Six Degrees of Santa Movie Review

When a special secret Santa program brings two people together, can they put their past behind them and find true love? In Six Degrees of Santa on Lifetime, Harper helps Jason search for his Santa, but there's a twist. Is the twist and story one that has Christmas magic and worth watching? Here's my full review.

Six Degrees of Santa Summary

Harper (Kathryn Davis) and her daughter Dani have a special Six Degrees of Santa program that they promote each year. Each year they give out boxes to people to use as secret Santa. The concept goes like this. One person buys a gift and puts it in the special box. The gift is anonymously given to a second person, who uses it briefly and then re-gifts it to a third person. This goes on a few more times until their are six degrees of separation between the original gift giver and the last recipient. The last recipient gets to enjoy the gift.

Part of the fun of the program is that it is all done anonymously. And, the gift can travel and end-up in unique places. Imagine living in another country and receiving a surprise gift like that. What a magical Christmas gift.

In the Six Degrees of Santa movie on Lifetime, Harper puts a special book in the box and secretly gives it to her mail carrier. He enjoys reading the story to his son that evening, and the next day he passes it along. The book eventually makes its way to Jason (Steve Lund), a business executive who has a special connection to the book. It was his favorite book when he was a child, and receiving the secret Santa gift seems like fate. Harper had written a special note in the book, and it speaks to Jason's own belief that the book had such an impact on his youth.

Because of the note and the book, Jason feels like he has a connection with the first Santa in the Six Degrees of Santa chain. So he sets off to find who sent it and as the creator of the program, he tracks down Harper to ask for help. Of course Harper knows that she was the one who sent the book, but she doesn't want Jason to know that so she gets her neighbor to pretend to be the first Santa.

My Six Degrees of Santa Review

The Verdict: Cute concept. The story of Six Degrees of Santa is a cute idea. I mean who doesn't enjoy a Secret Santa gift. And this one has the twist of it being passed along so you never know where it eventually ends up. Of course, I'm not sure how that would work in reality. Would people really re-gift it? And, what sort of gift can you use and then re-gift?

Other than the cute story, I felt that Six Degrees of Santa moved at a snails pace. Especially the first half of the movie, I felt that there just wasn't any energy or excitement. Once Harper and Jason have some chemistry going and there's a connection between the two, the second half of the movie is more enjoyable. But, overall it lacked the spark and magic needed to be a really good Christmas movie.

I think a lot of this comes down to the directing, and production of the movie. It needed more music, and more memorable moments. There weren't any big scenes, just a lot of one-on-one time with Harper and Jason. This is great if there's lot of chemistry and excitement between the leads, but I didn't get that vibe from them.

Six Degrees of Santa Recap

This movie originally aired on Lifetime on Sunday November 13th. With so many Christmas movies left in their It's a Wonderful Lifetime lineup, Six Degrees of Santa is one that I'd put on the back burner. Not one that I'd jump to watch, and not one that I'll watch again.

More Lifetime Movie Reviews:

Merry Swissmas

Reindeer Games Homecoming

Watch Six Degrees of Santa on Lifetime