As far as romance movies go, Dating Santa is surprisingly free of the usual artificial conflicts that plague the genre. The central couple meet early on and stay in close proximity to each other throughout—meaning they get to skip past the cliche of the courtship phase and converse maturely as adults about turning a new leaf relatively later in life. What ends up straining the film's story, unfortunately, is the much more lighthearted storyline about trying to convince a little girl that this new man in her mother's life is Santa. It's a cute idea that just gets too hard to sustain over time, especially since the daughter proves herself intelligent and perceptive, but still somehow willing to believe so many obvious deceptions.

That said, little Olivia Duflos (who plays the daughter in the film) is nothing less than totally authentic. Even when she's given admittedly silly things to say, she balances on the line between precocious and completely innocent. It never feels as if she's trying to perform to the camera, simply inhabiting scenes with her much older scene partners, whose own performances are made better by having her in the room. Having a strong core trio of actors such as this helps make Dating Santa better than many of the other holiday films that have been released this season.