Stream It or Skip It: ‘Steppin’ into the Holiday’ on Lifetime Pairs Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer for a Good Old Barn Show

Lifetime gives the gift of Mario Lopez with Steppin’ Into the Holiday, a new Christmas romcom co-starring Jana Kramer. This original Lifetime movie has small town charm, lots of moves, and a supporting cast full of ringers — but will it make you want to cut a rug or just cut out?

STEPPIN’ INTO THE HOLIDAY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Mario Lopez stars as Billy Holiday, the host of a network dance show called Celebrity Dance-Off. At least he was the host; since Billy broke-up with Dance-Off’s co-host, ratings have started to tank and Billy’s ex is proving to be more popular than him… so Billy gets the chop from Celebrity Dance-Off and the annual network holiday special that he hosts. His agent (Cheri Oteri, expertly cramming a movie’s worth of jokes into her scenes) advises him to lay low for a while, get outta the spotlight.

Billy takes her advice and returns to his home town, where he learns that his old dance studio is run by his old dance instructor’s daughter, Rae (Jana Kramer). While at home, Billy helps Rae and his TikTok-obsessed nephew put on an old-fashioned barn show in an effort to raise money to fund the dance studio’s dream trip to Broadway. When it comes to his partnership with Rae, though, will Billy get more than he bargained for…?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Wow, there really are a lot of movies about celebrities in small towns this season. If you’ve seen Lights, Camera, Christmas on Hallmark or Christmas with You on Netflix, then you know the score. There’s also a slight White Christmas feel to this, if only because they’re putting on a grand show in a barn and there’s the chance that it could be aired on television.

Performance Worth Watching: You put Carla Jimenez in anything, and she’s the performance worth watching. I sang her praises during The Mick’s tragically short run on Fox, and I think she’s great here as Billy’s sister Marissa. And on top of playing a sister who wants to wrestle her baby brother, she has a few sentimental scenes that are unlike anything she got to do on The Mick. I’m here for all of it.

Memorable Dialogue: This is how Cheri Oteri’s character Dallas responds to Billy’s complaint that she hasn’t returned his call sooner: “Oh honey, I’m so sorry but Shakira ate a Snickers bar and we were in the hospital all weekend so we’re just coming up for air now.” Shakira is her dog.

A Holiday Tradition: There’s the annual network holiday special that Billy is very suddenly not hosting anymore. And of course there’s the old barn show that Billy and Rae are reviving with the help of one very talented community.

Two Turtle Doves: You could pair this with Lifetime’s A Country Christmas Harmony, which is about a singer whose career has taken a downturn who returns home to put on a Christmas concert.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It would make more since if this was a movie about a team of scientists literally stepping into Billy Holiday on a mission to cure him of some ailment, Fantastic Voyage style. Why not just Dancin’ Into the Holiday? Or you could go for the double meaning and use Tapping Into Christmas — or Billy Holiday’s Tapping Into Christmas. That’s the ticket!

Our Take: Mario Lopez occupies a very unique spot in the holiday movie landscape. He’s one of the season’s perennial stars, but he’s the only male star to really get that top-tier treatment. Obviously Hallmark has an incredible stable of leading men, and three of them teamed up for the excellent Three Wise Men and a Baby. But Lopez is on another level thanks to his ’90s cred and omnipresence on TV for the past 30 years. Plus, he was in Holiday in Handcuffs, one of the classics. That makes his movies an event — something that you can’t miss every year.

That being said Steppin’ Into the Holiday does a fine job of utilizing Lopez’s charm and some of his dancing skills. Reminder that Lopez came in 2nd in Dancing with the Stars Season 3, so him being the host of a DWTS-esque show is a nice wink to his actual career (and there’s another wink to Lopez’s real career in the movie that’s hard to miss). I’ll give Steppin’ Into the Holiday this: it’s more fun, cohesive, and catered to Lopez’s strengths than last year’s Holiday In Santa Fe (although nothing will ever compare to that holiday ham toss).

I do think that, while Steppin’ Into the Holiday feels perfect for Lopez, it doesn’t live up to the premise. This is a movie about a trained dancer who hosts a dance competition series and rekindles his passion for dancing while putting on a dance show. You’d want the dancing to be a bit… I don’t know… flashier, right? But over and over again, you’re reminded of why there aren’t many made-for-TV Christmas movies with big dance numbers — really, I’m struggling to think of any! That’s probably because these movies are shot on a tighter schedule and budget than is needed to pull off even one show-stopping dance number, let alone the many required for a movie to be a real musical. We get some nice moments, especially Lopez and Jana Kramer’s old Hollywood-esque dance through the empty town square, but I was left wishing it was possible for us to get more.

But again, what Steppin’ Into the Holiday lacks in surprises or originality (you know that barn’s gonna host an elaborate stage show the second it shows up on screen) it more than makes up for in laughs, thanks to Jimenez, Oteri, and a brief appearance from Mario Cantone.

Our Call:  STREAM IT. Steppin’ Into the Holiday doesn’t deliver much spectacle, but it’s a solid showcase for Mario Lopez — and not just his dimples, although they do get a deserved shoutout in the film.