Janel Parrish and Daniel Lissing lead a Christmas romance built around lost memories and second chances, but an uneven script keeps its strongest emotional possibilities from fully developing.
Courtesy of Hallmark Media
Written by Christopher L. Antie
Hallmark Channel’s Forgotten Holiday begins with an intriguing question: if the memories that built a relationship suddenly disappear, can the feelings behind them still survive?
It is the kind of premise that could create an emotional Christmas story about identity, commitment, vulnerability, and rediscovering someone you once knew intimately. Unfortunately, for Will and me, Forgotten Holiday introduces many of those possibilities without allowing enough of them to fully develop.
Janel Parrish stars as Kathryn, whose uncertainty about commitment grows even more complicated when Rob, played by Daniel Lissing, loses memories of their relationship. Parrish gives Kathryn moments of vulnerability, but we wanted considerably more consistency in the character’s emotional journey. Her fear of commitment is central to the story, yet the screenplay never digs deeply enough into why she feels that way. As a result, some of her decisions become frustrating rather than revealing.
Lissing faces an equally difficult challenge with Rob. Portraying someone trying to understand a part of his life he can no longer remember should create opportunities for confusion, fear, discovery, and emotional reconnection. Instead, the way Rob’s memory loss is written often feels inconsistent, making it difficult to understand exactly what he is experiencing from one scene to the next. That inconsistency also affects the chemistry between Kathryn and Rob.
Rather than feeling like two people with a meaningful shared history suddenly confronting an extraordinary situation, their connection occasionally feels more like two characters placed together because the script requires them to be. At times, the film seems ready to explore whether affection might survive independently of memory, but it often introduces those ideas and then replaces them with another storyline before they can gain emotional weight.
That was our biggest frustration with Forgotten Holiday: the movie has a potentially powerful story, but it rarely stays with one emotional idea long enough to fully tell it.
Even Kathryn’s career as an antiques buyer seems perfectly positioned to support the film’s themes. Someone who professionally values objects from the past could offer an interesting parallel to someone trying to protect a relationship built on memories. Yet that connection remains largely unexplored. Objects, places, and traditions can similarly become emotional anchors but rarely develop into anything especially meaningful.
Christmas itself fares somewhat better visually. We felt the film delivered roughly three-quarters of the seasonal atmosphere viewers expect, with enough decorations and holiday scenery to establish the setting. However, Christmas often functions more as a backdrop than as something essential to Kathryn and Rob’s emotional history.
The supporting family story could also have added more depth. With Rob struggling to understand parts of his own past, his family could have given viewers a clearer picture of who he was before the accident. Instead, those relationships frequently feel designed to move the memory storyline forward rather than deepen it.
Pacing creates another challenge. The film moves quickly into its central conflict, but instead of allowing the emotional consequences to settle, the screenplay continues shifting between memory recovery, romance, family, Christmas, and Kathryn’s own uncertainty. By the end, both Will and I felt the story had become too scattered to create the emotional investment we had hoped for.
Still, the movie deserves credit for trying to do more than a straightforward Christmas romance.
At its core is an interesting idea: relationships aren't built simply on facts we can recall. They are also built from feelings, experiences, choices, and the ways another person becomes part of who we are. We simply wanted Forgotten Holiday to trust that idea more and allow it to guide the story consistently.
Brief moments come when Kathryn tries to explain herself, and the film begins approaching the emotional honesty we were waiting for. Unfortunately, those moments tend to pass before their impact can fully settle.
Chris & Will give Forgotten Holiday 5 out of 10 smiles for trying to build meaningful characters and an ambitious emotional premise, but lose points for an inconsistent storyline, uneven character development, and a script that jumps between too many ideas without fully exploring its strongest one.
Forgotten Holiday premieres tonight (October 24, 2026) on Hallmark Channel and tomorrow on Hallmark+
Source: ChrisWill Media
About the Authors: Christopher L. Antie and William Antie are podcast journalists and media personalities covering entertainment, travel, culture, events, and stories from across a wide range of industries. Together, they bring a conversational and experience-driven approach to the stories they share. Follow more from Chris & Will through their podcast, What About Our Life?, on iHeartRadio and at chrisandwill.com.