User Reviews

This movie is cute, but if your cousin stole your fiancé, especially if you were close to this cousin, you would not go their fricken wedding. That biatch stole your man & I don't care how much you wouldn't want to disappoint your Aunt/mother figure that's too saccharine. The worst part is how self righteous the cousin is! Like I didn't do anything wrong blah blah blah. Take some responsibility Ho ho ho.

The main couple, Layla and Seth, have good chemistry and the story of Layla falling in love but also taking control of her future is perfect. If only they didn't try to paint cheating in that nice light.

As a Hallmark romance, this movie checks all the boxes. It's decent, but hardly outstanding. The trope of the fake fiancee is so overused, I'm amazed that they still keep using it, as if they could somehow breathe life into that horse that's been beaten to death long ago. Try as they might, they can never make it believable, because it isn't believable. In this case, the motivation for faking an engagement was to help our heroine Layla land a job with a coveted employer. Right. I didn't quite get the connection, either.

To be fair, if you can overlook the whole implausible fake fiancee plot, this movie was reasonably enjoyable. The performances by Jessica Lowndes as Layla and Daniel Lissing as Seth were good. She was cute, spunky and vulnerable at times. He was charming and likable. Their interactions with each other were good. There seemed to be at least some chemistry, and they appeared to enjoy being with each other. The subplot about Layla forgiving her cousin Jessica for stealing her fiancee was reasonably engaging. The supporting characters were mostly good and believable.

One thing that bugged me was how quick Layla was to end the fake engagement by staging a fake fight. It was clear throughout the movie that she was attracted to Seth on at least some level. From her conversations about him with her family to the aborted kiss they almost shared, to the real kiss they shared as show for Layla's former boss Darcy, it was clear that she was thinking of him not as a fake fiancee, but as a potential real one. So, why the rush to break up? Seth, on the other hand, had clearly liked her or been in love with her all along, so why did he not give her more pushback about breaking off the fake engagement?

The whole scene where they decided not to call off the engagement and professed their love for each other seemed too quick and forced. Same with them getting married in a couple of weeks so she could be a December bride. Sure, they could be in love with each other, but isn't that a bit quick to be getting married? I would have liked it better if they had missed the opportunity for a December wedding, but that she had realized that just getting married in December to be a December bride was stupid.

So, this was basically a standard Hallmark romance, with Christmas thrown in and retreading the tired plot trope of the fake fiancee. If you go into it with those expectations, you won't be disappointed. But it's hardly a movie that you will find compelling, or that will even stay in your memory very long after watching it.

I honestly wish I could give negative stars. This movie makes no sense and I don't understand how there are so many 10 star reviews.

I will never get my two hours back. I painfully sat through this entire moving thinking at some point it had to get better. It does not for several reasons.

1. The entire movie Layla's family bullies and pushes her to forgive her terrible cousin who has stolen her fiancé. This is after the first 10 minutes of the movie where she attends said cousins wedding with Seth, the guy responsible for her breakup. For absolutely no reason whatsoever he announces their "fake" engagement. Naturally, the ex-fiancé grills them about being a couple as if it's his business what she does with her life. Her cousin, meanwhile, seems pleased as if she's now off the hook for stealing her fiancé. Her overbearing aunt is thrilled and doesn't ever seem concerned with acknowledging her daughter did something horrible because "they're family". This continues throughout the movie with everyone insisting Layla get over her pain, embarrassment, etc. telling her they want forgiveness. Why don't they try asking for or earning it?

2. Fast forward over an hour of random filler nonsense of decorating a house, Layla's annoying ex-boss decorating the house next door, and some random encounters along the way. Get a backbone Layla, she's your ex-boss WHO CARES what she thinks of you or you "fake" engagement anymore?

3. Seth cares WAY too much about this fake engagement. No guy cares this much about a fake relationship to give a woman his grandmother's ring!

4. The entire movie they go to or are asked to attend dinners where they clearly look like they're lying. I get it's a movie but after 1 or 2 times is it really that hard to lie without making a face?

5. Finally, although I could add more to the list, at the end of the movie after Layla secures a new, dream job (thanks to Seth...how convenient) they decide it's time to break up. Seth is clearly in love, saying several times how she's made his house a home, and Layla also has feelings. So, there's literally NOTHING keeping them from just being a real couple. Literally NOTHING! No brat kids, crazy ex's, no one that matters knows this is all fake and threatens to expose them. Instead, they attend their engagement party so they can embarrass themselves by staging a fake fight?? WHY??? Then Seth finally confesses his love, Layla also decides she's in love (although really not believable in my opinion) and 2 minutes later they're getting married (in December to make this ridiculous title make sense) and movie ends.

I guess it's a feel good movie if you only watch the last 5 minutes.

The movie as a whole was okay, but it wasn't much to make me eager to watch it again. Along with that, there's also the massive elephants in the room: the aunt, the cousin, and the ex-fiance.

The movie has an annoying habit of making it seem like the main character is 100% wrong for being bitter at her cousin for stealing her fiance and then marrying him within months. To make matters worse, her meddling aunt keeps pleading for her to forgive her cousin with the reasoning being "for family". She seriously says this SOOOO many times that I've lost count.

The ex-fiance even tries to explain his reasoning for cheating and breaking up with the main character as being that the two of them didn't get to know each other that well and that the engagement was rushed due to the main character's "obsession" with having a Christmas wedding. This made me roll my eyes because the ex-fiance had little issue getting engaged to her cousin after knowing her for a short period of time and then marrying her during the following Christmas season.

I nearly gave up on this film when these three ambushed the main character which led to her actually forgiving them! It's seriously the most unrealistic thing I've seen in a Hallmark Channel movie along with the main character actually going to her cousin's wedding.

If you're perfectly fine with backstabbing meddling family members who act as if what they did wasn't all that bad, then this movie is for you.

This one was terrible. I had high hopes, because the dude from When Calls the Heart is charming enough that i thought he'd pull this one through. Not so much. Here are the problems with this movie:

1. It was enraging that everyone wanted the lead actress to forgive her cousin. Like, my blood pressure was skyrocketing the whole movie. Here's the thing: If you steal your cousin's fiancé and get married 6 months later, you DO NOT invite the jilted cousin to the wedding, you do not put pressure on her to attend the wedding, you do not refuse to choose sides, and you do not ambush her like a family intervention so that she can *finally* get over it. Instead, the nasty cousin should expect years of appropriate shunning and consequences. Neutral family members should not be saying "oh be a bigger person and come to the wedding". Any good friend or family member would skip the wedding and take you out of town for the weekend to avoid the whole thing. My husband and i were watching this and both of us could barely make it through the movie because of this infuriating story line.

2. Why was the dude so vested in the fake wedding? what was in it for him? In real life, this would be creepy.

3. The house was gross. It was grosser after it was decorated.

4. Once they had both acknowledged that they were into each other (but before they went public about the rouse), i don't understand what the barrier was for them to getting together. Why couldn't they just be a real couple at that point? It didn't make sense that they had to break up.

5. This was one of those infuriating hallmark movies where absolutely nothing happens over the course of an hour and twenty minutes. They got fake engaged in the first 10 minutes. Then there was an hour and ten minutes of filler where they are just talking to their friends and family and having dinner and other stuff. And then, last 5 minutes, they were about to break up but no, they decide to stay together. Like, nothing in the middle. Usually these stories need a twist, like he doesn't know she owns the firm he works for and is going to have to close it by xmas! And he has an ex girlfriend with a bluetooth who keeps mucking things up! Yes, some movies can be held up solely by charming romantic banter. But "A December Bride" is not Before Sunrise or Fifty Days of Summer. The writer here is no Richard Linklater. And the girl from 90210 is not a charming manic pixie girl.

Sorry guys, this one is a dud.

I am a cheesy movie fan and really enjoy Hallmark for its simplicity and predictability. Having said that, how on earth are there so many ten star reviews for A December Bride? The plot is terribly unrealistic. Just how does a jilted bride to be forgive her cousin for snagging her man? The main actress, Layla, is supposed to be a talented home stager and ends up decorating her fake fiance's home. He gives, basically a random stranger, his credit card to decorate his barren home for a Christmas. Honestly, a classroom of fifth graders could have done a better job. Layla's fake fiance's high end realtor friend ends up giving her a job for her impressive "decorating" skills. Oi vey! I am shocked at the fawning from the other reviews over Layla being beautiful and a great actress. She is plastic and can barely move her face and her acting is almost as bad as Meghan Markle's. If you need a good example of bad acting and give yourself a good laugh at the same time, pay attention to the crying scene in the wedding dress toward the end of the movie. Layla's aunt comments that her tears seem real!! Really? I am not saying that this an awful movie, far from it as the rest of the cast brings it together. This movie is a 5/10.

I had seen Mr. Lissing in When Calls The Heart and loved his portrayal of Jack Thornton. There is something about his eyes that sends out the feeling that what his character is saying is genuine and from the heart. As for the story line, I found it beleivable. Yes, her cousin did steal her fiancee, but if he was truly hers he would'nt have been "stealable". In the long run Layla and her cousin "mended the fences" on that. Seth was a MUCH better man for her. And I loved the way that her ex-boss got her comeuppance,