2 out of 5

Created by: Martha Williamson

I mean, I’m happy to see Oliver and crew again, I won’t lie, but this pushed the Hallmark factor to the max – something I should’ve expected since xmas themes bring out the cheesy – and made for a rather drag of a viewing.  The essential premise of ‘the Postables’ delivering undeliverable letters remains the same, only this time we can pick up the letters to Santa / God concept and run with it into tissue tear-jerker land.  I know, I know, I should really expect this from Hallmark, and I do, but the majority of the S,S,D series hovered at a tolerably cheesy and fun level, holding back the shmooncy subplots until, y’know, the season finale.  Martha Williamson brought out her ‘Touched by an Angel’ wand for this ‘expansion’ to the show (another such expansion is coming later this year), and I guess I was enjoying staying away from actually going spiritual / mystical with things, even if there was that vague Jesus flair floating around most of the time.  Whatever.  This would be more tolerable if this didn’t feel like an episode stretched to make the 2-hour mark; the core ‘mystery’ is solved pretty quickly, and then they really drag out the extras with Oliver and Shane.  The pilot movie had the justification of introducing everyone; ‘…for Christmas’ doesn’t have that plotting boon and so definitely runs out of steam.  Still, it is fun to see this enjoyable cast back in action (while the special actually keeps them in action), and I’ll look forward to the next special when maybe the writers will aim for cheesy smiles instead of tears.