[2] In New York City, siblings Ethan and Hallie O'Fallon launch a scheme – involving their parents, Catherine and Michael, and grandmother, Lillian – to get what they most want for Christmas.

An elaborate scheme evolves with mice, telephone calls, and an ice cream truck, as Ethan and Hallie try to achieve their goal with help from Stephanie, and see Tony as their primary obstacle.

On July 24, 1991, The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film was being rushed into production by Brandon Tartikoff, a former television executive and Paramount Pictures' new chairman, with the goal of a 1991, rather than 1992, holiday-season opening.

That's probably why this stocking full of Xmas cliches plays like a feature-length spinoff of that self-absorbed series, down to its ensemble cast of dull people without actual problems.

[7] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that "the emotions on display in the vigorously heartwarming All I Want for Christmas are as fake as the snow", adding that "as directed by Robert Lieberman, who has more than 800 commercials to his credit and can now chalk up another, this film is filled with good-looking people and products that appear to have walked right out of a store.

"[9] Kathleen Carroll had a warmer reaction to the film in the New York Daily News, where she called it "a mildly entertaining children's fantasy with the cookie-cutter look of a TV movie.

[12]Catherine Dunphy of The Toronto Star called the film a "seasonal travesty" that "is everything you hate about Dec. 25—the tacky decorations, the forced sentiment, the calculated cutesy stuff of kids with their eyes on the main chance, Le.

"[13] Brian D. Johnson of Maclean's wrote, "directed by Robert Lieberman, who has the dubious distinction of having made more than 800 TV commercials, All 1 Want for Christmas is witless, insipid and insidious.

"[14] Outside of the North American continent, Hugo Davenport of England's The Daily Telegraph said that "during this emetically cute comedy [...] all I wanted was a blindfold and a set of industrial ear-plugs, or, failing that, a heavy-duty airline sick-bag.