“Love at the Christmas Contest,” starring Ross Jirgl and Samantha Cope, is a delightful new original Christmas movie on Great American Family, which premiered on Sunday, November 6.
In “Love at the Christmas Contest,” for as long as she can remember, Angie’s (Samantha Cope) favorite part of Christmas has been the Christmas Eve tree lighting in the town square.
This Christmas, her first without her mom, Angie doesn’t feel much like celebrating… until she learns her mom had always dreamed of winning the annual tree decorating contest and seeing her tree lit up in the town square.
Angie realizes winning the contest and decorating the town’s tree is the perfect way to honor her mom. What Angie isn’t expecting is for her high school sweetheart David (Ross Jirgl) and his adorable daughter Gabby to enter the contest, too.
The writing and direction by showrunner John Burd is solid and resonant, this is a holiday movie that will put everybody in a festive and cheerful spirit.
Samantha Cope is pleasant as Angie, while Ross Jirgl is charming as David. Young actress Eliza Donaghy is adorable as Jirgl’s 10-year-old onscreen daughter Gabby. It is worth more than just a passing glance, and it garners two thumbs up.
