I read Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances after I got it as a Christmas gift in seventh grade. The book by John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson was mediocre and I forgot about it until last month, when I saw the trailer for the Netflix adaptation. Despite my experience with the book, I thought, why not, I’ll watch it. Thankfully, the movie was a lot better. Let It Snow made me smile and got me hyped for winter break. By itself, the book was easy to forget, but the movie made me want to read it again.

Let It Snow takes place over multiple storylines, following a group of high school seniors in a small town on Christmas Eve. Each storyline has a conflict, including having a sick parent, learning to take care of yourself and being in love with your best friend. Like every Christmas movie though, the characters come to terms with their problems while experiencing the beauty of Christmas. I would describe it as Love Actually, but younger in age and not as iconic.

I’m used to getting sad over John Green movies, but this was the exception. Green wasn’t the sole author of the novel, so I can’t truly compare it to his other works, but it was still nice to see a happy story instead of one where one of the main character dies. Instead, Let It Snow was light-hearted and made me feel nostalgic for the snowy Christmas I’ve never had in Florida.

The small-town setting of Let It Snow was perfect for the film. Usually, it seems like Christmas movies take place in a big city like New York City or London, but placing the characters in a small town in Illinois was a nice change of pace.

I also loved how the storylines blended together without being too confusing. The transitions between characters were well-executed and never left me hanging or disoriented. The only thing I would change is that I would love to see more background for the characters. The movie was about an hour and a half long, and I definitely wouldn’t have minded watching a longer movie if it meant having more detail.

Just like there was a lack of details, there were a lot of small loopholes. At the end of the movie, all the characters unite for a party at a Waffle House-esque restaurant, but why are all of these parents letting their kids party on Christmas Eve? On that matter, where are their parents? It seems unrealistic to have all of your friends in town on Christmas Eve and go to a party with them instead of spending time with your family. The loopholes are easy to ignore for the sake of enjoying the film, but I still want to know, why? If the film has answered these questions, I would have had nothing bad to say, but those questions kept me from thoroughly enjoying it.

Overall, I enjoyed Let It Snow. It had the typical happy holiday vibes that make movies this time of year so special and I’ll probably watch it again over winter break. It’s the type of movie that has you rooting for the characters and when they succeed, it’s satisfying. I wouldn’t have guessed that it was based on the same book I forgot about, but I’d definitely recommend it to anyone with a love for Christmas movies.