Family friends Sam
Reed (Dustin Milligan) and Kat Patton (Danica McKellar) spend every Christmas
Eve at the Children's Table from the age of three.
Over the years they
grew up together, sharing the highs and lows of young adulthood.
But at the age of
thirty, Sam realizes that Kat is the one...but he's afraid that the past will
get in the way.
A real gem of a
Christmas movie and Danica McKellar is an absolute delight.
Gina (Marla Sokoloff)
and Seth (Patrick J. Adams) have been pen pals for thirteen years and over the
years they graduated from handwritten letters and started corresponding by
email, but they were insecure with who they were as people and had decided not
to exchange telephone numbers or photographs, instead they sent photos of their
more outgoing best friends, Ellen (Lindy Booth) and Matt (Jonathan Cherry),
passing them off as themselves without telling either Ellen or Matt.
Each has been there
for the other through every major event that has happened in their lives, and
as such, they have both fallen for the other without either admitting it to
themselves or having the nerve to tell the other.
Living in different
cities - Boston and Denver - they have never even seriously considered meeting
in person, until when Seth, a junior executive at a toy company, is heading to
Boston just before Christmas to attend a toy convention, which Gina, a
struggling reporter stuck in "obits"
So with them both in
Boston they allowed their surrogates to meet in their places with amusing
consequences.
In the bitter winter
of 1944 in the depths of the Ardennes Forest, an American Army Captain John
Myers (Craig Olejnik) and a Belgian girl named Alina (Ali Liebert) meet and
fall in love during a brief 24-hour Christmas truce amid the Battle of the
Bulge.
When the fighting
resumes and they have to go their separate ways they promise to reunite on the
first Christmas Eve after the end of World War II, providing they're both
alive.
This seasonal drama is
about the Puerto Rican Rodriguez family living in the area of Humboldt Park in
west Chicago who face what may well be their last Christmas together.
The Rodriguez family
is headed by jovial bodega owner Edy (Alfred Molina) whose recent secretive
behaviour has convinced his hot-tempered wife Anna (Elizabeth Peña) that he is
having an affair which prompts her to unceremoniously announce at the family
dinner table that she wants a divorce.
This sets the tone for
the whole film which goes on to reveal all the flaws and weaknesses in the
lives of everyone around the table.
Freddy Rodríguez, Luis
Guzmán, Jay Hernandez, John Leguizamo, Debra Messing, Vanessa Ferlito and
Melonie Diaz make up the very able supporting cast in this enjoyable Christmas
offering.
A smart, sassy,
34-year-old Kristin (Shiri Appleby), who is estranged from her family and alone
on Christmas Eve goes to sleep alone on Christmas Eve and wakes up Christmas
morning seventeen years into her past to relive the worst Christmas of her
life.
So once she gets over
the initial shock she realises she has an opportunity to change her imperfect
past, so she styles herself as an older mentor to her younger self (Hannah
Marks)
Paramount to these changes
is mending the broken relationship with her mother (Elizabeth Mitchell),
something that seems impossible.
But if she can’t fix
her past then maybe she could do something about her less than perfect future.
The film has an
altogether credible cast that makes this film well worth watching if for no
other reason than that.
But the story is
excellent and well-structured and although the main target audience of this
family safe Christmas movie will be women past their teens, men should not be
put off by that because it’s very good.
Prince Duncan (Kirk
Barker) is experiencing cold feet about his upcoming arranged royal wedding, so
the charming European prince steals away incognito to the America in search of
true love.
Pretending to be
someone he isn't, the prince-on-the-lam rents a car and hits the road but he
loses control in the wintry conditions and crashes, and that’s where he meets
Emma (Viva Bianca) a diner waitress whose Christmas needs brightening
considerably, and that’s where the Christmas romance begins in earnest.
The previous
Christmas, Ali Pennebaker (Kelly Overton) broke things off with her boyfriend,
Cameron (Michael Muhney).
Looking back, she
regretted her decision and as a result no longer believed in the magic of
Christmas, but when she meets Ginny (Jennifer Elise Cox), a truly magical
being, she gets the chance to relive that last Christmas.
Determined to make the
relationship with Cameron last this time, so she pulls out all the stops but
realizes, you can't always change the past and happiness may appear in the
strangest places.
A ruthless toy tycoon
Tyler Madison (Harry Hamlin), is one of L.A.'s hottest toy manufacturing
executives and he is on a mission to crush all of his competitors, so he
travels to the North Pole to put an end to his biggest rival.
The hard-hearted
businessman has neither the time nor the inclination to celebrate Christmas and
this attitude hurts the feelings of his son (Curtis Blanck) and antagonizes his
wife Elyse (Megan Gallagher).
Armed with a fool
proof way to take over the entire toy market worldwide the corporate raider
heads for the North Pole to grab the ultimate toy factory but when he gets
there he discovers that Santa (William Hootkins) is his estranged father who he
hasn’t seen for many years.
But Tyler’s arrival at
the North Pole coincides with an unprecedented crisis befalling Santa's
Kingdom, when gentle-hearted Ambrose (Dotrice), who has spent 30 years as one
of Santa's hardest-working Elves, is goaded by the jealous Snipes (Stuart
Pankin) into taking over the North Pole.
So he must put aside his
hates and hurts and team up with his estranged Father to set things right and
restore happiness to the North Pole and once reacquainted with his family Tyler
learns to appreciate the holiday season.
Gary Coleman also
features in this jewel of a Christmas comedy.
Mike and Caroline
Anderson (George Stults and Christy Carlson Romano) have always gone all out
with parties and gifts for Christmas with their 10-year-old twins Brendan and Julia
(Luke and Savannah Judy) however when Michael loses his job just before the
holidays, it looks like Christmas will have to be cancelled.
Being used to outdoing
their friends and neighbours with ever more elaborate celebrations they are
brought down to earth with a bump as they have to face up to their new reality.
But help is at hand
when they receive a visit from wacky Aunt Katie (Julie Brown) who helps them
realize they can still pull off Christmas, without, and rediscover the most
important things in their lives.
DJ (Zak Ludwig) and
Rodney (Jaishon Fisher) didn't like each other from the first moment they met,
and they repeatedly clash because DJ thinks Rodney acts too smart for his own
good and Rodney thinks DJ is an ignorant white farm boy.
Things came to a head
after a scuffle between the two on the school bus, when DJ's father (Billy Ray
Cyrus) and Rodney's grandmother (Candus Churchill) come up with a clever
solution that brings the boys closer than either of them would have liked.
Living in Canaan,
Texas in the 1960s didn’t make it easy for a black boy and a white boy to forge
a friendship it was only amid the magic of an unforgettable Christmas that DJ
and Rodney discover a land of milk and honey where hope and love make all the difference.
The film is set on
Christmas Eve in New York, where it begins with lonely, divorced publisher,
Rose Collins (Susan Sarandon), who needs a miracle to improve the health of her
mother who is interned in a hospital with Alzheimer’s.
During one of her visits,
she feels sorry for another patient across the hall and meets his visitor
(Robin Williams).
Meanwhile, Nina
Vasquez (Penélope Cruz) breaks her engagement with her beloved fiancé Mike
Riley (Paul Walker) due to his suffocating jealousy but misses him terribly.
Mike is then stalked
by a stranger, bartender Artie Venzuela (Alan Arkin) and at the same time Jules
Calvert (Marcus Thomas) arranges to spend Christmas Eve in the hospital, where
he spent the best Christmas of his life when he was a teenager.
The lives of some of
these characters cross with others as Christmas Eve passes into Christmas Day
and we find out the secrets that they carry with them.
Nick junior (Steve
Guttenberg) has always known that he needs to find a wife but he planned to let
fate bring his wife to him, but those plans had to be altered because time was
running out and he must replace his father as Santa Claus on December 26.
Ernest (Armin Shimerman),
the right-hand man to several generations of Santa’s, generates a list of
potential mates and Nick dutifully sets off to meet them, but fate may have a
candidate for him after all when he meets Beth (Crystal Bernard).
Lisa Haynes (Julie
Gonzalo) has moved to Florida with three darling golden retriever pups and at
once makes friends with the nice couple next door, Rod and Katherine Wright
(Bruce Davison and Alley Mills) and their adult golden retriever.
The three become so
close, in fact, that Lisa feels comfortable telling them how her love life is
not running smoothly and her heart was broken long ago.
But old flames reunite
and sparks are reignited at Christmastime in Florida, but the man David
(K.C.Clyde) is already engaged to Kelly Jansen (Kelly Stables) but love finds a
way with the help of their dogs.
A journalist whose
life was deeply impacted by a Secret Santa gift that she received when she was
10 years old sets out to discover who anonymously gave it to her, but ends up
finding a lot more along the way.
The Christmas Gift is
a story built around Megan (Rylan Lee), a beautiful 10-year old girl who
received a gift through Secret Santa and not only is she impressed by the gift,
she treasures it, because it came at a time in her life when she really needed
it.
As time passes, she
never forgets the gift, and she never forgets the face of the little boy whose
photo was attached to the shoe box it was packed in.
After almost 10 years,
Megan (Michelle Trachtenberg), who is now a journalist, makes it her mission to
find out the location of the little boy who touched her heart so many years
earlier.
When she decides to
approach the editor with an idea for the perfect holiday story to find her
“Secret Santa”, Megan’s life changes in a way she never expects after finding
him.
This is the perfect
uplifting holiday movie about giving, sharing, and finding love in the most
unexpected places in this case with Wesley Hardin Johnson Jr (Sterling
Sulieman) her Secret Santa.
This is the story
about a forming friendship between an elderly nun, Sister Anthony (Julie
Harris), and head gardener at New York's Rockefeller Centre, Richard Reilly
(Andrew McCarthy).
They meet when he
wants to fell a tree that she's been growing for decades and move it to New
York for display at Christmas.
Over the months long
forgotten memories of her past come to the fore as she reveals her relationship
to “Tree” and Richard slowly comes to realised that he is in love with his
assistant Beth (Trini Alvarado).
The story culminates at the lighting of the tree with a final revelation.
Single parent Carol Montgomery (Anne Heche) lives with her son Bryan (Sean Michael Kyer) and is the undisputed Queen of Christmas and she organised every aspect of the holiday, but all that changed when another single parent Terry Evans (Dylan Neal) and his daughter Amelia (Farryn Van Humbeck) move to the town and he is a breath of fresh air and offers an alternative view of the plans and Carol and Terry battle for control of the Christmas holiday at the middle school that their children attend and learn a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas.
Molly Logan (Lacey
Chabert) and Lucas Bishop (Corey Sevier) were childhood friends and high school
sweethearts in Danbury Falls, Vermont, where Molly's family founded the town
two hundred years earlier, and with her immediately family still living on the
same property, where her parents, Gordon and Betty Logan (Eric Keenleyside and
Lini Evans), have continued the family business of operating a Christmas tree
farm.
Since they were children,
Molly knew she wanted to become a writer, a dream which her parents supported
while Lucas knew he wanted to become a photographer, something his banker
father, Elliot Bishop (James Kidnie) vehemently opposed him pursuing as a
career, he believed only in careers like his own, and making money by any and
all means.
When he would not
follow her to New York, where they would have pursued their professional dreams
together, Molly and Lucas broke up and had not seen each other since.
After getting an MBA,
Lucas returned to Danbury Falls to work at the bank for his father.
Molly works at a
publishing house, where she is treated more as a 24/7 PA by her recently
widowed boss, Walter Dunlap (Jim Thorburn) at the expense of her writing
career.
When Molly hears from
her brother Ryan (Matthew Kevin Anderson) that the bank is foreclosing on a
mortgage for the tree farm property they both head back to Danbury Falls to
help their parents save the farm from being turned into a golf resort.
On her return, Molly
runs into Lucas, who is heading the search for investors for the development
proposal and then Christmas begins to work its magic.
Firefighter Jenny
Jenkins (Anna Hutchison) falls in love with local star Tom Norris (Marcus
Rosner) but his ex-wife and celebrity figure skating champion Mary Hamilton
(Anita Brown) is asking him to choose between reconciling or going through an
ugly custody battle, but she has an ulterior motive.
But Jenny’s natural warmth and kindness to the community starts to convince everybody that her love for Tom is real however Mary's fierceness is more powerful than anything Jenny has ever faced before so who will Tom choose in the end?
Bill Murray stars as
miserly TV executive Frank Cross in this humorous retelling of Charles Dickens'
“A Christmas Carol”.
The classic tale in
which he is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit
him, revealing to him the truth about his own miserable existence, what
opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current catalogue of cruelties, and
the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways.
Scrooge is faced with
his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own
future will hold, death or redemption.
The Spirits are played
by David Johansen (Past), Carol Kane (Present) and Robert Hammond (Future)
The other key
characters and portrayed by John Forsythe (Lew Hayward i.e. Marley), Karen
Allen (Claire Philipps i.e. Belle), Alfre Woodard (Grace Cooley i.e. Bob
Cratchit), Nicholas Phillips (Calvin Cooley i.e. Tiny Tim), and John Murray
(James Cross i.e. Fred).
It’s the 1940’s and
Christmas is approaching and 9 year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) wants only
one thing for Christmas that year: a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun.
When he mentions it at
the dinner table, his mother (Melinda Dillon) immediately reacts by telling
that he'll put his eye out.
He does little better
when he raises it with his father (Darren McGavin) or his teacher (Tedde Moore)
but all the while he fantasizes about what it would be like to be “Red Ryder”
and catch the bad guys.
When the big day arrives,
he gets lots of present under the tree including a lovely gift from his aunt
that his mother very much approves of but will the BB gun be among them?
Mike and Caroline
Anderson (George Stults and Christy Carlson Romano) have always gone all out
with parties and gifts for Christmas with their 10-year-old twins Brendan and
Julia (Luke and Savannah Judy) however when Michael loses his job just before
the holidays, it looks like Christmas will have to be cancelled.
Being used to outdoing
their friends and neighbours with ever more elaborate celebrations they are
brought down to earth with a bump as they have to face up to their new reality.
But help is at hand
when they receive a visit from wacky Aunt Katie (Julie Brown) who helps them
realize they can still pull off Christmas, without, and rediscover the most
important things in their lives.
Beth Baker (Sarah
Lancaster) is an out-of-work actress trying to make it in New York on the stage
in New York City, but after 10 years of not succeeding and without her friends
around at Christmas she decides to take a break from her struggling actress profession
to spend Christmas in her small and quaint hometown she escaped from 10 years
earlier.
And on returning home
she finds a place far different than the hamlet she left and the magic of the
Christmas season soon starts to massage her bruised ego as she finds performing
possibilities and even romance.
Carrie Blackford
(Lindy Booth) lives for her career as a successful event planner in New York
City, but her life changes in an instant after a nasty car accident in a
snowstorm in which Carrie suffers severe head trauma.
When she regains
consciousness she’s sitting in Central Park with an old man, Henry (Derek
McGrath) and Henry is Carrie's spirit guide and is there to help her
“crossover” safely to Heaven.
But before Carrie can
move on, she must fulfil one final task on Earth and Henry tells Carrie that
she must help guide a widowed, young restaurant owner, Scott Walker, (Paul
McGillion) who has recently considered suicide because his beloved restaurant
and catering business is on the brink of collapse.
Time however isn't on
her side in fact she only has until midnight on Christmas Eve to turn the
Walkers fortunes around.
Carrie befriends Scott
and his 8-year-old daughter Abby (Kiara Glasco) and immediately displays a
knack for promoting the restaurant.
But as friendship
grows, romance blooms, and Carrie finds herself regretting her former wasted
life.
A ruthless toy tycoon
Tyler Madison (Harry Hamlin), is one of L.A.'s hottest toy manufacturing
executives and he is on a mission to crush all of his competitors, so he
travels to the North Pole to put an end to his biggest rival.
The hard hearted
businessman has neither the time nor the inclination to celebrate Christmas and
this attitude hurts the feelings of his son (Curtis Blanck) and antagonizes his
wife Elyse (Megan Gallagher).
Armed with a fool
proof way to take over the entire toy market worldwide the corporate raider
heads for the North Pole to grab the ultimate toy factory but when he gets
there he discovers that Santa (William Hootkins) is his estranged father who he
hasn’t seen for many years.
But Tyler’s arrival at
the North Pole coincides with an unprecedented crisis befalling Santa's
Kingdom, when gentle-hearted Ambrose (Dotrice), who has spent 30 years as one
of Santa's hardest-working Elves, is goaded by the jealous Snipes (Stuart
Pankin) into taking over the North Pole.
So he must put aside his
hates and hurts and team up with his estranged Father to set things right and
restore happiness to the North Pole and once reacquainted with his family Tyler
learns to appreciate the holiday season.
Gary Coleman also
features in this jewel of a Christmas comedy.
Joy Robertson (Daphne
Zuniga) wants to make it “the best Christmas ever” because her two sons Jeremy
and Mark (Victor Zinck Jr and Evan Williams) will both be off to college the
following year.
But Joy is feeling
unappreciated, however, since her husband Stephen (David Sutcliffe) and sons
are preoccupied with their own concerns, and providing no assistance with the
many Christmas preparations, while still expecting Mom to handle all the
arrangements for hubby's last minute office party and parties for her sons'
friends, as well as doing all the many chores.
So inspired by a
grocery workers' strike in town, Joy decides to follow suit, and goes “on
strike for Christmas” and friends and neighbours feeling similarly aggrieved
follow suit.
The previous
Christmas, Ali Pennebaker (Kelly Overton) broke things off with her boyfriend,
Cameron (Michael Muhney).
Looking back, she
regretted her decision and as a result no longer believed in the magic of
Christmas, but when she meets Ginny (Jennifer Elise Cox), a truly magical
being, she gets the chance to relive that last Christmas.
Determined to make the
relationship with Cameron last this time, so she pulls out all the stops but
realizes, you can't always change the past and happiness may appear in the
strangest places.
It's the first
Christmas without Grandma and a difficult time for the family, until Grandpa
(James Earl Jones) decides to share a story with his ten-year-old grandson
Terence (Sedrathe Gillespie) and the story he chooses to tell is the one about
Santa and Pete, a tale that has been handed down for generations, from the time
Santa (Hume Cronyn) first meets Pete (Flex Alexander) and their adventures that
followed right up to the time Santa first arrived in America and the story
telling is both entertaining for Terence and cathartic for Grandpa Nicholas.
Homer Smith (Billy Dee Williams) returns to the chapel which years before, he helped to build, to find that Mother Maria (Maria Schell) and the nuns are still alive and well and have taken in a group of homeless, unwanted or runaway children.
Once again, he is
inspired by the nuns' faith and selfless devotion, and this time Mother Maria
builds an orphanage and a little school for the children before he moves
on.
But Mother Maria knows
he will return in their hour of need.
Prince Duncan (Kirk
Barker) is experiencing cold feet about his upcoming arranged royal wedding, so
the charming European prince steals away incognito to the America in search of
true love.
Pretending to be
someone he isn't, the prince-on-the-lam rents a car and hits the road but he
loses control in the wintry conditions and crashes, and that’s where he meets
Emma (Viva Bianca) a diner waitress whose Christmas needs brightening
considerably, and that’s where the Christmas romance begins in earnest.
A recently engaged
woman, Alex Spencer (Kassia Warshawski) plans a get-together so her parents
Steven and Joyce Spencer (Greg Lawson and Barb Mitchell) can meet the family of
her fiancé Peter (Lucas Bryant) but it turns out that his parents are Mr. and
Mrs. Claus, played by George Wendt and Shelley Long.
It’s a delightful film
which is lots of fun and one for the whole family to enjoy.
Doctor Lauren Brunell
(Candace Cameron Bure) has her life mapped out, but when she doesn't get the
position she wanted, she looks around for something else, believing she was too
late to apply until the following year.
But then she found a
chief of medicine position in Alaska, so she applied and ended up moving to
what proved to be a very remote Alaskan town, but the hospital turned out to be
less than she imagined and she was the only doctor.
Her initial
disappointment however subsided when she got to known the locals and then she
unexpectedly ends up finding love, happiness and discovers that the small town
is hiding a big holiday secret.Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Angie Wells (Emma
Rigby) works hard to run her uncle's events business while her cousin Candace
Karilla (Sarah Stouffer) takes the credit.
When Angie takes a
night off to have fun at the Christmasquerade Ball, the mask and gown allow her
to let loose, and she quickly catches the eye of Nicholas Karmichael (Peter
Porte), a wealthy local bachelor.
But then Angie has to
go before revealing her identity, leaving Nicholas searching for his mystery
woman in this enjoyable modern take on the classic Cinderella fairy tale.
When his partner in crime Harry Zordich (David Parker) messes up a department store robbery in December fellow Career criminal Jack Clayton (Tony Danza) can only escape the law in a Santa suit.
He ends up in a small
rural town, and he finds himself forced to accept a menial job under the alias
“Oscar Burton” as Santa in Sarah Gibson's nursery.
Sarah (Lea Thompson)
is a tough task master but Jack is invited into her home and proves a good
substitute father for Sarah's frustrated fatherless daughter Noelle (Angela
Goethals).
The big question is
will he content himself with small town life or will he return to his life of
crime, when his ex-con friend Harry
turns up to plan a bank robbery
For 30 years, Kathleen
(Catherine Mary Stewart) carried around the haunting memory of her father
abandoning her and her mother on Christmas Eve, and for all those years she
blamed her mother for his leaving, eventually unable to separate the joys of
the Christmas season from the pain of her family past she reached the point
where she refused to celebrate Christmas at all
However although she tries to forget her past, she finds it has not forgotten her when Christmas Snow arrives.
When because of a
blizzard, Kathleen finds herself snowed in and stuck in her home with two
strangers during the days leading up to Christmas.
Sam (Muse Watson), a
gentle older man that Kathleen took in for the night, and Lucy (Cameron Ten
Napel), the daughter of her soon to be fiancé, and they bring her face to face
with the painful hurts of her past and she is forced to choose between letting
go of the past with all its pain and bitterness and grabbing hold of a
life-changing forgiveness.
Susan Lucci stars as
ruthless business-woman and shopping store owner Elizabeth “Ebbie” Scrooge in
this updated retelling of Dickens' “A Christmas Carol”.
The classic tale in
which she is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit
her, has been brought into contemporary times.
It is refreshing in
this version to have the main character of Ebbie played by a woman as indeed is
her beleaguered employee Roberta 'Robbie' Cratchet played by the ever reliable
Wendy Crewson.
The spirits are given
some modern handling and the way Jake Marley communicates with God by
cell-phone is very amusing and all in all it’s a very enjoyable adaptation.
Cicely Tyson stars as
ruthless business-woman Ms. Ebenita Scrooge in this updated retelling of
Dickens' “A Christmas Carol”.
The classic tale in
which she is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit
her brought into contemporary times.
It is refreshing in
this version to have the main character of Ebenita played by a woman as indeed
is Marley played by the amazing Katherine Helmond whose portrayal of Maude
Marley is a joy.
All in all it’s a very
enjoyable adaptation and the final scene will be sure to have you reaching for
the tissues.
40 Below and Falling
at Christmas tells the story of a teacher from a small, Northern Canadian town,
Kate Carter (Jewel Staite), who is moving back to the big city for her wedding
and she feels certain that this is the future she has always wanted.
But after quitting her
job and packing up her life, her flight gets cancelled by a blizzard and all
road travel is suspended, she meets a surly stranger named Redford (Shawn
Roberts) and is forced to hop on the back of Redford's snowmobile and embark on
an adventure that will leave her questioning the decision she has made about
the man she is set to marry.
Mary Class (Jenny
McCarthy) is a highly successful business executive - who just happens to be
the daughter of Santa Claus (George Wendt).
But when her father
falls ill, Mary returns to the North Pole and the life she left behind to take
over from her Dad and implement her innovative ideas for running Christmas.
While she’s there she
is reunited with her high school sweetheart Luke Jessup (Ivan Sergei) and their
feelings are rekindled but when she’s put in charge of Christmas and starts
implementing her modern idea’s things get out of hand and even threatens
Christmas itself.
Melody Parris (Mimi
Rogers), is a works on the Perfume counter at a department store and feels like
her life is in neutral.
Her boyfriend is a cheapskate stick-in-the mud
who won't commit and she gets passed over for a promotion at the store where
she works. So after her friend Naomi (Enuka Okuma) suggests she makes a
Christmas list she decides to give it a go.
After it's deposited
in Santa's mailbox at the store, she starts getting everything she wanted, but
it doesn't always turn out quite as she expected.
Krissy Kringle
(Hilarie Burton) dislikes Christmas intently, mainly because she’s had to go
through life with the name Krissy Kringle.
But she also suffered
the indignity of having her street renamed “Candy Cane Lane” as a result of her
name and the street name she gets regular deliveries of Christmas mail.
This particular year
however was worse than normal when she is fired from the Ad Agency where she
works instead of getting the promotion she was expecting and is forced to take
a job as a present wrapper at the Mall and must dress as an Elf.
When she arrives home
and forces open her front door, amidst the mountain of Christmas mail she finds
a special delivery intended for Santa Claus, the Naughty or Nice book which he
had left behind while visiting a child.
Krissy uses the power
of the book to expose the naughty deeds of those around her, but soon finds
that her newfound power can have devastating results.
Gabriel Tigerman is
excellent as Krissie’s partner in crime at the Mall, Marco Webb and Michael
Gross and Meredith Baxter put in a convincing performances as her parents
Walter and Carol Kringle.
Having long been a fan
of Louisa May Alcott's classic “Little Women”, I approached this modern
retelling of the tale with some trepidation.
But the March Sisters
at Christmas is a pleasantly surprising adaptation and has been brought to
modern times quite sympathetically.
In order to keep the
family home from being sold, the four very modern March sisters, Jo (Julie
Marie Berman), Meg (Kaitlin Doubleday), Beth (Melissa Farman) and Amy (Molly
Kunz) must tackle home improvement on their own while their romantic
entanglements involving the boy next door Teddy Lawrence (Justin Bruening), an
old flame John Brooke (Charlie Hofheimer) and a new acquaintance Marcus Baer
(Mark Famiglietti) become a distraction.
Billy Jackson (Erik von Detten) tells his little sister Sarah (Yvonne Zima) that there is no Santa so she makes a wish that it would be Christmas every day, as a result he has to relive Christmas Day over and over again.
He must relive the agony of being humiliated on the basketball court because he can’t make a jump shot, he must tolerate his insufferable Uncle David (Robert Curtis Brown) and family who are staying for Christmas and he repeatedly incurs the wrath of his parents (Robert Hays and Bess Armstrong) as he tries to figure out what he has to do to stop having to endure “Christmas Every Day”
Three weeks before
Christmas, workaholic accountant Peter Brockman (Jason Gedrick) is dumped by his
fiancée, Jill Crosby (Cindy Sampson), because of his non participation in their
lives.
He metaphorically
drowns his sorrows, drinking a soda, in a piano bar and gets talking with the
lounge's "volunteer" pianist and singer Bob (Tyrone Benskin) who plays
for tips.
They discuss their
love of music and forgotten dreams of youth.
Bob invited Peter to
his home for dinner with his family, but his home turned out to be a homeless
shelter run by Sister Agatha (Rhea Perlman) and his family were a group of
homeless men.
After being introduced
to Bobs “family” a jam session ensued.
His visit to the home
served as an epiphany and he suggested they form a choir in order that the men
could raise a little extra pocket money for the holidays.
The choir faced many
obstacles along the way and there were many ups and downs.
Alongside his work
with the choir he also met Marilyn (Marianne Farley) who worked in the subway
kiosk and a relationship develops between them and she is also instrumental in
reconciling Peter with his alcoholic father Henry Brockman (Michael Sarrazin).
This is a very nice
Holiday tale which is based on a true story and is most enjoyable.
Lainey Berman (Rebecca
De Mornay) and her husband Jay (Barclay Hope) are living their ordinary family
lives, as most people do, just ordinary everyday stuff and then a freak
accident occurs and brings about dramatic changes to the lives of their family,
and Jay is left in a coma.
And months of
heartache follow and then the hospital washes its hands of him and he is sent to
a perpetual care facility but Lainey never gives up hope that her husband will
recover from a coma.
Despite the silly
title it’s actually a very enjoyable film.
It’s about Rebecca
Fine (Vikki Krinsky) a Jewish girl. From an upper class Los Angeles family and
Henry Kringle (Tommy Lioutas), from a choir-singing, church going, dyed in the
wool traditionalist family from the Midwest who are in love.
Not only that they
become engaged just before Christmas and as a result the Fine’s agree to delay
their vacation in Aspen and meet the Kringle’s the week of Hanukah just before
Christmas in Madison, Wisconsin.
Which is when the
humour really starts as the two cultures collide and despite both sides good
intentions and their trying to respect each other’s' traditions, it turns out
to be a bumpy ride.
The film is definitely
at its funniest when the main protagonists, Suzie Fine (Wendie Malick) and
Marilyn Kringle (Cynthia Stevenson) butt antlers.
Very enjoyable and
well worth a watch you will soon forget the silly title.
Family friends Sam
Reed (Dustin Milligan) and Kat Patton (Danica McKellar) spend every Christmas
Eve at the Children's Table from the age of three.
Over the years they
grew up together, sharing the highs and lows of young adulthood.
But at the age of
thirty, Sam realizes that Kat is the one...but he's afraid that the past will
get in the way.
A real gem of a
Christmas movie and Danica McKellar is an absolute delight.
This is a variation on
the classic “Miracle On 34th Street” which has Santa facing a class-action suit
for disappointing children at Christmas.
As a result he hires,
widower and single parent, Michael Sherman (Dean Cain) as his lawyer. He chose
Michael in order to both defend the lawsuit and to give Santa the chance to
bring Michael out of his emotional malaise.
Although it doesn’t in
anyway live up to “Miracle On 34th Street” it is still a very enjoyable piece
of Christmas entertainment.
Santa is portrayed
exceptionally well by George Buza while the love interest Lauren, (Rachel
Blanchard) is an absolute delight.
Also the hero’s
daughter Lily Sherman (Helen Colliander) gives a particularly mature
performance.
All round it is an
excellent movie although the Elves are a little annoying.
Gina (Marla Sokoloff)
and Seth (Patrick J. Adams) have been pen pals for thirteen years and over the
years they graduated from handwritten letters and started corresponding by
email, but they were insecure with who they were as people and had decided not
to exchange telephone numbers or photographs, instead they sent photos of their
more outgoing best friends, Ellen (Lindy Booth) and Matt (Jonathan Cherry),
passing them off as themselves without telling either Ellen or Matt.
Each has been there
for the other through every major event that has happened in their lives, and
as such, they have both fallen for the other without either admitting it to
themselves or having the nerve to tell the other.
Living in different
cities - Boston and Denver - they have never even seriously considered meeting
in person, until when Seth, a junior executive at a toy company, is heading to
Boston just before Christmas to attend a toy convention, which Gina, a
struggling reporter stuck in "obits"
So with them both in
Boston they allowed their surrogates to meet in their places with amusing
consequences.
This film is based on
a true story about an estranged couple who find themselves lost in the Idaho
wilderness after in impromptu snowmobile outing.
It was just before
Christmas and when the weather turns they are trapped in a blizzard and the
snowfall is so great all the trails are hidden.
Lost and alone Suzanne
and Jim Shemwell (Jami Gertz and Dylan Walsh) are forced to confront the
reasons why they separated.
Meanwhile their
family, when they are not looking for Suzanne and Jim, are looking inward at
themselves and re-evaluate their lives and their relationships
Will Martin (Neil
Patrick Harris) has returned home to settle his grandfather’s affairs including
his business, intending to return to his old life as soon as things are
finalised.
But then his
grandmother Ruth (Debbie Reynolds) tells him her Christmas wish which is to
find out the identity of the woman mentioned in his late grandfather's journals
and to find out why his grandfather visited the mysterious woman every
Christmas Eve.
On his search he
learns the secrets of his past and the true meaning of Christmas.
After a boy called
Justin (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) sees a man in a Santa suit kissing his mother,
Stephanie Carver (Connie Sellecca) he thinks that the real Santa Claus wants to
replace his father, so he goes on an all-out prank-war with him.
And the poor Santa who
bears the brunt of his attacks is Floyd (Sonny Carl Davis).
I think there is
something inherently funny in Santa Claus falling on his backside and Floyd
does it on a regular basis.
But unknown to Justin
the man in the Santa suit kissing his mother was in fact his father David
(Corbin Bernsen).
A really fun film.
Sarah (Tracey Needham)
and her estranged sister Beth (Natasha Gregson Wagner) are reunited after their
father Buddy (Ronny Cox) suffers a mild stroke.
Buddy, who's never
accepted the loss of his wife Lorraine (Meredith Baxter), wants only one thing
and that is to return home for Christmas.
With sweet memories of
a life gone by, Sarah makes an impossible wish that her mother could be there
too and by morning it is as if a winter prayer had been answered and bearing a
message of hope, healing, and everlasting love, a miracle has arrived in the
form of their mother Lorraine.
When a boys schools
merges with a girls school they are left with two music programs and two music
teachers, Diana (Natasha Henstridge) and Ken (Gabriel Hogan) which is
unsustainable.
One of the programs would
eventually have to go which is why Principal Gedler (Brigitte Robinson)
suggests they enter duos in a televised singing competition to decide who is
most worthy to stay.
But despite the fact
they were in direct competition Romance blossoms between the two music teachers
as they also compete for the same job.
A very enjoyable
holiday offering, especially the scene when the Principal has a Christmas
Dinner rehearsal.
Madison Avenue executive, Amy Stone (Denise Richards), discovers a rather unusual Christmas surprise when she inherits her Aunt's hometown bakery.
But that’s only half
of it as the real surprise comes when she learns that the other half of the
bakery was left to her long-ago boyfriend, Jack Evans (Patrick Muldoon).
Inevitably the unresolved
personal issues of their past together resurface, as the exes return home to
co-manage the store as well as its traditional holiday cookie bake-off.
It’s a nice holiday
romantic comedy but the wonderful Catherine Hicks is the star as cunning Aunt
Linda.
The Christmas Shepherd
is the delightful story about Sally Brown (Teri Polo) who is a published
children's book author and the widow of a veteran.
After her husband
Dylan died she was left with his German Shepherd "Buddy" who became
her constant companion and muse.
But after a severe
storm, Buddy, who is afraid of thunder, runs away and after a number of human interventions
ends up with widower, Mark Green (Martin Cummins) and his daughter Emma (Jordyn
Ashley Olson) and Buddy becomes the bridge that bring the two lonely people
together.
A lovely film of which
Buddy is the real star.
Sean Tucker (Mark Lutz), who runs an advertising agency in New York City, and Owen Harrison (J.T. Hodges), a small-town handyman and musician, swap homes for the holidays. Mia (Cristina Rosato) works for Sean and is asked to help Owen get settled into his new apartment while Ryan Harrison (Tricia Helfer) meets Sean after Owen asks her to fix a broken heater, and then finds herself helping Sean find the charm of living in a small town.
Holiday romance ensues in the charming Christmas tale with misunderstandings soul-searching and secrets along the way.
The Christmas
Consultant, Owen (David Hasselhoff), is a highly sought-after consultant hired
by a workaholic mother Maya Fletcher (Caroline Rhea) to get her and her dysfunctional
family through the holidays.
Everybody loves Owen,
much to Maya’s annoyance, and he has the perfect solution to each and every
problem as it arises but it turns out that his own life isn’t how he paints
it.
It isn’t the best example
of a Christmas movie but it’s well worth a watch if for no other reason than to
see Maya meltdown at the Christmas Eve party.
Two co-workers,
American Brooke Harris (Vivica A. Fox) and Brit Roger Burkett (Ricco Ross)
agree to a loveless marriage of convenience, but as they become acquainted, an
unrealized chemistry grows between them.
But when a work
colleague informs on them to immigration it looks like their world was falling
apart, but Christmas and love have a way of redressing the balance.
Bob Wallace (Daniel Stern)
goes all out every year on Christmas decorations so that he can have the
brightest and most festive house in his neighbourhood.
Then he got a new neighbour
Stu Jones (Matt Frewer) who put up an even brighter and more lavish display.
And from that moment on the
fight is on when they declare war for the best Christmas decoration display in
the neighbourhood.
Mindy Wallace (Allison Hossack)
and Mary Jones (Teryl Rothery) are the long suffering wives who get sucked into
the madness.
Holly Nolan (Alicia
Witt) lives in a world where lying has become second nature for her. However,
she finds after telling a few too many lies and disappointing those around her
once too often that her life's about to change, because Holly's niece, Anna, (Mia
Bagley), asks Santa Claus (Dan Lauria) to make Holly incapable of telling a lie
as her Christmas wish.
The engaging story
that follows is a tale of how telling the truth changes Holly's life in ways
she could never have anticipated before.
It’s an enjoyable
Christmas movie especially with Alicia Witt’s performance who never
disappoints.
Mia (Haylie Duff), is
the loyal and hard-working manager of her small town's Christmas hat shop, Hats
off to Christmas.
She is hoping that
after over ten years with the company she is due a promotion when she is called
in to see her boss (Jay Brazeau).
However all does not
go as she had hoped and instead of a promotion she is asked to train his son,
Nick (Antonio Cupo), for the vacant upper-management position.
Nick himself gets a
surprise when he finds out that the training is from the bottom up.
And that is the basic
premise for this very likeable seasonal romantic comedy.
Good performances by
Sean Michael Kyer as Mia's wheelchair bound so as her son Scotty and Melanie
Papalia as her friend Ellie add to the overall enjoyment.
This is the beautiful
tale of love and generosity of spirit where neighbours go above and beyond with
their wonderful surprises to make a little girl happy.
At the heart of the
story is Vanessa Marks (Emily Alyn Lind) a brave young girl who is battling
cancer, which has an effect on the people around her.
In particular her
parents Tom and Beth (John Corbett and Sarah Paulson) and her brother Gordon
(Max Charles).
But when it looks like
she may not see Christmas her parents decide to bring Christmas forward so that
she will see another Christmas if the worst came to the worst.
Which is how they came
to meet Jess and Claire Sanford (Sam Elliott and Karen Allen) who had
themselves lost a child, and high school student Tammy (Elizabeth McLaughlin)
who between them made sure Vanessa had Christmas in November.
The look on young
Vanessa’s face when she sees the result is an absolute joy, Emily Alyn Lind’s
performance in the film steals the show, and I say that despite the fact she is
in very esteemed company.
November Christmas is
a lovely family movie, a real, hot chocolate, warm fuzzy blanket kind of film,
oh and a box of tissues for all those tender moments, of which there are many.
If you only ever watch
one Christmas movie in your life, make sure it’s this one.
