bridge Square - IMDB

Much of the film was shot on location in Northfield, and even many of the storefronts seen in the film are the real McCoy, so to speak (although one store that had it’s signage seen in the film, Ragstocks, has since closed its doors).

The Hideaway - Photo 12/20/2022

The coffee house featured in the film, The Bun Also Rises, is actually called James Gang Hideaway (the owners have a copy of this film on the aforementioned DVD). Not exactly a suitable name for a Melodramatic Romance film set during the Christmas season. And yes, it serves food as well as coffee. The interior layout is the same, minus the decorations, as one of the primary locations for the action of the film. I think one of the reasons the production team chose to use The Hideaway as the coffee house is not onnly due to its location on the main drag in Northfield, but more for the interior design, which has several nice nooks for its customers, as well as for some of the scenes that drive the story of this film.

Bridge Square - Photo 12/20/2022

Many townees (the term Northfielders use for locals) also appeared in the film as extras in various capacities, including some of our friends. Northfield does have a Christmas themed festival in the downtown area, called Winter Walk, along Division Street and at Bridge Square, but there isn’t a Ferris Wheel for the event, and the bridge seen in that Ferris Wheel scene was not shot in Northfield.

Isadora Swann and Mike Faiola - IMDB

The film is a delight to watch, and I think Isadora Swann, as the young girl who starts the whole romance rolling between her mother and Jake, pretty much steals the show in every scene she is in. She performs her role very well, proving that young kids can hold their own, and even out-perform their adult counterparts. She will be an actress to watch out for if she continues on this path, and I hope she does.

I included two photos from town that I took for this post. although I thought about checking about taking a couple of interior shots of the Hideaway so you can see it really does look like what is seen in the film, I just didn't have the time to do so. although a cup of hot cocoa would have been nice.

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