Stream It or Skip It: ‘Feliz NaviDAD’ on Lifetime Proves Mario Lopez Is a Christmas MVP

Mario Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart reunite for Feliz NaviDAD on Lifetime—except this time around, Hart is behind the camera. Lopez stars as a high school principal whose daughter is ready for him to up his dating game, and AnnaLynne McCord stars as the woman who catches his eye. But will she also catch his heart? And will the high school bell choir win the Frosty Festival?! And—most importantly—is this Hart/Lopez team-up as good as Holiday in Handcuffs?

FELIZ NAVIDAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Mario Lopez stars as a high school principal named David Morales—and yes, literally everyone in town is incredibly aware that Lopez is way too hot and too cool to be a normal high school principal. But David isn’t just too hot to be a principal; he’s also too hot to be a deliveryman, which is the gig he works on his off hours so he can make money for his daughter Noel’s (Paulina Chavez) college fund. Or is there another reason behind this second job…?

While in his very flattering deliveryman uniform, David starts picking up order after order from Sophie (AnnaLynne McCord), who’s in town visiting her father and helping him send her late mother’s classic toys to new homes for the holiday season. They go from strangers to Sam and Diane right there on her front porch, and they both take note of the very obvious chemistry. So you better believe that when David’s daughter signs him up for a dating app, Sophie swipes right.

Fortunately for Noel, Sophie’s not only a possible match for her dad. She’s also a professional musician and the high school’s bell choir is in need of a major overhaul if they want to dazzle the crowd at the upcoming Christmas Eve Frosty Festival! Will Sophie turn these kids into performers? Will David and Sophie make it work despite her living three hours away? Will people stop being transfixed by David’s impossible dimples? No spoilers, except on that last one: no, no one will ever be able to ignore those dimples.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Pair any blind date movie up with the undisputed Christmas classic The Mistle-Tones, and that’s the vibe.

Performance Worth Watching: As David’s daughter Noel, Paulina Chavez is an absolute delight. It’s no wonder she works so well with Mario Lopez; she’s the star of Netflix’s The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia, a sitcom co-created and executive produced by… Mario Lopez. What I love most about Noel is that she’s unlike the usual teenage girl you get in a movie like this. She’s positive, upbeat, and she loves her dad. She’s not embarrassed by him (again, he’s Mario Lopez)! She wants him to date and, in a legitimately emotional scene, she has an honest heart to heart with him about his grief. She’s fantastic.

Memorable Dialogue: I also love how funny Chavez is, like when Noel finds out that her dad is working as a deliveryman again. She asks, “Dad, are we poor?” David responds, “We’re rich in family—,” and aunt Marissa (MaryCarmen Lopez) adds “—and love.” Noel’s response: “Ew, that sounds like we’re poor.” It’s actually rare to get jokes that hit that hard in one of these movies. This script is tight!

A Holiday Tradition: Pinestar, Arizona holds the Frosty Festival every Christmas Eve. And while it’s not a competition, you better believe Noel’s bell choir wants to mop the floor with their rival high school. But like, in a merry and jolly way.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: The title is such a solid, obvious pun that my colleague Josh Sorokach basically came up with it in 2018. But this movie completely lives up to that puntastic title by being so much fun and it even incorporates it in a pivotal, titular line.

Our Take: Make room in your holiday viewing schedule, everyone, because the professionals have arrived. This movie delivers that holiday romcom magic you ordered and includes the free gifts of Actual Pathos, Plot Surprises, and Solid Jokes. What a treat!

But seriously, the film’s core cast of Mario Lopez, AnnaLynne McCord, and Paulina Chavez are so good, so natural and at ease with each other, that they elevate material that is already way better than your baseline TV romcom. The characters have a depth to them that is never needed in one of these fun and fluffy movies, but it’s always welcome. For example, there are moments where Mario Lopez is doing actual acting—doing way more than being his usual, endlessly charming and entertaining self. I’m talking red eyes, muted tone, complicated inner-life type stuff—in a Lifetime Christmas movie!

It’s rare that one of these holiday movies actual dig into something as painful as the grief of losing a spouse, especially how that grief flares up around the holidays. To see a movie called Feliz NaviDAD go there, and sit there, with actors like Chavez and Lopez committing 110%? It’s powerful. And y’know what? Having the characters go to that deep, emotional place so early in the movie just makes you like them more, and it makes the rest of this fun movie even more fun.

The fun of the movie comes from David’s incredibly forward flirtation with Sophie, who flirts right back with gusto. What I love about this movie is that it doesn’t dumb down David or Sophie in order to delay their inevitable romance. These are two people who look like Mario Lopez and AnnaLynne McCord in a small town in Arizona. They react appropriately and accordingly! There’s very little will they/won’t they here; it’s more of a how will they and when will they. What keeps their dynamic interesting for the entire movie is their chemistry. The back and forth banter is fast and Lopez and McCord are more than ready to serve.

Take all that and throw in a very heated bell choir competition and lively supporting performances from MaryCarmen Lopez as David’s sister and Frank Quinones as a excitable yet mismatched substitute choir teacher and you’ve got a winner.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez make holiday magic once again.

Stream Feliz NaviDAD on Lifetime