Lifetime’s ‘You Make It Feel Like Christmas’ Stars Two Holiday Movie Veterans

You Make It Feel Like Christmas isn’t just the title of a Gwen Stefani album anymore. Now Lifetimehas a holiday rom-com of the same name, and it premieres tonight, Saturday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.

Where was You Make It Feel Like Christmas filmed? Who’s in the cast? What’s the movie all about? We’ve got the scoop!

For starters, actress Mary Antonini plays a designer who reconnects with loved ones — and herself — over the holidays. “I think that is what I would love people to take away, that every year at Christmas, we can sort of stop and look and be like, ‘Oh, look how much further I am now. Look how I’ve changed,’” Mary says in a new interview with iHollywoodTV.

Lifetime’s synopsis sets the stage for You Make It Feel Like Christmas: “Emma (Mary Antonini) is a talented designer who finds herself too busy to return home for the holidays after her work catches the eye of design guru Kate Marguiles (Stephanie Sy), much to her father, Tom’s (Alex Poch-Goldin) dismay. When her ex-boyfriend and childhood best friend Aaron (Michael Xavier) returns home after active military duty, he makes it his mission to get her home to celebrate their Christmas traditions.”

Talking to iHollywoodTV, Mary adds that Emma is marking her first Christmas without her mom, who died the year before, and she’s trying to navigate tension with her father, who was on active duty for much of her childhood.

“Emma finds her creativity,” the actress explains. “She’s reminded of the parts of herself she’s forgotten. She finds newness in her relationship with her father, she finds newness in her relationship with Aaron, and she finds newness in her relationship with herself.”

Mary previously appeared in the TV movies Holiday Heart and On the 12th Date of Christmas. And her costar, Michael Xavier, has appeared in even more Christmas movies, with Radio Christmas, Christmas on Wheels, Christmas Comes Twice, A Christmas Treasure, and Letters to Satan Claus on his filmography. (Yes, that’s Satan Claus — it was a horror comedy on Syfy.)

You might also recognize Michael from his roles on the TV shows Rookie Blue, Kim’s Convenience, Northern Rescue, and The Expanse. He also starred as Logan Jonsen in the Syfy fantasy series Bitten.

Joining that duo in You Make It Feel Like Christmas are actors Alex Poch-Goldin and Stephanie Sy, both of whom had arcs on the Canadian drama Burden of Truth.

According to IMDb, You Make It Feel Like Christmas was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba. MadLib Casting reveals the production, led by director Lisa France, filmed the movie between Aug. 19 and Sept. 10, 2020. (The movie actually premiered in Canada last year, under the A Christmas Mission.)

Coincidentally or not, Mary is a Winnipeg native who teaches Broadway choreography at the Winnipeg Studio Theatre, according to her instructor bio.