Rating: 🎄🎄
Premiere Date: October 18, 2025
Description: In A Christmas Prayer, Natalie (Robins), a children’s book illustrator battling creative burnout, finds unexpected inspiration in a little girl’s Christmas list. But this isn’t your average “pony and PlayStation” wish list—Caroline’s is a heartfelt collection of prayers for her family, friends, and community. One of those prayers asks that her recently widowed father (Russell) finds happiness again. Touched, Natalie sets out to quietly fulfill the girl’s prayers—one by one—and rediscovers her own faith and creativity along the way, bringing to life a new book character, Adeline the Angel.
Chemistry: The adult leads worked well together, giving the movie some grounding and emotional depth. Unfortunately, the child actor’s line delivery had more “school Christmas pageant” energy than cinematic sparkle. I hate to call out a kid, but let’s just say she won’t be getting a callback from the Nativity 2 sequel.
Plot: I’ll give Great American credit—taking the classic “Christmas wish” setup and reframing it as answered prayers was a fresh angle. It worked for what it was meant to be, even if it leaned a little heavy on sentimentality.
Design: Oh, if only it had finished as strong as it started. The first half looked surprisingly polished, but then came a door-to-door montage featuring two houses with identical decorations. And just when I thought maybe it was an editing error, Natalie’s tree magically switched from real to fake mid-scene. Tough break for continuity.
Overall: The acting was solid, but the script didn’t give them much help. The faith-based themes were nice in theory but laid on thick—like extra frosting on a cake that was already sweet enough. And yes, the décor debacle cost this one a full Christmas tree in the rating.
Best Enjoyed With: A cup of strong coffee and a friend to text every time the Christmas tree changes species.
Holiday Movie Wrap 