Christmas in the Highlands (2019)

There is a specific genre of Christmas television film that operates by its own internal logic, entirely separate from conventional cinema. The meet-cute must happen within fifteen minutes. The love interest must have a manor or a farm. Someone must have a secret that causes the third-act argument. And the whole thing must end with a kiss in the snow. Christmas in the Highlands (2019), directed by Ryan Alexander Dewar and written by Louise Burfitt-Dons, follows this formula with the commitment of a constitutional document. Whether that is its charm or its limitation depends entirely on what you want from a December evening.

The setup is this: Blair Henderson, a New York sales manager at a perfume company, receives an anonymous Christmas gift of a mysterious Scottish fragrance called "The Heart of the Highlands." She convinces her boss they need to acquire it, lands in the Scottish Highlands, and tracks down the license owner: one Alistair McGregor, a brooding Earl who refuses to sell. When persuasion fails, Blair poses as a documentary filmmaker to get inside his castle and learn the secret formula. Alistair, naturally, is far more perceptive than she hopes and far more appealing than she planned for.

Scotland as the Real Star

Here is what separates Christmas in the Highlands from the bulk of its genre competitors: it was actually filmed in Scotland. That sounds like a low bar, but for a low-budget television movie, it is genuinely unusual. Most Christmas romances shot at "Scottish castles" involve a Canadian studio lot, two kilts, and optimistic fog machines.

Dewar and his production team from Triventure Films shot across a remarkable collection of real locations. Glamis Castle in Angus serves as the fictional Glenmorie Castle. Glamis is no afterthought: it has been the seat of the Earls of Strathmore since 1372, was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and saw Princess Margaret born there on 21 August 1930. Shakespeare set Macbeth there (though the historical Macbeth had no actual connection to the place). Using it as the backdrop for a Lifetime-style romance is not exactly what its architects intended, but the clock tower and baronial stonework make an undeniably good impression.

The film also used Castle Forbes in Aberdeenshire, Muckrach Castle in Grantown-on-Spey, and Edinburgh's New Town and Christmas Market. Pickering's Gin Distillery in Edinburgh appears. The ballroom sequences were filmed at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, which has the kind of gilded interior that no set designer could justify building from scratch.

Then there are the reindeer. A scene involving a stolen handbag features the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd, Britain's only free-ranging herd of reindeer. Swedish reindeer farmer Mikel Utsi brought the original seven animals to the Scottish Highlands in 1952 because the sub-arctic terrain of the Cairngorms resembled their native range. The herd now numbers around 150. Using them as comic support in a Christmas romance feels almost too on-the-nose, but when real reindeer are available thirty miles from a Scottish castle, you use them.

The Family Behind the Film

The lead actress, Brooke Burfitt, and the screenwriter, Louise Burfitt-Dons, share a last name because they share a mother-daughter relationship. Burfitt-Dons, born in 1953 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, wrote the screenplay with her daughter in mind for the lead. This is either an act of parental generosity or a creative liability, depending on how charitably you view the casting.

Burfitt-Dons is also a novelist and former Conservative parliamentary candidate, which gives her an unusual biography for a Lifetime movie writer. The script reflects a genuine affection for Scottish culture and landscape that elevates it slightly above the purely formulaic, even when the dialogue leans on genre convention.

Dan Jeannotte, who plays Alistair McGregor, is Canadian rather than Scottish, but carries the romantic lead with enough presence to keep the film functioning. His performance is the most consistent element of the production. Geraldine Somerville, best known as Lily Potter in the Harry Potter films, brings genuine acting experience to a supporting role. Caprice Bourret, the American-born model and businesswoman who has lived in London since the mid-1990s, appears as Mrs. Ferdi and was filmed partly in Perthshire.

What Works and What Doesn't

The cinematography by Miroslaw Czubaszek makes the most of what the locations offer. Winter light in the Scottish Highlands is flat and cold in a way that no filter fully replicates, and the film catches enough of it to feel genuinely placed. The Edinburgh Christmas market sequences have atmosphere.

The film's weaknesses are structural rather than locational. The documentary-filmmaker deception feels underwritten: Blair's cover story is thin enough that no functioning aristocrat would believe it for more than an afternoon, yet Alistair does for the bulk of the runtime. The third-act revelation and argument are executed with mechanical predictability. The final Christmas ball arrives exactly when the formula demands it.

The film aired internationally in December 2019 and reached American audiences on Lifetime on December 23, 2020, retitled Christmas at the Castle for the US market. It holds a 4.8 on IMDb and 2.3 out of 5 on Letterboxd, which situates it accurately: flawed but watchable, more so than its scores might suggest if you account for what it is trying to do.

It is not trying to win awards. It is trying to deliver a Scottish castle, a handsome Earl, some reindeer, and a Christmas kiss. On three of those four counts, it succeeds. The Earl is charming enough.