A Beauty and the Beast Christmas Review: A Reminder That Beauty is Subjective (2025)

Christmas movies always know how to bring out the joy in all of us. It is truly the mark of the whole season — curling up under some blankets and turning on a feel-good holiday film.

The beauty in ION’s A Beauty and the Beast Christmas is the way it surprises our expectations all along the way. The made for TV movie definitely follows the holiday movie formula but manages a few twists of its own.

First and foremost, this movie gives us the typical girl character archetype in Ginger: young, pretty, obsessed with Christmas, and single. However, when it comes down to our love interest — Beau — the typical bad boy image is actually just a cover for the internet.

At first, that makes us think that this movie is going to give us everything we’ve already seen before. That is what is so charming about it — it manages to take typical tropes and put its own spin on them to give the story the warmth and love it needs to keep our attention.

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Since Beau is merely pretending to be the “Bad Boy of Baltimore” for his influencer status on social media, having an actor that can really pull off his softer, more genial side is exactly what this role needs and gets with Ryan Kelley.

In the beginning, Ginger’s overzealous approach to Christmas makes the character quite the turn off, fortunately once Beau scratches under the surface of her facade that image of her becomes a little easier to handle. From the outside, Ginger could easily be this charming, naive young woman who has no depth to her, but Beau sees through that and manages to pull out the real Ginger in a way that makes us really start to believe in the validity of this couple.

Ginger only appears shallow and perfect because that is what she believes her followers want to see from her. If there is one thing I can say about Leah Pipes its that her ability to smoothly encompass all aspects of Ginger really brings her to life and makes her worth paying attention to.

That is the other thing that really sets this Christmas tale apart from the usual humdrum of holiday fare — the story gives a subtle commentary on the social media influence of our world.

For the entire film, nothing these guys do is done without the influence of their followers. It’s a fakeness that could easily be garbled into a turn off for viewers if we didn’t know exactly what Beau and Ginger really want — something real which they feel they can’t get without this final act of influence.

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This is elevated by the very obvious sleazy nature of Rob Raco’s character, Derek, who is the clear villain from the beginning. If I have to really complain about something in this film it is how frustratingly annoying Derek is.

The irritability of Ginger in the beginning and of Derek throughout is honestly the mark of a well-crafted tale, which A Beauty and the Beast Christmas is.

What makes Ginger different from Derek is she eventually gives us something of substance that she wants in her life, whereas all we get from Derek is attention-seeking ploys. This means that Derek is a big turn off and honestly, as a villain, he ends up being a bit much from time to time.

Yes, all good stories need an antagonist in order to move the story along, but by the time we get to the real meat of the story, Derek has already grated on our last nerves. He’s always around and honestly, taking him out of about half of the scenes wouldn’t detract from the story at all. In fact, it would enhance it.

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Like I mentioned before, the story does take a traditional — some may even say predictable — route but, unlike in other films, that predictability is necessary to keep the charm flowing. Without its meet-cute moments and romantic high jinks, this story would falter and fail to entertain.

While patterns can be predictable, they are there for a reason — patterns actually work and make a story worth our time. So, when a dinner scene naturally turns into a food fight, I find myself clinging to the happiness and love both Ginger and Beau exude.

It’s moments like these that make it way more obvious just how fake their engagement is at the climax of the film. Both Ginger and Beau clearly have a chemistry about them but they are nowhere near ready for the marriage step, but awkwardly agree because they still think Derek has their best interests at heart.

The inability to communicate is something that becomes quite frustrating — especially since it is so typical of most romantic films. For once, I want at least one half of a romantic couple in these films to have the guts to speak their mind the entire time or at least closer to the start than the end.

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Honestly, the one who is better at this is Beau except he is only better at communicating to the wrong person — Derek. There are so many moments in the film where you want to strangle Beau because he says he doesn’t want to hurt Ginger and yet he doesn’t communicateanything to her.

We go into this film thinking that Ginger is going to be the beauty and that Beau is the beast. However, through Beau’s wise words and gentle influence, we all realize the truth.

When we start to delve into who Beau really is versus who he portrays on his social media its clear that he isn’t a beast at all — he is simply a misunderstood man who has a beautiful heart full of kindness, compassion, and love.

Maybe then Ginger is the beast? No, despite her initial off-putting nature Ginger is also just a gentle soul who wants love and family.

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The truth of the matter is,A Beauty and the Beast Christmas isn’t about physical appearances with neither protagonists being the beauty or the beast. The beauty ends up being life, family, love, and our true natures. While the beast is social media, society’s influence, and the internet.

It’s interesting that a holiday movie can actually be a subtle commentary on how social media and the internet influence who we are as people. Beau and Ginger both put forth this image of themselves in order to please everyone else.

Ultimately, the whole fake dating/engagement trope works in their favor because it allows them time to explore themselves from an honest lense. The best moment of the whole movie is when we get to see Beau and Ginger show the world who they really are instead of who they’ve been pretending to be.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder has never been truer than with this film.A Beauty and the Beast Christmasis a holiday movie that should become a viewing tradition year after year — its message of truth and love withstanding time itself.

What did you think of A Beauty and the Beast Christmas? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Mads Misasi

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Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love any and all TV Dramas with a few sitcoms mixed in. Join in the fun talking about TV by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.

A Beauty and the Beast Christmas Review: A Reminder That Beauty is Subjective (2025)

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