Much is made about the gay theme of this movie, but the bottom line is, is it entertaining ? What we came away with is that Hallmark should let its stable of actors continue to do more directing and writing for its movies. Jonathan Bennett, who plays the main character here (Uncle Sam) participated in the writing of this story. Like Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad have demonstrated in their writing for Hallmark, the script is fresh, with snappy dialogue, and very natural and true to life. This was directed by Ali Liebert, who, like Sustad, is one of Hallmark's best and most natural actresses, and here she demonstrates a real talent for directing a movie.

That said, the first hour of this movie is very funny, mostly due to Bennett's performance, which doesn't hinge on him being gay or straight. His character is simply funny as a person, and Bennett plays it wonderfully.

The second half of the movie is pretty standard stuff for a Hallmark romcom, but it is still entertaining because of Bennett's sincere and endearing performance and because the supporting cast of players are all quite good, particularly Chelsea Hobbs (who played the wicked Blair in the now beloved "Nine Lives of Christmas") as Sam's sister, Mila Morgan (one of the best of Hallmark's child performers) as Sam's niece, who also has a couple of pretty hilarious scenes in the first hour, and George Krissa as Jason, the neighbor Sam is attracted to.

All in all, this was a fun, sincere, and entertaining two hours that, for us, just demonstrates that Hallmark should encourage its talented performers to continue writing and directing - gay or straight, who cares ? - they bring something different and fresh to the Hallmark Christmas schedule.

This was Hallmark's first Christmas movie featuring two gay characters in leading roles The Christmas House also featured Jonathan Bennett as a gay character, which was. Nice, but he and his husband played more as secondary characters.

This one was about a love story. The plot was fine. The performances were pretty good. But.... I love Jonathan Bennett. He's great looking, and I've seen him give some really good performances. I have noticed that when he does comedy, he tends to go over the top. Lots of mugging and big eyes. He doesn't need it. I think a toned down performance would play better, even in a comedy. Bennett's final scenes show how good he can be.

Hallmark seems to be diversifying. Not only in types of characters, but in plots as well. I've seen a couple of new movies this year that don't feature a love story as the main plot line. It's a welcome development.

It's hard to believe it's taken Hallmark this long to make a Christmas themed movie where the main characters, attracted to each other, are the same sex. But, good for Hallmark! We love Jonathan Bennett. This was a very funny movie and like most other Hallmark holiday movies, a bit over the top but, that's what we want when we tune in to Hallmark. Especially their holiday films.

This movie was as predictable as most others but, the fact it revolved around a gay couple, was a welcome change to reality. Love happens, even between same sex couples! Honestly, we enjoyed the premise and comical events in this so much, the fact it focused on two men was forgotten. It was another entertaining holiday romcom from Hallmark. We feel Halmark has outdone itself this season with a number of good holiday movies.

Added this to my favorites and will have this on my yearly watch list. The chemistry between the leads was electric and I loved that the main character expressed that while his family was supportive of his sexuality, not everyone in the world is (as shown by the conversation and buzz around this movie before it even released).

Follows the very predictable Hallmark formula and I love it for that. It told the same types of love stories they tell with same sex couples, but this one just looks a bit different. Just like same sex couples in real life, just two people in love. Give this movie a try!

Gay Sam (Jonathan Bennett) agrees to babysit his niece and nephew around Christmas while his sister and her husband go to pick up a baby they adopted. He has a little trouble with the kids so he asks for help from the next door neighbor Jason (George Krissa). Turns out Jason is gay also and, as he helps Sam, they become attracted to each other. However Jason wants kids and Sam doesn't.

Utterly predictable but sweet movie. It's VERY G rated but it's colorful and has a good cast. Bennett and Krissa play off each other very well although Bennett has a tendency to overact at times. Still I applaud that we finally have a gay rom-com! Also there are two nice kisses between the guys at the end :) No great shakes but sweet.

Great movie - not just a great Hallmark movie - not just a great Christmas movie - great movie, period. I'm a straight guy who likes Hallmark movies, and I thought this one was terrific. Well-acted and directed, funny, uplifting, and a Christmas story to boot. Happy for the representation it gave to our fellow humans. I liked the multiple storylines also, very well done. Hallmark has done a great job this year of making really good movies that differ from their standard tropes or themes - especially this year's Christmas movies. Criticism of this movie based on hate or ignorance is not Christian, and not WJWD.

This was definitely the worst movie on the Hallmark channel. The acting to writing there wasn't anything to like.

Jonathan Bennett was the worst part of Mean Girls and he hasn't grown as an actor. He should stick to Game Show host.

I have never heard so cheesy lines in one film. The writers should have been fired or sued for all their payment returned to the studio.

All the adult actors, except George Krissa as the contractor/neighbour Jason. The real stars are the children. Everett Andres as Miles Walker and. Mila Morgan as Miles younger sister Dania Walker shine. They both steal the scene from their older counterparts.

Even if this had been written for a straight couple, it would have been terrible.

Steer clear of the mess.

This movie had such wit and a minimal amount of the usual "Hallmarky" tropes, I almost had to check and see if I fell by accident into Netflix!

Jonathan Bennett is charming as all-get-out. As Executive Producer, I am assuming he got the script he wanted, which is well above the average for the Hallmark Machine. And he is clearly very invested in what he is doing. Of course, the usual things happen--a near-kiss at the one-hour mark and a misunderstanding at the one hour forty-five minutes mark, etc. But, this one has a distinct lack of cheese and the usual overstuffed silliness.

The Gay angle really works here, as opposed to some other films they make when they try to shoehorn Gay characters into one of their usual plots (listen to a podcast by the brilliant Bobby Leiber for more on this topic) and expect it to work. But, as this film is set in the NYC Metro it is very plausible that their romance could bloom in a friendly, accepting environment. Honestly, I was watching this with the intention of having an amusing "Hate Watch," but was pleasantly surprised. HALLMARK: Keep on breaking that cookie cutter with which you make WAY too many movies. Doing something different might engage more viewers!

I really liked the Holiday Sitter. The 2 leads are great together. I love Jonathan Bennet and all that he is in. The other lead was new to me. It's sort of your typical set up on most Hallmark movies. We've seen this done before but this was a different twist on 2 leading men being gay. The comedic antics of Jonathan's character could be a little over the top an times but it didn't rub me the wrong way. He's your typical commitment phobic man while the other one is having hard time finding anyone. He wants a family so he is starting to adopt. The script was well written. I would definitely recommend.

What a disappointing romantic comedy with a predictable plot. This tired romantic comedy storyline is now played out between two guys but without any innovative script to differentiate this movie from other romantic comedies. At our home, we find ourselves selecting Hallmark movies that were written and filmed / made in 2019 or before versus more current, poorly written and uncreative romantic comedies. The lack of quality and unique storytelling with recent Hallmark movies could break their successful channel and streaming services since I'm not sure who is going to pay for sad, wacky rom-Com movies.

So glad to see an LGBTQ+ storyline. Thank you. Wonderful holiday movie. Love is love.

The concept of a single guy wanting to have a vacation in Hawaii by himself, and the fact that he gives it up to take care of his sister's kids is a selfless move, and shows that family is more important than individual wants.

This was such a delight to see that hallmark is expanding its repertoire with homosexual storylines and diversity with minority storylines. I will definitely tell my friends to watch Hallmark and I will continue to watch Hallmark because this is the future of diversity and inclusion. Thank you so much for being inclusive in all your story lines. I love Hallmark channel and I'm so happy to see you move away from the Prince for Christmas story lines to real storylines for every day people.

The problem I have with romantic comedies is the fact the film industry so often mistakes lust or satisfying one's needs for love. Often a guy simply wants to be with a guy (or girl) because the other person is beautiful or sexy. True beauty lies inside, though.

They finally got it right with 'The Holiday Sitter'. I found the relationship realistic and truly romantic. Sex was the furthest thing from their mind when they met, and their friendship started platonic, and then developed into something more.

Ok, but I'm jumping the gun here. Let's start at the beginning. Sam Dalton is a successful entrepreneur, and a bachelor. His sister Kathleen and her husband Nate urgently need to go to the surrogate mother of their third child, who is about to give birth, but they don't have anyone to look after their children. It is just four days before Christmas and everyone already has plans. A determined Kathleen manages to bribe Sam into looking after the children.

On arrival, Sam meets the neighbour, Jason - a wonderful, considerate man. Realizing he doesn't have what it takes to look after children, Sam 'hires' Jason to help him. And this is the start of a friendship that soon blossoms into a romance. There are many funny - and sincere - moments. I enjoyed the characters, and the way the story unfolded. If ever there was a feel-good gay Christmas story, this is it! This was absolutely delightful and I was smiling from beginning to end. This is such a sweet movie!

As these gay-themed Hallmark Christmas movies become an annual event I find myself increasingly bewildered by the phenomenon. And not a little conflicted. First there's the question of the intended audience. It is quite categorically not gay men, which might be the first assumption of the unsuspecting. No, no, no, the core audience for these movies is straight women. Presumably the same straight women who are now devoted readers of the burgeoning genre of "M/M novels" - soft-core gay romances written exclusively for a female audience. That's right: there are large numbers of women who get off on romance (with only a hint of sex) between men. In fact, they can't get enough of it. The problem with these M/M novels - and with these gay Christmas movies - is that it's gay romance stripped of anything confrontingly gay. It's all gentle pining, thwarted passion, smouldering looks and, in the final moments, one mildly passionate kiss (two if you're lucky - but no tongue!). There's never anything sexual. In the books the writer will typically cut to the waves crashing on the shore. In the TV movies: nothing. There's also nothing about the lives of these gay characters that even vaguely resembles the lives of real gay men. In The Holiday Sitter the theme is family, with Jason so obsessed with family and children that he's planning to become a single father via adoption, while Sam is so traumatised by divorce that he's avoiding family and planning on Christmas in Hawaii - alone. Yes, alone. Not even the hint of a gay friend or the prospect of trawling Honolulu bars for a bit of fun. In short, this is family values propaganda that, if it weren't for the gay characters, would win the approval of any extreme right christian ministry. So the notion that these movies are "progressive" and offer positive gay images is questionable, to say the least. Apparently, all gay men must now aspire to marriage, two kids and suburbia. It's like gay lib merely transported us all back to the 1950s. Needless to say, in The Holiday Sitter Sam falls for Jason, realises how empty his (gay) life has been and signs on for kids and the suburbs. While Jonathan Bennett has previously been charming in some of these creaky pieces of agit prop, his performance here (as Sam) is mannered and cheesy. It's a good thing that George Krissi (as Jason) is almost sexy and charming enough to make up for him. I'm sure the ladies who lap this stuff up will be moist with appreciation. Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see if they'll ever make a gay Christmas romance that actual gays might watch without wincing and cringing at how the straights have re-packaged us for their own entertainment.

Sam is about to get on a plane to Hawaii for Christmas, however his sister calls desesperately asking for his help: she needs a babysitter. When he gets there he meets the family's neighbor and friend Jason who helps him with his niece and nephew.

Well, that happened. Hallmark's first LGTB+ leading couple. And I'm so glad it's Jonathan. A gay man who we already know from several movies. Other than being one of the leading man, he was also involved in the story and exec producer as well. I also want to mention that this was directed by Ali Liebert, another star we know (and apparently queer as well?). I've already said before, when the stars of the stars get involved in the story, it's so much better. (See Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad).

Anyway, enough of that. The movie was great. REAL. Great chemistry between the leads. Jonathan's comedic timing is amazing, I actually laughed out loud like five times. The secondary cast is okay (a few familiar faces there if you frequent the channel). I also liked a lot the fact that adoption is part of the movie.

What I appreciated the most though was the fact that the characters were comfortably out of the closet, the family were okay with that but, at least, Sam still struggled sometimes with how LGTB+ people are treated in the real world. The scene that touched that topic was a beautiful one. And Jonathan crushed it.

100% recommended. And not because it's gay, but because it's a love story. Love is love.

Super rich white people problems.

A snobby know it all white gay man goes to guncle kidseat as his stupidly rich sister goes to buy a baby. He falls in love with the hot super rich gay neighbour who wants to buy a baby too. My cat could have written it better.

Does Hollywood or in this case whomever producer think what we need is this as a representation?

Have real people and real ducking stories.

We need rea houses. Real men who simply like men. We're not all Carrie Bradshaw and certainly not living the American dream. People live in 50 squmeters houses and pay more than 50% of their salary on rent.

Try some honesty next time you're gaying up a white trash romantic comedy. Haven't we already watched that same crap story with straight couples like 1000 times?

This is the most relaxed I've ever seen Jonathan Bennett in one of these movies and I've watched a lot of his movies. He's also really great at slapstick comedy. Why isn't he on a sitcom? And George Krissa-where has he been?

Super cute and also fun movie. Sam showed the most character development as the story is told from his point of view but it was well written with a believable ending. I'm not sure that these 2 would stay together long term but the writing got me to the ending. I also liked the side stories with Kathleen, Nate and the baby as well as Sam's relationships with Kathleen and her kids. Lots of development there as well.

Loved the nods to Mean Girls and Legally Blonde. Though I'm not sure what the connection is to Legally Blonde.

Jonathan and George have great chemistry. This was a great movie that was the literal definition of RomCom.

I watch a ton of Christmas movies (Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc) and rank them on letterboxd. The UK movie "Christmas Number One" has been my top ranked movie for about 5 weeks now (out of 64 new movies so far this year).

Welp, it was just knocked off it's spot by THE HOLIDAY SITTER. I love this movie! I was looking forward to it as Hallmark's first Christmas movie featuring a gay lead couple. It didn't disappoint. It's light and funny and genuine with two gorgeous and sweet leads who have electric chemistry together.

The plot is a fish-out-of-water story about a guy who is roped into babysitting his neice and nephew for a few days before Christmas due to a family emergency. He has no idea what to do with kids but, fortunately, the hot guy next door loves children and is willing to lend a hand.

There's comedy, romance, and some genuine family feels. I loved the character arc of the lead who goes from "I never want to get married or have kids" to falling for the guy *and* the kids and family life. There's a moving discussion he has with his sister about the queen experience.

The script is quite good, but it's the leads who make this special. Thank you, Hallmark, Jonathan Bennett, and George Krissa for making this landmark movie so beautiful.

Gay or straight I simply adore Jonathan Bennett! I've loved watching Jonathan since Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Holiday, and Halloween wars, he always made those shows fun and entertaining.

I've seen Jonathan play straight roles and gay roles and he plays his part perfectly, so I never knew if he was straight or gay in real life that is the sign of a great actor. His being gay or straight quite frankly doesn't make a difference to me!

Jonathan is a very fine and underrated actor.

He did a great job in this very funny rom-com. He had me laughing so much throughout this movie! The guy who played his love interest did a really great job as well. I loved the way the story unfolded and how the story ended. I think the movie was made in very good taste, there wasn't a bunch of slobbering all over each other. It was all about friendship, love, and family and that all families do not look the same, but we all love the same. The movie had humor, heart, friendship, and love, and everything was decorated very Christmasy, all the things I look for in a very good Christmas movie.

For myself and my family and friends who happen to be gay, we applaud Hallmark for reaching out and being more inclusive with their storylines.

I'm very glad Jonathan got to make a movie that he felt very strongly about. I get it some people feel very uncomfortable watching gay lovers or it goes against their religion, this is not the movie for them to watch but luckily there are thousands of other movies on hundreds of different channels to watch.

I will be rewatching this movie again tonight I loved it so much! I look forward to laughing my head off once again and applauding when they finally get together in the end!

This is Jonathan Bennett's funniest role! I laughed out loud the entire movie! Jonathan Bennett's performance is larger than life! He lights up the screen with hilarity and charisma. George Krissa balances out the laughs with his sincere love of children. The chemistry was insane and the romance is very real, not forced, in this movie. The movie also contained very real conversations of LGBTQA+ realities and perceptions.

The Holiday Sitter Summary Sam is a workaholic Uncle who does not like kids and on his way to vacation in Hawaii for Christmas, but his sister blackmails him into babysitting his niece and nephew in the suburbs. Sam enlists help from the family-friendly neighbor, naturally good-with-kids Jason, who cooks and helps take care of the kids. Jason wants to adopt a baby and have a family, while Sam has been a bachelor who works all the time, yet Sam is enjoying his family-man role this Christmas.

"I know we were kind of our own little bubble, but I really liked that bubble. A lot." -Sam.

MeetCute Sam gets out of the taxi in the snow on the suburban street of his sister's house, but unknowingly knocks on Jason's house next door. Sam trips and falls right into Jason's arms as he helps him not to fall. Sam and Jason have a spark immediately and Jason directs Sam to the correct house, next door.

Almost Kiss Scenes Sam confesses to Jason that he feels like he is taking advantage of his kindness in helping with his niece and nephew. He reaches out to holds Jason's hand and the two lovingly look into each other's eyes before Dania interrupts them.

Sam's Christmas tradition is to turn off all the lights in the house except the Christmas Tree lights and listen to 'Silent Night.' Jason turns the lights off and hums 'Silent Night'. Sam and Jason hold hands in front of the lit tree and lean in for a kiss, but are interrupted by the parents, Sam's Dad, and the new baby finally arriving home.

I normally never review movies, but I was drawn to review this one because it left me absolutely warm hearted and happy. I've seen some reviews here that consider this a movie that only appeals to straight women, or that it's "cheesy". As far as the cheese is considered - of COURSE it's cheesy. It's a Hallmark film! You don't come here for drama or complexity, you come here to feel a little more comforted and to leave with a LITTLE more hope for the world - even if the films are all fictional.

I (a lesbian), watched this with my best friend (a gay man), and my fiancée. We all loved this film. And finally, we get to see representation in a comfortable, homey film - the kinds we grew up watching, but never saw ourselves in.

This film is, at the end of the day, a Hallmark film. So if you're expecting to leave feeling like you just watched a Michael Bay film, you're in the wrong spot. But it WILL leave you happy, and if you're like us, feeling like you have a little more of a place in the world.

The 9 out of 10 is solely for the few improvements most Hallmark films could make. Most of that is just regarding common tropes or things like that. But c'mon - it's Christmas. Live a little. :)