This film nearly passed me by, but as I'm involved in this year's Reddit Secret Santa, the name of the movie jumped out at me, and I am SO glad I watched it.On the surface, it is a schmaltzy, sweet, moral Christmas story. There were many well known TV actors in the film, which actually helped telling the tale.Jennie Garth is very likable as the investigative reporter sent to a small town to find out who is giving those in need gifts and is known as a Secret Santa.Garth's character assumes that its the local millionaire, an easy but obvious choice. She sets about asking members of the town about this secret Santa. They all know the story, but not who it is. Some have ideas which gives the reporter hope in cracking the story.As time goes on, She starts to get like the the town and where at the start of the film she was a big city girl with a good job, (an unfaithful) fiancé and a car, she discovers there is more to life than material things.I have to be honest, (maybe I wasn't as observant as another reviewer) I thought I knew who the Santa was, and was pleasantly surprised at their reveal. Maybe in retrospect it was easy to spot, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and as it is a TV movie, I'm kinda sad that its not available on DVD! This is a must see movie that will warm the cockles of your heart!

I agree with Jim and the other comments. I recorded this on the off chance as I was at work and settled down to watch it a couple of days later. From the first few moments which seemed to echo my own Bah Humbug sentiments, to the final revealing of the Secret Santa, I was enchanted! In fact, having watched that film, I suddenly found some Christmas spirit and had a good old cry throughout! What a joy to find a sweet, innocent, moving film amongst all the other rubbish and repeats that were on British TV this year.As another reviewer said, its a shame that it will only ever been seen at Christmas time! I'm soooo glad that I haven't recorded over it so that I can watch it again and again! Lets face it, it will never win any awards, will always be dismissed by TV reviewers but will ALWAYS be loved by those of us that discovered it one Christmas and hold it close to our hearts!

Rebecca is tired of reporting on 'fluff' stories for the Indianapolis Sentinel. When her editor wants her to do a story on the 'Secret Santa' who gives anonymous gifts to people in the small town of Hamden, she doesn't want to do it, until she realizes that she can prove herself by making the story more than a fluff piece. (A last-minute change of plans also helps.)After some misfortunes, Rebecca starts getting to know the people of the town, and she suspects the 'Secret Santa' is one of the town's richest men, a lawyer named John Martin Carter. There are plenty of clues, but getting to the real answer is not easy. She gets splashed by a careless driver ... in this type of movie, when a young woman despises a young man, you can almost predict what is going to happen.Jennie Garth was great. Not only adorable and sometimes funny, but also determined, and quite pretty too. There were lots of good performances, including Charlie Robinson as an employee at a rest home, who, despite his image as a comic actor, gave one of his best performances ever later in the movie when he wasn't even being funny. Also good was Barbara Billingsley as one of the rest home's residents who teaches Rebecca a lot. The movie was sometimes funny, but it was also touching. And it was appropriate for the whole family, with a TV-G rating, a rare thing these days on broadcast TV.

About eight minutes after the opening credits, I identified the Secret Santa to my companions. As the movie progressed my friends began to believe me more and more. Finally, it turned out that I was absolutely correct. How did I figure it out so fast? I have a nasty habit of always reading the credits...carefully.The story - Jennie Garth as a reporter is sent to a town called Hamden to identify a mysterious Christmas benefactor. Along the way she meets the citizens of the town, gets to know them, and ends up liking them. She does find out who the benefactor is at the last minute, which disappoints me because the clues were in front of her face most of the time. Even if she could not see them, she should at least done a better job of listening.Still, it was cute to watch and young ones can learn a great deal from the story's moral.