The Hallmark Channel’s Trading Up Christmas is essentially a riff on a viral challenge that plenty of YouTubers have attempted: to turn something small – a penny, a button, etc. – into something much more valuable by making a series of escalating trades. In this film, a woman attempts to trade a Christmas stocking up, with the hopes of getting her sister a house. How to turn that into a heartwarming romance, per usual on Hallmark? Add a news reporter who helps the scheme go viral and starts to fall for our do-gooder of a protagonist. The film features two very charming and funny leads and is filled with funny performances that make this yet another win for Hallmark this season.
Opening Shot: A woman sits in front of her phone and a ring light recording a YouTube video. She encourages her young viewers to follow along as she reads a Christmas story about a magical stocking that makes wishes come true.
The Gist: Michelle (Italia Ricci) is nothing if not kind and helpful to all she meets. She’s a reading specialist with a YouTube channel where she posts videos reading books to kids, and she uses phrases like “Easy peasy lemon squeezy!” even when things aren’t going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. She’s perpetually upbeat in a way I’ll never understand.
When she learns that her sister Keri’s (Meredith Forlenza) landlord is selling the building that she lives in with her young daughter Rosie and she needs to find a new place to live, Michelle gets a big idea to help out, inspired by an article she read in the newspaper about a boy who traded a rubber band for a house. Over the course of two years, the boy traded up for items more valuable than what he started with, resulting in getting his family a house. Using the same concept, Michelle decides she will do that for Keri but on an accelerated timeline; she wants to get her sister a house by Christmas, which is just ten days away. Using an old heirloom Christmas stocking as her starting point, Michelle posts a photo of the stocking with her story to social media and lets the internet do its thing.
When a local newspaper writer named Dan (Michael Xavier) is assigned to cover Michelle’s story (he’s a serious journalist forced by his editor to write about this sappy human interest story against his will), he leans into it by offering to be her first trade. He offers to give her an ugly Christmas sweater in exchange for her stocking. They meet up, but when he reveals that he’s a journalist and wants to write about her, she refuses the publicity in an attempt to keep her sister’s identity under the radar, because Keri doesn’t want to seem like a charity case.
Pretty soon after she meets Dan, Michelle realizes that the story will help her gain some traction, so she allows him to write the story after all without mentioning who will be the recipient of the house. (A detail which will eventually be revealed and cause friction.)
But along the way, it turns out that Dan is pretty good at helping her with the trades and his story has made her a bit of a viral sensation. He hooks her up with several people who offer bigger and bigger things: A snowmobile restored by a repair hobbyist, a free trip to Hawaii, an RV. (Note: the RV is not the house they get Keri.) But their mission is not only about acquiring a house, it’s actually bringing the community, and both of their families, together. And though Keri grows cynical that they’ll ever trade all the way up to a house, both Keri and Dan realize that this Trading Up project is as much about fueling Michelle’s desire to help and inspire others as it is about finding her sister a forever home.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The concept of trading up has been turned into all kinds of YouTube series, like Ryan Trahan‘s “Penny Series” and the “Trade Up Challenges” on ConnorTV. It’s more surprising that it hasn’t been used as a plot device in more movies.
Our Take: Using a trading up scheme as the basis for a movie is a clever conceit, and Trading Up Christmas turns what is typically a fun, creative challenge into a heartwarming tale of kindness and community – but in doing so, it doesn’t get overly sappy. By having cynical Dan and Keri both expressing their doubts and realistic expectations for how the whole thing will play out, they both keep idealistic and optimistic Michelle grounded and, yes, of course they all serve as foils for one another. Michelle helps Dan’s heart grow three sizes and eventually he opens up about his feelings for her. But Michelle, always the proactive helper, finally lets someone else help her for a change, and in him, she finds a mischievous accomplice.
Unlike many Hallmark movies which take place in a fictional town that’s named some variant of [Tree Species]+[Geographical Feature], like Sycamore Hills or Cedar Grove, this one takes place in the real city of Worcester, Massachusetts – the very city where this writer happened to grow up. If I had to make a very personal complaint, it’s that there is nary a B-roll shot of the giant Polar Seltzer polar bear off of I-290, nor a single reference to the traffic in Kelly Square. Putting that aside so I can be an real journalist like Dan is, the film has a satisfying romance that builds gradually and realistically as Michelle and Dan start their relationship as writer and subject, soon developing into flirty friends, and many of the supporting cast are genuinely funny and well-developed. The movie features several intertwining plots about sibling relationships, too, which help it feel like these characters are layered and would still be interesting outside of the trading plot. While it’s no surprise that this movie gets its happy ending, both in romance and real estate, it takes us on a slightly unpredictable ride to get there, which is always a plus considering how formulaic these films can often be.
Parting Shot: Michelle and Dan kiss next to a mantle where her stocking – the one he traded her an ugly sweater for – now hangs.
Performance Worth Watching: Michael Xavier’s portrayal of Dan is prickly at first, but pretty soon, after he starts to throw himself into his role as Michelle’s trading buddy, his talent as a comedic actor starts to shine. The goofier he’s expected to be, the more believable and appealing a leading man he is.
Memorable Dialogue: When Michelle trusts Dan to make a trade for her, he comes back with an animatronic Santa Claus, which she refers to as “Festive night at Freddy’s,” a genuine laugh moment for me.
Our Call: Trading Up Christmas is an above average holiday romance thanks to an ensemble of characters who feel three-dimensional and have great chemistry, well-written dialogue, and feel-good cheer. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
