Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls’ on Hallmark Doubles the Feels and the Fun

Hallmark made history last year with the debut of The Christmas House, the network’s first holiday movie with a gay couple in leading roles. The film was a success and the best Hallmark movie of the 2020 season, if I do say so myself. Now the Mitchell family is back in The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls. Does Hallmark have a hit new holiday franchise? Or is this family reunion as awkward as real life ones? 

THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE 2: DECK THOSE HALLS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s been a few years since we last saw the Mitchells and the family has grown. Brandon (Jonathan Bennett) and Jake (Brad Harder) have adopted a second child and are now a family of four. TV star Mike (Robert Buckley) is still with Andi (Ana Ayora) and he’s closer than ever to her son Noah (Mattia Castrillo). And instead of having just one Christmas house this year, the Mitchells are gonna double down and double their number of holiday homes!

This all comes about as part of a live, televised, celebrity holiday decorations contest called Deck Those Halls (think The Great Christmas Light Fight, but starring the families of the stars of America’s favorite crime procedurals). But when Mike Mitchell’s competition—the perfectly named Finn Rockland of Brooklyn Medical—drops out of Deck Those Halls, the producers decide to pit brother against brother. Yep—it’s Handsome Justice star Mike Mitchell versus his baker brother Brandon Mitchell, and this Christmas competition has never been tougher!

The decoration of dueling Christmas houses serves as the backdrop for a lot of new complications in the extended Mitchell family. Bill (Treat Williams) and Phylis (Sharon Lawrence) are learning their lines for a local theater’s Christmas play; Mike wants to find the perfect way to propose to Andi, but the surprise return of Andi’s ex-husband has Mike all up in his feels about his place in Noah’s life; and Brandon and Jake are trying to make unique Christmas memories for their kids, which is hard when the holiday season involves redecorating homes from the ground floor up to the attic with nothing but yuletide cheer. It’s another Christmas with the Mitchell family, so you know it’s going to be eventful.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: There’s 2006’s Deck the Halls, obviously, except I’d argue that this Hallmark movie is infinitely more watchable (sorry Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick). And because of the show within a TV movie nature of Deck Those Halls, the sequel gets to add in some to-camera confessional moments that only make the Mitchells feel more like Hallmark’s Modern Family.

Performance Worth Watching: Now that Bill and Phylis’ relationship is firing on all cylinders again, Treat Williams and Sharon Lawrence get to spend the sequel letting their kids supply all the emotional moments. These two are so great together and have such a fun, natural chemistry, so it’s great to watch them just have fun. Casting Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell as the leads in a bizarre little Christmas play was an inspired choice.

Memorable Dialogue: The Christmas House franchise continues to be one of the funniest on Hallmark. Here’s how a frazzled Mike sums up his holiday blues: “I’ve already got my girlfriend’s shark-punching ex making Colombian food with Noah. I don’t need you trying to outdo me too!”

A Holiday Tradition: Like all the other seasonal reality competition shows that have become a TV tradition, the occupants of Hallmark’s holiday universe get to watch Deck Those Halls every year. And of course there’s the Christmas house, which is first and foremost about making memories with the family. Will that get lost now that Mike and Brandon are competing on television? Of course it will.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It makes the most sense—not only because the show within the movie is titled Deck Those Halls, but because the sequel’s giving us two Christmas houses. If the franchise continues for a few more years, they may have to change the name to The Christmas Cul-De-Sac.

Our Take: How do you do a sequel to a holiday romcom? Once the lead couple have kissed and professed their love, where is there to go? Netflix has this problem with its franchises. The sequels to A Christmas Prince just wandered aimlessly into the politics of a fictional European country. The Princess Switch franchise found success by jumping genres with each new sequel; this year’s The Princess Switch 3 is a romance/heist movie. Could The Christmas House figure out a way forward now that Mike and Andi are together? This is a hard problem to solve!

That’s why I’m so pleased to report that The Christmas House 2 found a completely unique and narratively rewarding way forward. Instead of introducing new characters to set up on blind dates or breaking up one of our fave couples or having the Mitchells, I don’t know, form a ragtag hockey team and fight their way to regionals, The Christmas House 2 does what I rarely see Hallmark movies do: it puts very real family issues at the forefront while simultaneously recapturing all the holiday fun from the first film.

It turns out that Hallmark characters can do more than fall in love! Instead, the characters in The Christmas House 2 deal with the problems that come up after a happy ending. How will Mike propose to Andi and, more importantly, how can he be a father to Noah if Andi’s ex is back in town? And what’s driving Brandon to be so competitive with his brother? They’re two grown men—shouldn’t they be able to get along? Does the best Christmas have to be a perfect Christmas? And most importantly, how does a family unit maintain a balance as it grows to include more and more people?

Most importantly, though, The Christmas House 2 touches upon a few problems that are totally specific to the gay holiday experience. Once again, The Christmas House doesn’t treat Brandon and Jake as just any Hallmark couple. They are a gay Hallmark couple, and so much of their actions as a couple and their relationships with the larger Mitchell family center that fact. It’s beautiful to see, too, because it’s important to show that gay couples have way more issues to deal with than just coming out. I never thought that a Hallmark movie would so accurately touch upon the pressures of performative gay excellence but I’m really glad one is!

But you’re not just tuning into this movie to see what problems the Mitchells will overcome before the light switch is flipped on the Christmas houses. You’re also tuning in to spend time with these characters and, most importantly, have fun with them. There is so much fun to be had, mainly because Hallmark struck gold when they put this specific cast of actors together. Buckley and Bennett have such a brotherly vibe to them, and they sell it in the competitive scenes and the dramatic scenes. The same goes for any combination of actors, too—like Jake and Andi, who have to deal with their significant others reverting to comically childish behavior. Just like last year, The Christmas House 2 will give you all the Christmas funnies and Christmas feels you need.

Overall, The Christmas House 2 is the exact right kind of sequel. It pushes the franchise forward while bringing along—and building upon—everything we loved about the first film. Fingers crossed we get to visit the Mitchells every year from now on. It’s a tradition!

Our Call: STREAM IT. The sequel proves that The Christmas House is built to last.

Watch The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls on Hallmark