My Secret Santa Review: A Taco Bell Menu Item of Holiday Movies (And That’s Fine)

I have a theory about Netflix Christmas movies: They are exactly like Taco Bell. Every few months, they announce a “brand new” item, but when you unwrap it, it’s just the same five ingredients rearranged into a different shape. Sometimes it’s a Crunchwrap, sometimes it’s a Chalupa.

In the case of My Secret Santa, Netflix has taken the “secret identity” ingredient, mixed it with the “desperate single parent” sauce, and wrapped it in a “Mrs. Doubtfire” tortilla.

My wife and I sat down to watch this 2025 entry starring Alexandra Breckenridge (Virgin River) and Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam), and while we poked fun at it the entire time, I can’t say we didn’t enjoy the meal.

Here is my breakdown of the good, the bad, and the “Hugh Mann.”

The premise is simple: Taylor (Breckenridge) needs money for her daughter’s snowboarding lessons, so she uses her brother and his 3D-printed prosthetics to disguise herself as an elderly man named “Hugh Mann” (get it?) to work as the resort Santa.

Did the disguise look good? Surprisingly, yes. The makeup department actually put in the work.

Was it convincing? Absolutely not!

But that’s the beauty of this genre. Logic need not apply. If this were the real world, someone would notice that Santa has the delicate hands of a 40-year-old woman or that his voice modulates wildly. But in the Netflix Christmas Universe, if you put on a beard, you are invisible. I will admit, the physical comedy of her navigating the fat suit was a nice touch (and her repeatedly saying “Jingle Bells”), even if the premise requires you to ignore your common sense for 90 minutes.

The romance between Taylor (as herself) and Matthew (Eggold) was fine—standard Hallmark-grade chemistry. But the weirdest part of this movie wasn’t the romance; it was the “Hugh Mann Effect.”

From the moment “Hugh” arrives, every character treats him like a licensed therapist. The resort owner, the love interest, the snowboarders (including her daughter!!!) —they all immediately pour their deepest traumas out to this stranger in a fake beard. The movie tries to hand-wave this by mentioning the resort skipped a background check, but that doesn’t explain why the entire cast treats this random seasonal employee like the their best friend. It was bizarre, oddly touching, and completely unearned.

Every Christmas movie needs a Grinch, and here we have Natasha (Tia Mowry), the uptight manager suspicious of Hugh. The movie wants us to hate her.

I refuse.

Natasha is the only person in this film making sense! She was passed over for a promotion by the owner’s irresponsible son (nepotism at its ugliest), and now she’s the only one noticing that the new Santa is acting weird.

Honestly, Taylor is the villain. This is a straight-up Mrs. Doubtfire situation. Taylor is gaslighting an entire business, lying to her love interest (and her own daughter!!!), and committing identity fraud. Natasha’s vindictiveness comes from a place of professional frustration, and the movie treats her like a cartoon witch for simply wanting competence in the workplace.

In an attempt to give Taylor “edge,” the writers made her the former lead singer of a punk band called The Screaming Kittens.

This subplot was forced, heavy-handed, and dumb. We are supposed to believe she was a famous rocker, yet the record store employee in the movie doesn’t recognize her band (or her)? Meanwhile, once the secret is out, everyone at the resort reacts like they have Beyoncé in their midst. You can’t have it both ways, movie. It felt like a detail added just to give them an excuse for a musical number at the end.

Look, I used to dread these movies. Now? I accept them. My Secret Santa is comfort food. It requires zero brain power, everyone wins in the end, and it gives you plenty of ammunition to make jokes with your spouse on the couch.

Will I watch it again? No. There will be 75 other movies just like it next year. But for a Saturday night in December, it was a perfectly serviceable Crunchwrap Supreme.

Score: 3 out of 5

Additional Reading:

• For a deeper dive into why the “Mrs. Doubtfire” tropes feel so recycled, check out this Collider Review.

• Join the “Unofficial Discussion” over on Reddit where users are rightfully roasting the predictability: Reddit Discussion.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!