It jumps around from one scenario to the other. In one she calls her parents to say she missed her flight, in the other to ask why they're not at the airport to pick her up. Unless it's two completely different realities there is absolutely no way that this would work. If it is, then it shouldn't be so choppy. I gave it a three due to the actors doing their very best, if not for them then it would have rated in the basement, but it has to be given a single star minimum. I usually enjoy the Hallmark Xmas movies, but this one only stayed on because of lack of other shows at the time. I recommend giving it a hard pass, sadly. The actors did try...

Over the years, Hallmark has done a few of these "alternate reality" stories, and they are a break from the normal straight through romance which check all the same boxes ... except half of this one checked those boxes anyway.

Our female lead (who reminded me a LOT of Annette O'Toole) winds up in simultaneous alternate realities via a not so clear split screen scene where in one she suffers a delay and barely misses her flight home and stays in Chicago an extra day and spends time with the dreamy lawyer from a firm in the building her company occupies. In the other, she makes her flight and spends her planned Christmas with family and old friends.

Unlike many of these stories, there's no "good boyfriend/bad boyfriend" dynamic. I like both guys. In fact, I liked the lawyer best. The "hometown boyfriend" was a bit of a Drama King in my opinion. That was one of the common tropes ... the hometown guy where they'd both had unrequited love many years ago. The question is ... which will she choose when she's back to one reality?

Yes, there is ONE timeline goof near the end. Can you spot it, too?

This was pleasant. I'm a big fan of Hallmark's what if? Alternate reality movies so I was already inclined to like the movie. Lacey Chabert starred in a good one called "Family For Christmas", Nikki Deloach was in another good one called "A Dream of Christmas" and Eloise Mumford was luminous in "Just in Time For Christmas".

A Tale of Two Christmasses, is more like Gwyneth Paltrow's Sliding Doors, which showed two different realities play out depending on whether Gwyneth's character catches a subway train or not. I thought it was very well done and quite interesting. Here, Emma, played by Katherine Barrell, is an architect who has two different realities play out depending on whether she makes or misses a flight out of Chicago.

In Chicago, she has a crush on a lawyer in her building named Max, played by Evan Roderick. The movie seems to take subtle jabs at his work for the environment (the owls) which annoyed me. He seems OK but his dislike of real Christmas was presented as a strike against him (fake trees may seem more environmentally friendly, but real trees are now grown sustainably on farms so there's generally no deforestation problems- and plastic is NOT environmentally friendly). Back home, Emma has an old platonic high school friend named Drew, played by Chandler Massey. I liked him in 2021's amazing Next Stop Christmas, another alternate reality movie that, frankly, is way better than this one.

Sliding Doors was more dramatic (way more dramatic), but I'm glad this was more Christmas friendly. The biggest problem with both movies is that it's hard to effectively show two movies, about two different stories, inside one movie. There really isn't enough time to see both alternative realities play out in a meaningful way.

I don't recall seeing Katherine Barrell before, but she was fun to root for. Unfortunately, she seemed a bit too clumsy, confused and less than competent until she made her renovation suggestions at the ski lodge. I don't mind clumsy and confused in a character, but we kind of had to take it on faith that there was a reason to call her "Perfect Peterson".

Also, the scene with Aunt Martha was way too weird. Playing dementia for laughs can be tricky, especially for those of us with family members suffering from it.

And I didn't like the part of Drew that made him pretend to be someone else. It was a little sad to hear him respond that "I'm still mostly me". It was also sad to hear him say "I'm tired of waiting for you to see me."

But the rest of the movie was OK. I feel like giving it a 6, but the alternate reality trope bumps it to a generous 7 (I grade Hallmark on a curve)