‘A Royal Christmas Crush’ is Hallmark’s first new holiday movie of the year, part of Christmas in July. The film stars Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar.
Because packing the last three months of the year with holiday content just ain’t enough for Hallmark, here’s Christmas in July and the original movie A Royal Christmas Crush. Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar star in this tale of royalty, ice, and a hotel. But is A Royal Christmas Crush worth pausing your summer activities for, or should you wait until October to start your Hallmark holiday binge?
The Gist: Katie Cassidy (Arrow) stars as Ava, an architect who gets brought on to help her uncle Karl (Charlie Ebbs) put the finishing touches on a gorgeous ice hotel constructed for the royal family of the fictional Nordic nation of Friørland. It’s there that the royal family retreats to spend the holiday season, away from the prying eyes of paparazzi. This is a very newsworthy time for the royals, because handsome Prince Henry (Stephen Huszar) is newly single and should have probably already mingled and married by now.
And that’s how fate brings together an architect named Ava and a prince named Henry for one chilly stay at a hotel that’s been carved out of ice. As things heat up between the two, though, members of the royals’ inner circle start to panic and try to pour cold water on this possible love connection. You’ve got the assistants digging up dirt on Ava and trying to set him up with possible suitors all while our girl is just trying to do her job and also deal with the fact that a prince has a crush on her. That hardly ever happens, let alone while one is at work!
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If it’s not already clear, this is the latest entry into the always expanding subgenre of holiday prince/princess movies that have followed in the wake of Netflix’s A Christmas Prince. In fact, one could even say that this is a new movie in the A Royal Christmas BLANK sub-subgenre, following [deep breath] A Royal Christmas (2014), A Royal Christmas Ball (2017), A Royal Christmas Engagement (2020), A Royal Christmas Match (2022), and A Royal Christmas on Ice (2022).
