The Nights Before Christmas Review: Tyler Hynes Turns an Existential Crisis Into Yuletide Magic

The Nights Before Christmas is the quintessential Hallmark Channel holiday movie, wrapped up in a shiny gold bow. “Five out of five stars” simply isn’t enough to describe the Tyler Hynes and Laci J. Mailey Countdown to Christmas movie that is now one of my favorite holiday movies of all time. I had a chance to watch a screener of the movie before its release and here’s my spoiler-free review.

Hynes (Holiday Touchdown: A Chief’s Love Story, It Was Always You) plays Marty, a man in desperate need of a holiday miracle to get the one thing we all want: more time. After making a Christmas Eve wish, Marty wakes up to discover that it’s Christmas Eve again. And again and again. Suddenly, Marty has the time he wished for and he sets out to do all of the things he always dreamed about. What’s more is that he wakes up morning after morning with all of the knowledge he acquired the day before. Life seems perfect until he comes across Chloe (Mailey, An Alpine Holiday, A Little Park Music), a journalist whose Christmas Eve is not going well at all. Suddenly, Marty’s goals shift, and as he “meets” Chloe day after day, he starts wishing for a new wish.

Hynes, who also serves as an executive producer, is absolutely in his element in The Nights Before Christmas. The pacing is sharp, the pop culture references are plentiful and the plot is astonishingly credible. Watching Hynes repeat Christmas Eve over and over is a lot of fun and thankfully Mailey’s Chloe is there to ask all of the philosophical questions about Marty’s situation. Watching her trying to process his predicament while dealing with her own yuletide challenges is the icing on the cake. I can’t imagine a better duo for this movie.

If the whip-smart dialogue, clever asides and surprise plot twists feel familiar, it’s because the script was written by Russell Hainline. Hainline also penned In Merry Measure (2022), The Santa Summit (2023), Lacey Chabert’s 2024 Netflix rom-com Hot Frosty, The Santa Class (2024) and Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper! (2025). Most notably, this is his third outing with Hynes, who starred in Hainline’s Three Wiser Men and a Boy (2024) and the 2025 follow-up, Three Wisest Men.

The Nights Before Christmas is a movie you could watch over and over again and see new things each time you watch it. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the plot takes a turn into a whole new direction. With a bounty of Christmas cheer, a healthy helping of holiday heartache and an ending you have to see to believe, it’s the embodiment of a quintessential Hallmark Channel movie.

The Nights Before Christmas premieres Saturday, November 14, on Hallmark Channel and streams the following day on Hallmark Plus.