THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – CHRISTMAS IN THE AIR (2017)

 

The Trent brothers, George and Robert (Ken Tremblett and Eric Close) have their own toy company and they are given just 12 days to make their presentation to toy superstore owner Lawrence Hennessey (Malcolm Stewart) followed by a meal for him and his wife Sheila (Beverley Breuer) at Roberts house.

The problem is that toy inventor Robert, is a frazzled widower with two young children, Amelia and Thomas (Trinity Rose Likins and Jesse Filkow), and is chaotic and disorganised so the prospect of making the deadline are remote.

That is until a chance encounter in a supermarket with Lydia (Catherine Bell), a successful professional organizer, who is constantly trying to grow her business and after he explains about the challenge he faces and only has 12 days to get his life and his business in order, she takes him on.

Lydia shows Robert that this task goes way deeper than messy junk drawers and encompasses every aspect of his life.

While she's intent on helping him straighten out details he had long ignored, Robert teaches the buttoned-up Lydia that messiness can be a delightful part of life and her ambition to expand her business takes a back seat to love.

ST AGATHA

 

It is ironic that St Lucia of Syracuse revered St. Agatha so and prayed often at her tomb

as there were many parallels in their lives.

Agatha was born in Sicily and also belonged to a rich, important family and dedicated her life to God as a young person, and resisted both marriage and sex.

Agatha, Young, beautiful and rich, lived a life consecrated to God and When Decius announced the edicts against Christians she was brought before the magistrate Quinctianus who tried to profit by Agatha's sanctity.

He planned to blackmail her into sex in exchange for not charging her for her beliefs.

she refused his advances and was imprisoned in a brothel but she refused to accept customers so she was tortured and even had her breasts cut off then after further torture she was then rolled on live coals she was later comforted by a vision of St. Peter when she was near to death then an earthquake stuck and Agatha thanked God for an end to her pain, and died.

INSCRIBED

 

In the cemetery of St. John in Syracuse, Sicily an early inscription to Lucia has recently been discovered.

THE VIRGIN MARTYR

 

St Lucia was a virgin martyr and one of the most illustrious figures in the Christian world she was honored in Rome during the 6th century and her relics are preserved in Venice.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – CHRISTMAS COINCIDENCE (2018)

 

As Christmas rapidly approaches, Paula (Kimberley Sustad), a St. Louis antique appraiser, reluctantly accepts a marriage proposal from her workaholic attorney boyfriend, Daniel (Giles Panton).

When she tells her Aunt Jane (Kathie Lee Gifford), she senses that Paula has mixed emotions over the engagement, and invites Paula to her Nantucket home.

But upon her arrival, her Aunt explains that she needs to meet with her publisher so Paula takes a day trip to the nearby island of Martha's Vineyard where she meets Gery Conover (Paul Campbell), the kind hearted and charming owner of the Charlotte Inn.

But when bad weather prevents her from departing, Paula winds up staying at Gery's inn and enjoying the local holiday festivities alongside him and they begin to have feelings for each other but when the weather clears up, they part ways and Paula returns to Nantucket.

On her return Aunt Jane senses she's fallen for Gery, and shares with Paula her belief that their meeting was God's way of “winking” at her to help determine which direction her life should take.

But would Paula take the hint and accept that she and Daniel were not compatible and that her future was with Gery on Martha’s Vineyard.

THE STARVING OF SYRACUSE

 

A terrible famine struck Sicily and hunger had weakened the people greatly.

So in Syracuse a large group went to the church and prayed to Santa Lucia for deliverance from the famine.

While they prayed a ship loaded with grain sailed into the harbor and they were saved.

So to celebrate Santa Lucia day and to commemorate the miracle the Italians feast on a boiled wheat dish they call Cuccia or Cuccidata.

FREYA

 

When Christianity reached Scandinavia, St Lucia dethroned a pagan goddess to become the most revered female figure.

In Norse mythology the pagan goddess Freya was the most beautiful goddess of love and fertility to whom sacrifices were offered at Yule.

She was the daughter of the god Njord and the sister of Freyr and married to the mysterious god Od who disappeared, she mourned so much for the loss of her husband that she wept tears of gold.

Freya wore the bright necklace of the Brisings and a cloak of bird feathers which allowed her to change into a falcon, and

her chariot was pulled by two cats.