Jenny McCarthy reprises her role as Mary Claus, Santa’s daughter, in Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe. Mary has her life all together in New York City where she is a high powered marketing / advertising professional. She’s thriving in her career and is on the verge of a huge merger that has been her biggest goal. Her personal life is great too, living with her boyfriend Luke whom she has known since childhood up in the North Pole. However, Luke isn’t as happy about his life in New York as he witnesses the less than stellar Christmas spirit on his route as a mailman. Everything goes into upheaval when Mary finds out her father Santa Claus has taken leave and expects her to “take over the family business.” This is definitely what she doesn’t need right now, but her boyfriend is more than happy to return home and help Mary get things in order. However, up at the North Pole Santa’s helper Teri isn’t exactly eager to help Mary, more like eager to make her own goals happen.

Obviously, the fun of this movie is all in the journey of Mary trying to get Christmas back on track. It takes some unexpected twists and turns but true to ABC Family holiday fashion the ending leaves one feeling the Christmas spirit. It’s a movie to watch with the whole family, there’s enough silliness to keep the kids entertained but the adult characters juggling their careers and relationships provide an interest to the grown up audience.

Sequels have a reputation for being disappointing. Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe holds up well, keeping with the storyline yet even standing in its own right. If you haven’t seen the first Santa Baby movie it’s fine because this sequel catches you right up to speed and jumps into its own storyline with little reminders of the previous movie that are necessary details to keep the two intertwined (the basics like the fact that Mary is Santa’s daughter).

Now personally, I’m not a huge fan of the “Santa’s ‘real’ life and Christmas is almost ruined” movies. Yet, I find myself being suckered into watching them simply because I love most anything to do with the Christmas holiday season. But too many of these types of movies can be hard to follow as there are so many interpretations as to Santa’s “real life” and how Santa’s preparations for Christmas as well as the trip on Christmas Eve come together. When you’ve seen too many of these movies the details seem to blur together and the concept of Santa gets more confusing than enjoyable. But after having a nearly year long break from Christmas movies, I can handle a Santa movie and this one was fun. Nothing spectacular but it was cute without being over-the-top. It did a great job of balancing the appeal to the broad audience and I didn’t feel like I was watching a just-for-kids movie. So for a Christmas treat, Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe is a movie worth gathering the family around for some light hearted fun, ideally while drinking cocoa and eating cookies.

ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas is an annual television event that provides nightly entertainment relating to Christmas that is appropriate for the whole family to watch. Watch for the new movie Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe. You can also catch the first movie Santa Baby during ABC Family’s new “Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas” which kicks off the holiday entertainment early adding 16 more days of Christmas movies and fun. Santa Baby will show November 22nd at 6/5 central. Then the sequel will premiere during the 25 Days of Christmas (exact night to be announced) with the movie being available to watch on ABCFamily.com December 24th – December 31st.