Whilst Kate Stanton (Amy Smart) may have split up with her ex boyfriend Jack (Benjamin Ayres) she has a plan and it involves getting back with him. So whilst she is due on a Christmas Eve blind date with a guy called Miles (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) she arranges to meet Jack on the same night. Things don't go to plan starting with passing out in a department store that afternoon, abruptly clearing off from her date with Miles only to discover Jack has got himself a new girlfriend. And then just to make matters more confusing when she wakes up the next day she is some how back on the floor of the department store on Christmas Eve. Initially seeing it as an opportunity to win Jack back, slowly, after repeating Christmas Eve over and over again, Kate begins to understand stuff about herself and why her relationship went wrong as well as learning more about Miles in the process.
Take the good looking pair of Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, place them in a Christmas setting and then use a familiar idea, pinched from "Groundhog Day" and what you have is the "12 Dates of Christmas". There is nothing majorly wrong with that as the "12 Dates of Christmas" is a fun, typically cutesy, romantic Christmas comedy which uses that "Groundhog Day" idea to good effect. But that is all it is and for those who like things a bit more original and clever will find this simple comedy far too simple.
The thing that "12 Dates of Christmas" has going for it is in its stars as Amy Smart is likeable as is Mark-Paul Gosselaar and together make for a pleasant on-screen couple. In fact all the stars such as Jayne Eastwood and Peter MacNeill are entertaining in an easy to watch manner. But these are characters who are generic Christmas movie stereotypes and in truth are forgettable as is the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "12 Dates of Christmas" is a bit of obvious Christmas fun which will amuse teenagers as it reuses the "Groundhog Day" idea in a Christmas Eve romantic comedy setting.