REVIEW: ‘My Secret Santa’ May Be A Sleeper Comfort Hit

My Secret Santa is everything you’d expect from its premise, yet it is still surprisingly delightful. Starring Alexandra Breckenridge and Ryan Eggold, this latest addition to the 2025 Netflix holiday film line-up features a gender-swapping premise that, on paper, is just as absurd as it sounds. However, by embracing this premise, something genuinely sincere is born, paving the way for a film that engages and encourages audience empathy, with a dash of romantic sweetness.

In My Secret Santa, the film focuses on Taylor Jacobsen (Alexandra Breckenridge), a single mom who works hard to make ends meet for herself and her teenage daughter, Zoey (Madison MacIsaac). Zoey impulsively applies to a snowboarding camp, hoping that, just maybe, she can attend. After being accepted and showing her mother the cost, it seems like almost all hope is lost. But knowing how much Zoey wants this camp opportunity, Taylor is prepared to do anything to make her daughter’s dream come true.

Employees of Sun Peaks luxury ski resort, which just so happens to be hosting this snowboarding camp, get 50 percent off lessons. Unfortunately, the only job opportunities left are specifically for Santa-types. Fueled by desperation and a persistent landlord’s (Diana Maria Riva) requests for overdue rent, Taylor consults her brother and his partner, who just so happen to be into FX makeup, to create an impeccably designed Santa Claus guise. What could possibly go wrong?

The Santa Claus get-up is actually really good, bringing some balance to a humorous premise.

Well, to start, any gender-swapping adventure comes with the threat of discovery. There are little notes here and there in My Secret Santa hinting at the real identity of Santa Claus. Plus, the on-the-nose pseudonym Taylor dons as an employee of the ski resort screams, ‘This is a disguise!’ However, while My Secret Santa takes its time playing with this particular threat, when the shoe finally drops, it speaks to Taylor’s evolving character.

Once she steps into the shoes of Santa Claus, or Hugh Mann as it were, Taylor accesses people’s most vulnerable selves. Yes, she gets off to a bad start, with her overly practical personality almost ruining the children’s dreams of seeing Santa. Through her experiences with her superior and growing crush, Matthew Layne (Ryan Eggold), the children who visit Santa, Zoey, and even Zoey’s snowboarding arch-nemesis, the single mother learns in My Secret Santa that it’s okay to let people in, but also to give herself permission to let go.

It’s a reminder that it’s okay to be vulnerable, that not everything needs to be handled alone. If you forget to have fun—if you only focus on surviving—it’s so easy to lose sight of what’s happening around you and the people you may be leaving behind. My Secret Santa demonstrates this through both Taylor’s and Natasha’s (Tia Mowry) journeys in the film, with the comparisons between the two only coming together towards the end due to a lack of real depth to Natasha’s characterization. 

The slow-burning romance in My Secret Santa starts super rocky, but finds its legs.

Where things could have gone haywire is in the FX makeup used to render Taylor’s transformation from mother to old man. The premise of the transformation already hinges on absurdity, so it could have been easy to make the makeup match in kind. The direction ultimately taken in the Santa prosthetics was a smart one, and also offered a sad reminder of how difficult it is to find convincing white hair for wigs in a silly montage.

This reminder also manifests itself in My Secret Santa‘s romance. Matthew is very much a part of Taylor’s journey, even if she isn’t accepting of him or his smooth moves at first. Almost miscast as the party boy hotel heir, Ryan Eggold is so darn charming as Matthew that it’s no wonder that Taylor starts to crack under his efforts. You almost forget the fact that he’s just not super believable as a lawbreaking party boy type. 

Even still, Alexandra Breckenridge and Ryan Eggold work incredibly well together as these would-be lovebirds. With their opposites-attract vibe and the hurdles they face, their coming together is well worth the wait. In all honesty, viewers may realize that the two complete each other long before the characters do, which makes the watch even more tantalizing. 

My Secret Santa may be the sleeper comfort holiday film of the season.

Where My Secret Santa struggles is in its rough first act, with its hard lean on tropes out of the gate and residual cheese. Zoey’s application to a snowboarding camp makes sense with further context later on in the film, but, whether due to line delivery or the way it’s introduced, it can’t shake off its cheese factor. Taylor’s original job at a cookie factory checking cookies for perfection? I can smell the brie from here. 

That’s not to say a little cheese isn’t a bad thing (in fact, it’s the only cheese this chronically lactose-intolerant critic can consume). Setting the right tone, however, is essential for these kinds of films. Despite its ridiculous premise, My Secret Santa melts away its cheesy exterior to reveal surprising depth. This is all to say, a gradual easing of the audience into the cheese factor might have helped a little here.

My cheese-fixated criticisms aside, My Secret Santa may end up becoming the sleeper comfort hit of the holiday season. Once you get past the initial cringe of its opening act and settle into the Santaness of it all, the film welcomes the audience not just with its romantic sensibilities but also with its message to embrace vulnerability and let go. As far as end-of-year messages go, that’s one I think many of us can get behind.

My Secret Santa is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.

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