The best part of the holidays and that there is never any shortage of Christmas movies--good or bad. Now, there are Hallmark holiday movies which I must say, are the worst of the worst. Pretty nonsensical, always predictable, and incredibly cheesy.

However, I do feel like Netflix has entered the (holiday) chat. Starting a few years ago, they’ve come up with some of their own original releases including A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch, which were so popular, they’ve released sequels each year since then.

The newest December 2021 release is A Castle for Christmas, starring some pretty big names including Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes (Wesley from A Princess Bride).

What’s It About? 

Brooke Shields plays the role of a city-dwelling, famous author of the Emma Gale book series named Sophie Brown nee McGinty. She’s facing a media storm coming off the heels of killing off one of her main characters, as well as a real-life divorce from her husband.

Needing a break from her public meltdown, she decides to visit Scotland, where her father lived as a boy with his family. They were groundskeepers at the local historic Dun Dunbar castle.

In true holiday romcom fashion, she has a flirtatious encounter with a local, handsome Scot, only to find out he is the Duke and owner of Dun Dunbar. 

The Duke is kind-hearted and has forfeited much of his money and inheritance to prevent the local townspeople from being overly taxed so they can keep their farmlands. But it comes at the expense of the castle, which he can no longer maintain by himself. 

He’s being forced to sell, and who is the first buyer? Sophie, of course. The two are forced to co-habit for a few months so she can learn to properly maintain the castle and its grounds. And inevitably, the Christmas spirit brings them closer together.

Watch It or Not?

If you’re like me and you love Christmas movies AND you love all things to do with the UK (especially Scotland and castles), then yes you definitely should watch it. Although it doesn’t come close to Love, Actually, this movie will whisk you away to Scotland albeit for an hour or two. 

If you’re looking for a holiday-themed moved that doesn’t have any of the cheesy acting or predictable happy endings, then I would say skip it and maybe watch Die Hard.