Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Designing Christmas With You’ on GAF, in Which Two Stubborn People Decorate A House For Work Before The Holidays

Designing Christmas With You on Great American Family follows Colbie Clark (Susie Abromeit) as she is hired to work through the holiday to decorate a large house for a festive ball. She is assigned to work with estate manager Ben Thurston (Liam McIntyre) to complete the task. The two have opposite ideas about the aesthetic and clash repeatedly throughout the process. Will they be able to complete the assignment? And will their work dynamic change when they develop feelings for one another?

DESIGNING CHRISTMAS WITH YOU: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Colbie is dashing around her office. When she prepares to leave, she’s informed that she has been put on an assignment that requires her to work over the days leading to Christmas. When Colbie tries to turn down the opportunity, she is informed that they’re an important client. Uh oh!

The Gist: After Colbie agrees to the last-minute assignment, she escapes to a local festive event. She decides to play a snowball game, which requires throwing artificial balls at a bell that’s hanging from the decor. She locks eyes with a random hottie buying coffee and accidentally hits him with the snowball as he walks her way.

The two have excellent chemistry, but are interrupted by Colbie’s sister who arrives to meet her. The meet-cute comes to an end and they go their separate ways. Boo-hoo! But not for long… It turns out that the mysterious hottie is the estate manager, Ben Thurston, for Colbie’s new assignment, meaning they’ll be working together over the holiday.

Upon meeting each other in a professional setting, Colbie and Ben butt heads over the room designs for the holiday ball, but Colbie holds her own and insists that she was hired as the decorator and is following her orders. Ben, despite being the same age as Colbie, wants the decorations to be more traditional, whereas Colbie was assigned to make things modern.

Respectfully, Ben, back off!

Thankfully, he does and the two grow close while designing the home. However, there are several challenges posed, such as another woman who is close with Ben, Ben’s interest in leaving the foundation, and Colbie misunderstanding part of the assignment.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Designing Christmas With You is a deeply cliched Christmas movie. Therefore, there are plenty like it! Maybe check out its name twin Designing Christmas, which follows two design competitors working together to renovate a house for a holiday stunt, or one of the many “working for Christmas” movies, like Falling For Christmas.

Performance Worth Watching: Fiona Stewart steals the scene as the elderly foundation owner who has a tight relationship with Ben, and a keen appreciation of Colbie’s work. She’s fierce, powerful, and strict. Woman power!

Memorable Dialogue: “So, do you remember that cute snowball guy? Turns out, he is the estate manager for the Chapman house. Yes, he’s cute, but he’s also opinionated and he fancies himself a designer!” Wow, that’s the whole synopsis!

A Holiday Tradition: Well, there’s the festive event with the snowball game from the beginning of the movie, but there’s also the annual ball that Colbie is decorating the house for. Looks like this town loves to party!

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Yes, the title makes sense. The movie is about a woman designing a house for Christmas with someone else. Very straightforward.

Our Take: Designing Christmas With You is a painless, festive romp. It’s filled with cliches and the chemistry isn’t quite sizzling, but the story is cute and offers a few worthwhile surprises. With a short runtime of 75 minutes, the love story doesn’t quite reach its peak. In fact, there isn’t much there? The most endearing moment between the two occurs when Ben catches Colbie singing a Christmas song while decorating a tree, and while clearly trying her hardest to sound… good… while singing, she reacts in shock, and the two laugh. The moment was equal parts cringe and cute, but never really romantic.

Clearly, Great American Family wants to stay firmly in the PG territory, which is fine and all, but as an adult, how am I supposed to watch a romantic movie about two utterly sexless adults? No sparks, whatsoever. Golly gee, it seems like it’d be more work to portray a bland romance when both characters are attractive and required to spend copious amounts of time together.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but don’t expect much. This is a Christmas movie that is comfortable being a Christmas movie, and doesn’t want to challenge any narratives or traditions.