Santa Baby and Santa Baby: Christmas Maybe

“Santa Baby” was released in 2006.  It stars Jenny McCarthy, George Wendt, and Ivan Sergei. (“Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe” is below)

 

This movie is about Mary Class, a highly successful business executive in New York- who just happens to be the daughter of Santa Claus. But when her father falls ill, Mary returns to the North Pole and the life she left behind to take over for her dad and implement her innovative ideas for running Christmas.

 

To read my review click here.   I want to warn you this blog entry contains spoilers.

 

This is another funny and warm movie.  I never get tired of it

 

Mary is full of ideas.  She is seen doing a pitch for a store (similar to Target) to change it and make it profitable again.  She’s clearly a workaholic.  Her boyfriend works in the same field and is as focused on work as she is.

 

When her mom calls to say Santa is ill, she immediately arranges to go home and bring her assistant with her.  This is the only problem I have with the story.  Santa is immortal.  How can he have health problems?  In order to get from the town to the secret area where her family lives they have to go by dogsled.  The only problem is her ex-boyfriend, the local mail carrier Luke, runs the dogsled.

 

The North Pole area and buildings are so charming and magical.  They are so homey yet so perfect for Santa.

 

The elves are jolly and sweet but not the sharpest tools in the shed.  They add a real comic element to the story.

 

Mary helping out while her father rests gives her a chance to try out all the ideas she’s been formulating her whole life.  This includes adding a machine for toy manufacturing and adding computers.

 

Needless to say, with the elves being the way they are, things do not go smoothly.  To complicate things, her boyfriend Grant shows up.  Once he realizes she is Santa’s daughter, he immediately draws up plans to commercialize the space.  She begs him not to.

 

Without the number of toys they need and with Grant traveling back to the city to meet with the board of directors of the company to pitch his North Pole commercial business idea, Santa and Mary are in a jam.

 

I won’t ruin how they resolve the issue but I will say that Mary learns that she doesn’t have to choose her life in the city or her life at the North Pole.  She can be Mary Class and Mary Claus.

 

At points it is very silly, but there’s drama, family, romance, and plenty of Christmas.

 

 

“Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe” was released in 2009.  Jenny McCarthy returns as Mary Claus/Class but Ivan Sergei’s character of Luke is now played by Dean McDermott and Santa is no longer George Wendt, it is now played by Paul Sorvino.  I was okay with McDermott but in my opinion Sorvino was not a good casting choice.  If this wasn’t a sequel to a great movie, I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

In this movie, Santa is in the midst of a "late-life" crisis.  He's tired of the responsibilities of the job and he's ready to let his business-minded daughter, Mary, take over. Mary feels torn between the family business, running her own high stakes firm in New York City, and balancing a relationship with Luke. The situation gets even more stressful when Teri, a mysterious and ambitious new-comer to the Pole, decides that she wants to be the new Santa.

 

To read my review click here.   I want to warn you this blog entry contains spoilers.

 

This sequel picks up with Mary and her boyfriend Luke living in the city.  Luke is still a mail carrier and Mary is in the process of merging her company with a large company.  Mary is very happy but Luke seems unhappy with everything except being with Mary.  The city seems to make him really miss the peaceful atmosphere at the North Pole.

 

Mary holds a party for her clients.  When the band starts playing she sees her dad is a member of the band.  This is when she finds out there’s a problem.  Her dad says he sent her a letter saying she needed to be there to take over but she never got it.

 

The next day they all go back to the North Pole.  This is where we meet Teri.  She has everything working very smoothly.  She has implemented new ideas that improved everything.  It’s clear that Teri is not happy Mary has shown up to take over.

 

Teri does everything she can to sabotage Mary.  It seems Teri wanted to be the new Santa.  We don’t find out the full reason why until the end.

 

Meanwhile, Luke is feeling at home again and decides he wants to stay there and not go back to the city.  Mary goes without him.

 

I won’t spoil the ending but of course they resolve everything.  Like I said, I don’t like this one nearly as much as the first but together they are enjoyable.

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the movies.  Happy Viewing!